While the Bush Administration Whistles

This from today's NY Times:

EL FASHER, Sudan, Aug. 27 — The Sudanese government has charged Paul Salopek, a foreign correspondent for The Chicago Tribune and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, with espionage and entering the country illegally. Mr. Salopek crossed the border from Chad into the troubled region of Darfur without a visa about three weeks ago.

Mr. Salopek, who was on leave from The Tribune and on assignment for National Geographic magazine, was captured Aug. 6 by a militant group allied with the government and handed over to the Sudanese Army, said one of his lawyers, Omar el Faroug Hassan.

He was held without outside contact until 10 days ago, when the United States Embassy in Khartoum was notified of his detention and he was allowed access to a lawyer.

He is the third Westerner detained and charged after crossing the border from Chad this month.

* * * *
Mr. Salopek was traveling in Chad to report for an article about the culture, history and politics of the Sahel region, a vast, arid stretch of earth that spans the continent from east to west.
His trial was to begin on Saturday, but the judge granted his lawyers’ request for a delay of two weeks to prepare his defense. Two Chadian men traveling with him, Suleiman Abakar Moussa, an interpreter, and Idriss Abdulraham Anu, a driver, face the same charges.

Journalist Faces Charges Over Entering Darfur Region, NY Times, August 28,2006.

Just think, if Bush had not started and bungled a pointless, endless war in Iraq, we might have stopped a genocide in Sudan, and reporters might now be free to travel in Darfur.

Might be a good time to stop by and make a donation to PEN