KABUL — An Afghan journalist working for Canada's CTV television network in Afghanistan has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
The journalist, Jawed Ahmad, has been held without charge for the last four months at the U.S. military compound in Bagram, 50 kilometres north of Kabul.
Major Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, told The Associated Press that an "enemy combatant review board" had "credible information" that Ahmad was dangerous to foreign troops and the Afghan government.
Maj. Belcher declined to provide details about the information.
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He also refused to say where the review took place of if Mr. Ahmad had been represented by counsel.
"He was afforded an opportunity to provide a statement to the board, and the board determined there was credible information to detain him as an unlawful enemy combatant," Maj. Belcher said.
"As an unlawful enemy combatant, he posed a threat to coalition forces and the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," he said, adding that "Mr. Ahmad was in no way targeted because of his work as a journalist."
About 20 established journalists working with the foreign media in Kandahar have tried without success to get information about why Ahmad was detained.
Mr. Ahmad has said the U.S. military believes he had contacts with local Taliban leaders and had a video of Taliban materials, according to his brother, Siddique, who has been in touch with the CPJ.
It is common for journalists in Afghanistan to have contact information with Taliban spokesmen so they can seek comment on news stories.
Siddique told the CPJ that his brother was arrested when he went to Kandahar airport for what he thought was a meeting with his CTV colleagues. It's unclear who called him.
CTV officials have said their correspondent, Paul Workman, was in Kandahar at the time but was not planning to meet with Mr. Ahmad that day.
"Since his disappearance in late October, CTV News has been deeply concerned about Jojo Yazemi's whereabouts and well being," Robert Hurst, president of CTV News, told the CPJ in an e-mail message included in a news release earlier this month.
"CTV News has made inquires to NATO, Canadian, and U.S. military officials. No information has been forthcoming. CTV News has also made representations to the International Committee of the Red Cross and diplomatic channels including the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan."
Mr. Ahmad had only worked in journalism for one year, according to New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall, who knows him and his brother from her reporting trips to Kandahar.
"All of the local press corps have numbers of the Taliban and interview them regularly," she told the CPJ. "Jawed had nothing more than the others in the way of contacts with the Taliban."
Mr. Ahmad's case is the latest instance of the U.S. military arresting without charge a journalist in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In most cases, the journalists have been freed. However, Iraqi journalist Bilal Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer, has been held by the U.S. military without charge for 22 months.
Pentagon spokesmen have alleged that Mr. Hussein had close contact with terrorists. In December, an Iraqi magistrate began hearings on whether the case should be referred to a trial court.
Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV network, has been held at the military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without charge or trial for over five years.
Mr. Haj was detained by military forces in Pakistan in 2002 and turned over to the U.S. military, which classified him as an enemy combatant and accused him of transporting money in the 1990s for a charity that provided funding to Chechen rebels.
