Journalists recall week in Iraqi jail

The Associated Press

AMMAN, Jordan -- Four journalists detained for a week in Baghdad said Wednesday they feared for their lives "every second" they were in Iraq's most notorious prison.

Newsday correspondent Matt McAllester, 33, and photographer Moises Saman, 29, were freed Tuesday after being held for a week in Abu Ghraib prison, along with Molly Bingham, a freelance photographer from Louisville, Ky., and Danish freelance photographer Johan Rydeng Spanner.

Their expulsion came amid a growing crackdown on foreign journalists in Baghdad. The popular Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera announced earlier today that Iraq was expelling one of its reporters from Baghdad and barring another from reporting.

The channel was not banned from broadcasting live and recorded images from Iraq.

The Iraqi government also expelled an Australian and a South African reporter Tuesday and detained two journalists working for the Sydney newspaper The Australian.

In Amman, McAllester told reporters Wednesday he feared for his life "every second."

"From the time we realized we were being taken to prison until the time we crossed the border into Jordan, we felt our lives were in danger," said McAllester, who is British.

"We had no idea what they were going to do to us," Bingham said. "They kept blindfolding us and taking us away. Everyday it was a question of, 'Are they going to kill me or are they just going to ask me more questions?"'

Held since March 25

The group had been held since March 25, according to Newsday's managing editor, Charlotte Hall. An American peace activist, Philip Latasha, was expelled with the journalists.

All five were in good health when they reached Amman on Tuesday.

The journalists said Iraqi authorities searched their hotel rooms and drove them to Abu Ghraib prison, where they were separated and given prison clothes and two blankets each.

Iraqi opposition groups say hundreds of political dissidents have been executed in recent years at Abu Ghraib, the largest prison in the Arab world.

"Over the next few days, they interrogated us over and over," Bingham said. "We had to sign papers."

She said she did not know why she was arrested. "I did not work for my government or another government. I just wanted to do stories about normal people," she said.

Saman, of Barcelona, Spain, said: "They asked me ... what kind of pictures I was taking, if I was involved with any kind of intelligence service ... just what was the purpose of me being in Baghdad at such a time."

McAllester and Saman entered Iraq on limited journalist visas to cover the issue of human shields but were later granted full accreditation.

Spanner said he applied several times for a journalist visa and decided to enter Iraq as a tourist when President Bush gave his 48-hour ultimatum before the war began.

He said he was in the process of getting his press accreditation when he was detained.

Bingham, whose father is the former publisher of The Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville, said jets and B-52s could be heard overhead and bombs were landing all around. "We didn't know if anyone knew we were there, so we didn't know if people were going to bomb us for military reasons," she said.

McAllester said the journalists "were aware of the screams of other prisoners, especially at night when they were taken out of their cells."

The journalists slept on the hard, cold concrete floor in 6-by-11 foot cells, and were given three meals a day.

"They, for the most part, treated us fairly and in a humane way," Saman said. "They did feed us three meals a day, not much food, but enough. We weren't going hungry by any means."

Bingham said "breakfast was two hard-boiled eggs and chai (tea). Lunch was rice and potatoes. Dinner was chicken broth and some sort of chicken and bread."

McAllester said the journalists owed their release to the efforts of "hundreds of people we've never met."

"Friends, famous people, our editors ... We owe them our freedom and maybe our lives," he said.

A Palestinian lawmaker said Wednesday that Yasser Arafat helped win the release of the Newsday journalists through his contacts in Iraq.

On Tuesday, Iraqi officials also expelled Australian reporter Ian McPhedran, who works for Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd., and South African reporter Bonny Schoonakker.

Two journalists working for News Ltd.'s The Australian -- reporter Peter Wilson and photographer John Feder -- were being held by Iraqi authorities in Baghdad.