NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A U.S.-based media watchdog group on Tuesday demanded the Pentagon either charge or release a freelance Iraqi photographer working for a U.S. news agency who has been held for seven months. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Bilal Hussein, 35, who was working for the Associated Press when he was taken into U.S. military custody in Iraq on April 12, has been denied due process. "Detaining a journalist for seven months without allowing minimum due process represents an unacceptable infringement on the ability of the press to carry out its work," said Paul Steiger, chairman of the New York-based group. "(It) is openly at odds with the message of democracy and respect for the rule of law that U.S. officials have publicly espoused in Iraq," Steiger added. The Pentagon said in September that Hussein, who was detained in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, was considered a military threat with "strong ties to known insurgents" and that there was sufficient evidence to justify his continued detention. Hussein has worked as a photographer for the Associated Press for two years and had been based at Ramadi, a hot spot of the insurgency against U.S. forces, since early 2005, the U.S.-based news agency has said. The Associated Press has raised concerns that Hussein was being denied due process. Hussein is one of a number of Iraqi journalists detained by the United States without charge since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The journalists' advocacy group said at least eight Iraqi journalists have been held for weeks or months without charge or convictions before being released without any charges ever being proven.
