Camille Elhassani

Camille Elhassani's picture
Camille Elhassani
Senior Producer | United States
Biography

Camille Elhassani has covered Washington during three US presidents, and helped lead AJE’s coverage of Barack Obama's 2008 election. Before joining Al Jazeera in 2006, she was news director and advisor to Al Iraqiya TV in Baghdad.

Camille has travelled across the United States producing features on the American heartland. She studied Political Science and Music and has received a Peabody and a DuPont Award for her work.

You can also follow Camille on Twitter at www.twitter.com/celhassani

Latest posts by Camille Elhassani

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on May 25th, 2012
[EPA]

The Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications is a relatively new interagency effort inside the US State Department to mine the internet for al-Qaeda messages and quickly post reactions to try to dissuade viewers from being influenced by al-Qaeda.

Earlier this month, State Department officials said a banner ad posted on various websites by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula showed coffins draped with US flags with the message that their fight was against the United States.

Within days, the CSCC posted an ad on those same websites showing coffins draped in Yemeni flags with the message that AQAP’s victims are Yemeni citizens.

The Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications is a relatively new interagency effort inside the US State Department to mine the internet for al-Qaeda messages and quickly post reactions to try to dissuade viewers from being influenced by al-Qaeda.

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on May 7th, 2012
Photo by Reuters

Thirteen hours after it began, the arraignment of the five defendants on trial for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States ended, after the men held off on entering a plea and the charges were read against them.

The defendants are accused of terrorism, conspiracy, murder in violation of the laws of war, and other charges in connection with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Family members of the victims, media and NGO workers were allowed in to witness the arraignment, or formal reading of the charges. 

We were separated from the court by a glass partition, with audio from proceedings being transmitted at a 40-second delay, so that any classified material could be censored if need be.

David Nevin has been Khaled Sheikh Mohammed’s lawyer since the first attempt to try the defendants more than three years ago, and says that his client has serious concerns about the process. 

Mohammed, a Kuwait-born

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on March 21st, 2012
Photo by EPA

 After a decisive victory in the Illinois Republican presidential primary, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is breathing a little easier than he was a week ago.  Having outspent his nearest rival, former Senator Rick Santorum 7 to 1 in Illinois, he will win most of the state’s delegates.  More importantly, he gains momentum for his candidacy.

In his speech on Tuesday night, a triumphant Romney didn’t talk about the inevitability of winning the nomination, but acted like an inevitable nominee.   "Elections are about choices. And today hundreds of thousands of Illinois voters have joined millions across the country in our cause," he said.

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on December 21st, 2011
Photo by Reuters

Six days into the hearing on whether or not PFC Bradley Manning should be put on trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the whistleblower website Wikileaks, the prosecution and defence have rested. 

The US government spent four days calling 20 witnesses.  The defence:  35 minutes. They requested 48 witnesses, but the investigating officer only allowed the 10 that were on the government’s list plus two more. Both witnesses worked with Manning in Iraq when he was an intelligence analyst on the night shift in December 2009. 

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on December 19th, 2011
Photo: Reuters

Computer forensics testimony dominated the fourth day in the hearing to determine whether Army PFC Bradley Manning’s case should go to trial. Manning is the alleged source of the 251,887 US diplomatic cables published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.  

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on December 17th, 2011
Photo: Reuters

After a year and a half in US custody, the military hearing into the case of Army PFC Bradley Manning, who allegedly leaked documents to WikiLeaks, has begun.  Manning faces 22 charges of violating the military code, ranging from theft of records to aiding the enemy.  

The military says it won’t seek the death penalty, but Manning faces life in prison. 

The hearing is a military proceeding akin to a grand jury, where an investigating officer will hear evidence and decide whether or not to refer the charges for a trial.  Manning is being represented by two military lawyers and a civilian attorney. 

The hearing at Fort George Meade outside Washington DC began with the Investigative Officer, Army Reserve Lt. Col Paul Almanza asking Manning if he had copies of the charging documents and if he was satisfied with his lawyers, to which he answered "Yes".

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on November 10th, 2011
Photo by EPA

Nine years after he was captured, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was finally arraigned on charges of murder, terrorism, and hijacking.

He's accused of masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors in Aden harbour in Yemen.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty. During the military commission proceedings in a courtroom at Guantanamo Bay, Nashiri was asked if he wanted to enter a plea.

Through his lawyers, he said he wouldn't enter a plea in Wednesday's hearing and reserves the right to challenge the charges against him. Nashiri was dressed in his white detention uniform, with short hair and no beard.

Throughout the proceedings, he listened and often stroked his chin.

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on May 30th, 2011
Obama nominated on Monday General Martin Dempsey (centre) to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [AFP]

Over the course of the next few months, Barack Obama will have replaced much of the defence leadership of the US in anticipation of watershed changes to defence policy.

On Monday, the US president announced the latest in a series of appointments: army General Martin Dempsey as his pick to be the nation's highest ranking military officer - chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In the announcement, Obama alluded to Dempsey's qualifications and the need for his skills.

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on May 8th, 2011
AFP picture

“This is the greatest intelligence success perhaps of a generation.” That’s how a Senior US Intelligence Official described the documents, handwritten notes, and videos found at the compound raided by Navy Seals last week and resulted in the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 

The Central Intelligence Agency is taking the lead on going through the information.

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on May 6th, 2011
AFP picture

Obviously the first week of May will go down in President Barack Obama’s memoirs as a huge success.  He hit his critics who say he’s not decisive enough with a major decision – to raid the compound where Osama bin Laden was living and kill the Al Qaeda leader. 

The t-shirts saying “Obama killed Osama” can now be bought on every other street corner in Washington DC.  The president’s approval ratings are up by double digits, although that certainly won’t last, as the economy trumps every other success in the minds of Americans.  And the unemployment rate inched up last month, even while the economy added jobs.

Obama has taken a five day long victory lap:  he addressed the nation and received his highest TV viewership, he laid a wreath at Ground Zero where the Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001.  And he spoke to soldiers at Fort Campbell where the special operations team that conducted the raid in Abbottabad came from.  He told

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Biography

Camille Elhassani's picture
Camille Elhassani
Senior Producer
Camille Elhassani is Al Jazeera English's Senior Pentagon and State Department Producer.

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