US military holding Afghan journalist for ‘Taliban contacts’

KABUL (AFP) — The US military has been holding an Afghan journalist working with Canadian Television (CTV) for three months because of his professional contacts with Taliban militants, media watchdogs alleged Tuesday.

A US military officer at the largest military base at Bagram, north of Kabul, confirmed that the reporter, identified as Jawad Ahmad, was in detention.

However, “He is not being detained because he is a journalist,” Lieutenant Colonel David Accetta told AFP, refusing to give details of charges.

Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said Ahmad, 22, had been held at Bagram since November 2007.

“The US soldiers accused him of having the numbers of Taliban leaders in his mobile phone and of interviewing them,” it said in a statement that called on US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to intervene.

“The lack of legal procedures and material evidence confirms that his detention is unjustified,” it said.

The US military was also holding at least two other journalists — Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj at its Guantanamo Bay facility and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein in Iraq, the watchdog said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, said separately it was “deeply troubled” by the Ahmad case.

His brother, Siddique Ahmad, had said the reporter was arrested apparently because “the US military believed he had contacts with local Taliban leaders and was in possession of a video of Taliban materials,” the CPJ said in a statement.

“The United States military must explain the reason for his detention and accord him due process. If he is not charged with any crime then he must be released immediately,” it said.

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