Prominent Iraqi Blogger Jailed

The Committee to Protect Bloggers reports that prominent Iraqi blogger Khalid Jarrar has been taken into custody by the Iraqi mokhabarat, or secret service. Jarrar is author of Secrets in Baghdad and is the brother of Raed from Raed in the Middle.

Jarrar's house had been broken into while he was in Amman, Jordan and his hard-drive stolen. He then went missing. Earlier today he called friends and family from prison, where he has been held since the 10th.

Khalid's friends and family are calling for his release or at least his arraignment. His brother writes on his blog that the family was happy to know Jarrar was in jail.

Happy News
"Because the other options include: To be tortured, executed, and thrown in garbage by SCIRI and their Badr brigades. To be held by the Iraqi police and left to choke to death in one of their cars. To be held by the US troops then disappear and be mistreated for months in one of their many prisons. To be kidnapped by one of the countless criminal gangs and cost your family some tens of millions of Iraqi Dinars and/or your life."

"If Khalid is being charged with something, charge him, and do so in the light of day," said Curt Hopkins, the Committee's Director.