28.03.05

I am just back from Qatar, home of the al-Jazeera television station. Sami al Hajj, one of my clients, was a cameraman for al-Jazeera when he was seized in Pakistan on December 15, 2001, and ultimately ended up in Guantánamo Bay.

Being a journalist with the station is a dangerous business. I met the wife of correspondent Tarek Ayub two years ago. She lives in England; he died when an American bomb hit the al-Jazeera headquarters in Baghdad during the war. The station had called in its coordinates to the US military only hours before, and there were suggestions that this was no accident. Another journalist, Tayseer Alouni, was put on trial in Spain for his alleged contacts with terrorists; his defence was that he was simply doing his job as a journalist. To be sure he interviewed Osama bin Laden, but what journalist would turn down such an opportunity? According to supporters of the station, since September 11, 2001, there have been at least 8 arrests of al-Jazeera journalists or cameramen, and two incidents where premises or personnel have actually come under fire from the US military.

Then we all learned about Bush's alleged plan for bombing the stations headquarters in Doha. Bush's defence - that it was all said in jest - fell a little flat.

The US military originally grabbed my client Sami al Hajj because they thought he had filmed the interviews with Bin Laden - like so much of the intelligence in the "war on terror", this proved false. Since then, the authorities' only real interest in Sami has been his work for al-Jazeera. In over 100 interrogation sessions, the vast majority focused on getting him to inform on the station and on several named journalists. Sami has told me how the US authorities had monitored his telephone calls while he was on assignment in Afghanistan. He has been interrogated about what he said to his wife, Asma. It is somewhat disconcerting to think that every call I make to the television station must be monitored by an agent, who by now must be very bored.

All this makes me so sad. In 1996, the birth of al-Jazeera was a breath of free speech in a region of censorious governments, and Bush should back them rather than bomb them. I made the mistake of making a masochistic appearance on Fox TV once to justify my representation of "terrorists" in Guantánamo. "Fair and balanced" is the Fox motto, but I was labelled a traitor for trying to defend American constitutional values. If the US wants to criticize bias in the press, perhaps it should look a little closer to home.

I was in Qatar for the launch of a documentary that the al-Jazeera has now done on Sami's case, and a meeting to propose more work for them to do on Sami's behalf. I also met Sami's wife and his five year-old son, Mohammed. The child is intensely shy and misses his father. It reminds you of the human cost hidden behind the heated political battles over Guantanamo.

It is probable that the CIA had paid informants at my presentation to the al-Jazeera staff on Thursday night. I am glad that word will get back that we plan plenty more stories about Sami - it is ironic to think that the only media outlet in the world with a journalist inside Guantánamo Bay is al-Jazeera.