Bilal Hussein actively coordinated his work for AP with the terrorists whose attacks on Americans he photographed. he was duly and properly arrested for his misdeeds. But a new Iraqi law granting amnesty to those charged with terrorism related offenses applies to him as well as to other terrorists, and so charges were dropped by an Iraqi court yesterday.

An Iraqi judicial committee has dismissed terrorism-related allegations against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered him released nearly two years after he was detained by the U.S. military.

Hussein, 36, remained in custody Wednesday at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad's airport.

A decision by a four-judge panel said Hussein's case falls under a new amnesty law. It ordered Iraqi courts to "cease legal proceedings" and ruled that Hussein should be "immediately" released unless other accusations are pending.

The ruling is dated Monday but AP's lawyers were not able to thoroughly review it until Wednesday. It was unclear, however, whether Hussein would still face further obstacles to release.

U.S. military authorities have said a U.N. Security Council mandate allows them to retain custody of a detainee they believe is a security risk even if an Iraqi judicial body has ordered that prisoner freed. The U.N. mandate is due to expire at the end of this year.

Also, the amnesty committee's ruling on Hussein may not cover a separate allegation that has been raised in connection with the case.

Now notice -- this does not clear Hussein of the charges against him. Instead, it simply notes that the law places the offenses out of reach of the courts as a part of the healing and reconciliation process. And that law was one of the "benchmarks" to show "progress" by the iraqi government -- so the Left ought to be crowing about that progress.

But that isn't what the lying supporters of Bilal Hussein are claiming.

AP Photographer Bilal Hussein has been in American detention since April 2006. As the second anniversary of his captivity approaches, Bilal has achieved a major breakthrough. Yesterday in Baghdad, an Iraqi Judicial Commission reviewing his case took ten days to reach a conclusion: No basis existed for the terrorism-related charges which had been brought against him. The conclusion was a sweeping repudiation of accusations U.S. military figures have brought against him, backed by no evidence, but by a handful of strangely motivated American wingnut bloggers.

Oddly enough, this claim by terrorist apologist Scott Horton is not only at odds with reality, but also with AP's own news story above. You would think that if the commission had ACTUALLY determined that there was no basis for the charges, Hussein's employers might have mentioned it in their own story. The fact that it is missing proves the mendacious nature of Scott Horton, and anyone who makes a similar claim.

H/T Malkin, Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 10:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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