A year on, Reuters cameraman still held by US army

* Evidence is classified

* Hurts U.S. advocacy of press freedom

* Family waits for son's return

By Michael Christie

BAGHDAD, Sept 2 (Reuters) - On Sept. 2, 2008, U.S. and Iraqi troops smashed in the doors of Iraqi journalist Ibrahim Jassam's home, shouting "freeze" and holding back snarling dogs before they hauled him off into the night in his underwear.

A year later, neither Jassam and his family nor global news agency Reuters, which employed him as a freelance TV cameraman and photographer, have been told exactly why he has been detained for all this time by U.S. military forces in Iraq.

The evidence against Jassam is classified, but the accusations have to do with "activities with insurgents", said Lt. Col. Pat Johnson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Iraq. The term "insurgents" in Iraq generally refers to Sunni Islamist groups, like al Qaeda. Jassam is a Shi'ite Muslim.

"In a year of trying to get specifics, we've heard only vague and undefined accusations - to me this is unacceptable," said David Schlesinger, editor in chief of Reuters, the news arm of international media and information provider Thomson Reuters.

"It is only right and fair that any specific accusation against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to defend himself properly."

Jassam, who is being held in a prison camp built in the desert on the Iraq-Kuwait border, will eventually be released.

Under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, called a Status of Forces Agreement, the U.S. military must hand over the thousands of Iraqis it still has in its custody as Iraq gradually regains its sovereignty more than six years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Those facing Iraqi charges will be tried; the rest freed.

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court already ruled last November there was no case against Jassam. [ID:nLU123205] [ID:nL9585447]

But the U.S. military says it considers Jassam a security threat to Iraq. It says that under the security agreement, it is entitled to hold Jassam as long as possible.

"Though we appreciate the decision of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in the Ibrahim Jassam case, their decision does not negate the intelligence information that currently lists him as a threat to Iraqi security and stability," Johnson said.