The Associated Press reports today that its award-winning Iraqi photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held without charges by the U.S. military for 19 months, will finally be brought to trial. In the year and a half Mr. Hussein has been jailed, the Pentagon has changed its story several times, all the while making vague noises about Mr. Hussein being linked to anti-American insurgents.

Whether he is or isn’t is hard to say, since the military has never produced any evidence against Mr. Hussein, a practice which might continue, forcing his defense attorneys to “work in the dark.”

Meanwhile, Blackwater guards continue to roam Baghdad, automatic weapons in hand, despite their well-witnessed killing of 17 civilians in September. A grand jury in Washington has been empanelled to investigate the incident and other involving private security guards in Iraq, but more than 60 days after the shooting, the situation on the ground remains unchanged in essence.

Two cases of justice delayed and denied in the land democracy forgot.