Bilal Hussein - AP Reporter with Connections

An innocent man was finally released from captivity after two years, confined to a cell, by the US military.

In New York, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon, said the group was "thrilled" by Hussein's release."He now joins a growing list of journalists detained in conflict zones by the U.S. military for prolonged periods and eventually released without any charges or crimes ever substantiated against them," said Simon. "This deplorable practice should be of concern to all journalists. It basically allows the U.S. military to remove journalists from the field, lock them up and never be compelled to say why."

Except ... the US military did say why, they gave their reasons, and then turned Bilal over to Iraqi officials to review for trial.

What Joel Simon did in his statement to the AP was lie, create a lie that will now be spread like wildfire among the anti-US crowd here and abroad. Words have meaning Mr. Simon, don't lie.

The US military investigators had asserted that Hussein had links to insurgents and was found in possession of bomb-making materials when he was detained April 12, 2006. In December, military authorities referred Hussein's case into the Iraqi court system for possible trial.

THE REASON MR. SIMON ... he had bomb making materials in his possession AND contacts among the insurgents (those people who were killing Americans).

Mr. Simon went on to say that all journalists, in fact, all decent human beings around the world (read: Bin Laden and his friends) should deplore what the US military did - arrest an innocent man, a journalist because they didn't like his reporting, and take him out of the field.

Mr. Simon - do you think the US military appreciated the reporting by the BBC? Al-Jazeera? NyTimes? We didn't pick them all up and stick them in a hole. Why did we pick on one simple little man named Bilal?

Mr. Simon, he was NOT FOUND INNOCENT OF the charges (as in - whoa, I don't know what that is you found over there, never seen it before) -

In February, the Iraqi parliament enacted a U.S.-backed amnesty law in a step toward national reconciliation.

In separate rulings on Sunday and last week, the two Iraqi judicial panels granted Hussein amnesty, which drops the case and assumes no finding of guilt or innocence.