Yemeni Reporter Who Exposed U.S. Drone Strike Freed from Prison After Jailing at Obama’s Request
Prominent Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye has been released
from prison after being held for three years on terrorism-related
charges at the request of President Obama. Shaye helped expose the U.S.
cruise missile attack on the Yemeni village of al-Majalah that killed 41
people, including 14 women and 21 children in December 2009. In a
statement, the White House now says it is "concerned and disappointed"
by Shaye's release. Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for
The Nation whose new book and film is "Dirty Wars: The World is a
Battlefield," says that from the U.S. to Yemen, the Obama administration
has engaged in the "criminalization" of independent journalism. "This
White House seems intent on having the only information that journalists
have access to [remain] official leaks, when it is meant to make the
White House look noble and saving the world for peace, freedom, and
democracy," Scahill says. "Any independent reporting, or talking to
sources that are not official, is frowned upon and at times prosecuted.
... The fact they had a Yemeni journalist jailed in a Yemeni court and
kept him in prison there and are now deeply concerned and upset that
he's been released, speaks volumes about this administration's attitude
toward journalists."
Scahill continues: "Look at this White
House's position on whistleblowers and on journalists. You had the
seizure of the Associated Press phone records. You have record numbers
of prosecutions and indictments under the Espionage Act. You have what I
think amounts to a criminalization of independent reporting. This White
House seems intent on having the only information that journalists have
access to official leaks, when it is meant to make the White House look
noble and saving the world for peace, freedom and democracy. And any
independent reporting or talking to sources that are not official is
frowned upon, and at times prosecuted."
"There was a recent court
decision that I think is very disturbing. James Risen of The New York
Times has been ordered to testify against a source of his who was a
whistleblower. You have Bradley Manning's trial coming to conclusion.
The charge against him of aiding the enemy boils down to an assertion
that anyone who provides information on the Internet, that then can be
read by a terrorist, is somehow aiding the enemy. They're actually
contending that Bradley Manning, in leaking the diplomatic cables, aided
Osama bin Laden directly, because Osama bin Laden was reported to have
read some of the WikiLeaks cables. If that charge sticks, it should be
chilling not just for journalists, but for the public at large, in the
day of social media, when everyone is a journalist of sorts.
So, this
administration has been utterly shameful in its approach toward a free
press, toward whistleblowers, and it fundamentally undermines the notion
that we have a free press in a democratic society."
I really can't wait to see his new film. I live in Turkey and that makes it somewhat harder. luckily I can still read the book though!
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