LA filmmaker to be released

Background.

The family of Los Angeles filmmaker Cyrus Kar said Saturday that State Department officials had told them he would be released within a few days after having been imprisoned in Iraq by the U.S. military since mid-May, when a common component for explosives was found in the cab in which he was riding.

[...]

On Tuesday, Modarress and her daughter Shahrzad Folger expressed fear that they might never again see Kar, who was born in Iran, came to the United States as a boy, served three years in the Navy and became a citizen 20 years ago.

He was taken into custody May 17 soon after he arrived in Baghdad to continue making a documentary film about Cyrus the Great — the king of Persia 500 years before the birth of Christ — who is believed to have written the first charter of human rights known to mankind.

Pentagon officials said last week that the taxi Kar was in was stopped at a vehicle checkpoint, where Iraqi soldiers found a number of washing machine timers that could be used as components in improvised explosive devices. They turned him over to the U.S. military, the Pentagon said.

Modarress said she had been told by Los Angeles FBI Agent John D. King, who helped investigate the case, that just one timer had been found in the cab and that the driver had said he "had picked it up from a repair shop as a favor for a friend."

[...]

Frustrated that the government continued to hold Kar, Modarress and Folger filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Washington, contending that their relative was being held in violation of the U.S. Constitution and should be released immediately.

[...]

Modarress said State Department Consular Officer Sara Francia told her that Kar "is in good health" and would be released "in a couple of days" with his cameraman, Farshid Faraji, an Iranian citizen. The officer also told her, "We need you to wire some money" for Kar, Modarress said.

[...]

Last week, a Pentagon official told The Times that a hearing would be held in Iraq to determine whether Kar was "a security threat, involved in the insurgency, has committed a crime or is found innocent after a thorough investigation."

The official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, confirmed that Kar had not been charged with a crime, but said "circumstances were such to raise the level of suspicion and warrant [Kar's] questioning and detention." He said he had no idea when the hearing would be held.

[...]

Mark D. Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which is representing Kar's family in the lawsuit [...] said he was driving to his office Saturday morning to prepare for a federal court hearing in the case that had been scheduled for noon Monday in Washington, when Modarress called him with the news. He and co-counsel Ranjana Natarajan immediately called Francia to confirm what Modarress had told him, Rosenbaum said.

[...]

Rosenbaum said he was pleased that Kar would be freed soon, but added, "It shouldn't take eight lawyers working around the clock and filing a federal habeas corpus petition to get a U.S. citizen released who is a Navy veteran and been cleared by the FBI, but has been held more than 50 days just because he stepped into the wrong cab."

  LA Times article

No, it shouldn't. And I might add that it wasn't necessarily "the wrong cab." I wonder what has become of the cab driver, whose crime at this point, as far as we know, was having a washing machine timer with him.

The ACLU suit contended that Kar had been "imprisoned by the United States military in Iraq without the slightest hint of legal authority. His arbitrary military detention is unaccompanied by any charge, any warrant, any writ or any process. The most elemental legal principles by which we govern ourselves cannot countenance the lawless detention without justification of a United States citizen by his own government."

Unfortunately, they don't stop it.

Modarress said Francia told her that Kar, who has been obsessed for more than three years with his Cyrus the Great film, wanted to stay in Iraq for a while to finish the project.

What can he be thinking? Maybe he only watches Fox News.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.