'They Put Us in a Cell and Forgot Us' (LA filmmaker captive in Iraq)

[Barrett808]

'They Put Us in a Cell and Forgot Us'
By Borzou Daragahi and Richard C. Paddock Times Staff Writers
Mon Jul 11, 7:55 AM ET

BAGHDAD — The wiry Los Angeles aspiring filmmaker was an unlikely prisoner inside a cell block that included Tariq Aziz,

Saddam Hussein's deputy, and other high-level officials of the former regime.

But after 54 days of detention, Cyrus Kar, a 44-year-old Iranian American working on a documentary film about the 5th Century BC Persian emperor Cyrus the Great, was released Sunday and headed to the relative safety of a Baghdad hotel outside the U.S.-protected Green Zone.

Kar, speaking to reporters, described long, frustrating days in solitary confinement with little information about his status or reason for being held. At the same time, Kar said he was well-treated while he was held and understood security concerns in war-torn Iraq.

"I don't hold anything against them for holding us," he said. "What I hold against them is they put us in a cell and forgot us."

He and his cameraman, Farshid Faraji, a freelance journalist for Iranian television and a resident of Tehran, were detained after they were found riding in a taxicab that unbeknownst to them, they said, contained 35 to 37 timers for washing machines, which can be used by insurgents to make bombs.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20050711/ts_latimes/theyputusinacellandforgotus

[Village Idiot]

1. At least they didn't...

leave you locked in a van in the hot sun for eleven hours like those other poor DEAD bastards...

[mom cat]

2. Amen to that!

[gratuitous]

3. Sometimes it's good to be forgotten

Considering what happened to other prisoners in our custody.

That snarkiness aside, I can only assume that Cyrus Kar still has some favors he wants from the military and the government, because I can tell you I wouldn't be quite so understanding about being unlawfully locked up for the better part of two months.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Yeah, like making it out of Iraq ALIVE. (nt)

[ConfuZed]

5. Did he ever explain why he had timers in his car?

[Barrett808]

6. Presumably, the cab driver would have the answer -- not the passengers

For "Bob's" sake.

[gratuitous]

7. According to the story

Kar and his associate were riding in a taxi that had the timers, and they said they didn't know the timers were in the taxi. I don't know what that might or might not prove, but I didn't see any counterallegation in the story that the timers belonged to Kar or that they had any other connection to them.