Lawyer/Military Agrees to Release U.S. Filmmaker from Custody in Iraq

[cal04]

The U.S. military has agreed to release an aspiring American filmmaker who had been detained in Iraq since May, when potential bomb parts were found in a taxi he was riding in, his lawyer said Saturday.

Cyrus Kar's family had filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of violating the 44-year-old's civil rights when it continued to hold him after the FBI cleared him of suspicion. A hearing had been scheduled Monday, but the family's attorney, Mark Rosenbaum, said Saturday that the military had agreed to release Kar and his Iranian cameraman, Farshid Faraji, from a military jail in Baghdad.

He said State Department officials informed him Saturday that Kar would be released. "They didn't explain either why he's been detained after he passed a lie detector test and cleared by the FBI, nor did they explain why he was to be released," said Rosenbaum, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Kar's aunt, Parvin Modarress of Los Angeles, said an official at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also called her to say Kar would be released and needed her to wire money. "We are all so happy and excited," she said. "We are praying to hear from Cyrus."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBM81WJYAE.html

[pinkpops]

1. Sounds like an even more interesting movie may be on the way

[Rose Siding]

2. If this was as a result of attention in the press

we should be furious. Last week's LAT piece said that his family had been told some time back by the FBI that he'd been cleared. Did the press not have any information about the FBI search of his house in LA? It's hard to imagine that the family's lawyer hadn't advised them to contact the press until a week ago.

[ovidsen]

3. Wonder if his politics have changed now?

According to relatives, Cyrus Kar was anything but an "Islamofascist" when he was nabbed:

Mr. Kar's sister, Anna, described her brother in a telephone interview from Nairobi as "the last person who could ever be a threat." She said her brother "really believed in Bush's foreign policy," adding, "He believed sincerely that exporting American democracy would make the world a better place."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/international/middleeast/06detain.html?pagewanted=print

I can't wait to hear what he says when he comes back home.

[Monkie]

4. kuwait news agency reporting hes been released

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=750699

"US forces release American detainee in Iraq
MIL-IRAQ-RELEASE-DETAINEE
US forces release American detainee in Iraq

BAGHDAD, July 10 (KUNA) -- The US forces in Iraq on Sunday released the Iranian-American Cyrus Kar, who has been detained for two months as a suspected terrorist in Iraq."