Free Republic

By Matthew McAllester Staff Correspondent April 23, 2003 PART ONE: NIGHT The first inmate I saw in Abu Ghraib prison did not wear a blindfold. He could barely see through his eyes. They were swollen ovals of purple and blue. Someone's fists, I supposed, did that to him. His shoulders slumping forward, he walked behind a guard into the cell block where we were being processed and was told to stand in the corner like a naughty school boy. He wore blue-and-white-striped pajamas and turned his face to the cinder-block walls, silent and stripped of any dignity. That man, I...

MELVILLE, N.Y. (AP) -- Two Newsday journalists who disappeared from Baghdad may have been detained by Iraq's government, the newspaper's editor said Saturday. Reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman were last heard from Monday, and the newspaper has been unable to obtain information about their whereabouts from Iraqi officials, said editor Anthony Marro in a statement. Journalists expelled from Iraq have told Newsday that security officials on Monday came to the Baghdad hotel where they were staying and questioned reporters. Some were taken from the hotel. No one saw McAllester and Saman removed, but their room was empty...