Heated Exchange Over Bilal Hussein at Museum of Television & Radio

By Scott Horton

Editor & Publisher has just published an account of a sharp exchange between Pentagon spokesman Brian Whitman and a number of other participants—including AP chief Tom Curley—at a function at the Museum of Television and Radio last week in New York. Greg Mitchell reports:

When the floor was opened to questions, the first one, from Joel Simon, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, concerned Hussein. Whitman claimed that he would not speak about any specific case. But he did strongly suggest that there were many cases where news organizations hired stringers or “indigenous” personnel who were not who they said they were -- and had "advance" notice of insurgent activity. He said they had to be “removed” from the battlefield since they posed a threat to U.S. forces.

This cause some in the crowd to shout out angrily. Moderator Geneva Overholser called on Curley in the audience. “I do not want to leave the impression of Bilal Hussein that is anything less than accurate,” Curley said, as recorded by a video of the event. “He was arrested on April 12 [2006] and the last time he was interviewed was last May.”

He added: “But this is not about Bilal Hussein. He is an innocent victim. It is about the Associated Press. We are the target. Freedom of the press is the target.” He said that “where journalists are being picked up is in Anbar province. There has been an extreme effort to shut down coverage from an out-of-control place. That is what the facts show.”

Curley said that when Whitman arranged a review of the nine original charges in the case, they eliminated seven, and the other two are simply “nonsense.” He closed: “We have fired others who have worked for us. When Bilal Hussein gets out of jail he will continue to work for The Associated Press.”

Pulitzer-Prize winning photojournalist Bilal Hussein has now been in custody in US-run prisons in Iraq for one year and twelve days. No charges have been brought against him. The accusations publicly stated by Brian Whitman and others have already been largely disproved, explaining why the Pentagon has failed to press charges against the photographer.