Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon

Glenn Greenwald - Political Blogs and Opinions - Salon: "Only America-hating traitors believe in due process for journalists In 2001, Sami al-Haj was working as a camerman for Al Jazeera when he was detained by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and then transferred to Guantanamo, where he has remained for the last six years without ever being accused of any involvement in terrorism. Instead, as Washington Monthly editor Rachel Morris detailed in her superb cover story in Columbia Journalism Review a few months ago, virtually all of al-Haj's interrogations focused on Al Jazeera and his detention was fueled at least in part by the Bush administration's contempt for Al Jazeera's reporting. I wrote about Morris' story and al-Haj's plight here.

For obvious reasons, it is highly disturbing that the U.S. Government imprisons journalists for years without bothering to charge them with any crime. The U.S. is doing the same with A.P. photojournalist Bilal Hussein. These aren't 'prisoners of war' captured fighting on a battlefield, but rather, accredited journalists taking pictures and filming events that the U.S. Government dislikes."

Think of this case, and the other journalists locked up in GitMo, as we look in shock at what is going on in Pakistan, ignorantly thinking that it cannot happen here. Halliburton has already built the detention camps in the southern US, our police are militarized and ready to roll, the Posse Commitus act has been gutted to allow soldiers on our streets, habeas corpus has been nearly eliminated, and Bush already has given himself the ability to very easily declare martial law. I see Pakistan as an eerie vision of what may come to pass here.

And I am not the only one....

Martial Law in Pakistan: Could it Happen Here?