5 Americans held in Iraq


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WASHINGTON ? The U.S. military in Iraq has detained five Americans for suspected insurgent activity, Pentagon officials said yesterday. The five have not been charged or had access to a lawyer and face an uncertain legal future.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to identify them, citing the military's policy of not providing the names of detainees.

But one was identified by his family and U.S. law-enforcement officials as Cyrus Kar, an Iranian-American filmmaker and U.S. Navy veteran. The New York Times reported that Kar, the son of an Iranian physician, came to the United States when he was 2 and was raised partly in Utah and Washington state, where he played high-school football. However, no details were provided.

Saying Kar is being held unjustly, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the government yesterday in an effort to secure his release.

Three of those being detained are Iraqi Americans, Whitman said. The fifth is a Jordanian American the Pentagon previously acknowledged holding.

All five are being held at one of three main detention facilities: Camp Cropper near the Baghdad International Airport; Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad; or Camp Bucca, near the southeastern port city of Umm Qasr.

One of the Iraqi Americans allegedly had knowledge of planning for an attack and a second possibly was involved in a kidnapping, Whitman said. The third was "engaged in suspicious activity," Whitman said, declining to be more specific. They were captured, one each, in April, May and June.

Whitman said that when arrested, Kar had several dozen washing-machine timers in his car; such items can be used as components in bombs. Military officials said he was arrested along with a cameraman and a taxi driver.

Whitman said there did not appear to be any connections among the five.

If charges are filed, it is not clear whether U.S. courts or Iraq's judicial system would handle the cases.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has visited each of the detainees, Whitman said.

The Jordanian American, who was captured in a raid late last year, is suspected of high-level ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist and leading al-Qaida ally in Iraq. Officials announced the capture of the Jordanian American in March.

A panel of three U.S. officers rules on whether each prisoner is properly held; that has taken place for the Jordanian American. Whitman did not say whether the three Iraqi Americans or the Iranian American have been through this process.

The closest parallel to their situation may be the two U.S. citizens captured opposing U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

John Walker Lindh and Yaser Esam Hamdi, two Taliban foot soldiers, held U.S. citizenship when they were captured in late 2001.

Lindh, a California native now in his early 20s, pleaded guilty in civilian court to supplying services to the Taliban government and carrying explosives for them. He received a 20-year prison sentence in 2002. He has since sought to have it reduced.

Hamdi was born in Louisiana and grew up in Saudi Arabia. He was held by the United States for three years before being released to his family in Saudi Arabia in October 2004. He gave up his U.S. citizenship as a condition of his release.

Whitman said their cases do not necessarily set a precedent for the handling of the five Americans captured in Iraq because Afghanistan had no functioning government at the time Lindh and Hamdi were captured.

Pentagon officials said there are about 420 foreign nationals in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, many of whom are Syrian, Saudi Arabian or Iranian, among many others. The U.S. nationals make up a tiny fraction of the 10,000 detainees currently in custody. There have been more than 70,000 people detained in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began, but most have been freed.

In Los Angeles, Kar's relatives said he was born in Iran and came to the United States as a child.

They said Kar, 44, was in Iraq to film scenes for a documentary on Cyrus the Great, Persia's founder, when Kar was arrested by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Baghdad on May 17, a date confirmed by military officials. Kar's story was first reported yesterday by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

"He just had the misfortune to get into the wrong cab," said Steven Shapiro, the ACLU's legal director. "Our position is that if the government has any evidence against him, bring him home and charge in a court and then proceed accordingly."

Kar's family said an FBI agent in Los Angeles said that Kar had been cleared of any charges and that the washing-machine timers allegedly belonged to the taxi driver, who was taking them to a friend.

According to a draft of the lawsuit, Kar has lived in the United States since he was a child. He attended school in San Jose, Calif., served in the U.S. Navy for years, eventually attaining the rank of 3rd class petty officer.

He attended San Jose State University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in marketing, worked in the computer industry in Silicon Valley and earned a master's degree in technology management from Pepperdine University.

He occasionally taught business courses for an online university.

About three years ago, Kar became interested in the history of ancient Persia, particularly the story of King Cyrus the Great, founder of Persia. He went to Iraq, over his family's objections, to film near Baghdad. He also filmed in Iran, Tajikstan, Turkey and Afghanistan and consulted scholars.

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Forget jail, they're enemy combatants. They should face the EXACT same consequences as any enemy.

586177577[/snapback]

how did i know i would be agreeing with smaulz. :p

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Forget jail, they're enemy combatants. They should face the EXACT same consequences as any enemy.

586177577[/snapback]

Exactly...

But maybe every enemy combatant should have access to some basic legal rights, like maybe a lawyer or something. Just a thought.

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