Obama and the case of a Yemeni journalist
We discuss how those journalists trying to cover Washington’s covert wars are being warned not do so.
The news that the Obama administration has been monitoring journalists from The Associated Press (AP) and Fox News has been greeted with consternation by the US media and civil liberties groups.
I am uncomfortable when ... we get in the business of intervening in the good order and discipline and propagation of laws in the constitution of another state.
But the plight of another journalist who received the personal attention of President Obama has received little coverage.
Abdulelah Haider Shaye was initially imprisoned in 2010 after his reporting showed that the US had conducted a missile strike in the village of Al Majala that killed fourteen women and twenty-one children. The Yemeni government had claimed the responsibilty for the attack.
Shaye’s jailing led to an outcry in Yemen and it was reported that the country’s president was considering his release. But following a personal phone call from President Obama, no pardon was issued.
The US has yet to provide any evidence that Shaye was connected to al-Qaeda.
Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation magazine, who has done an investigation into Shaye’s case, explains that, “his association with al-Qaeda consists of having interviewed members of al-Qaeda. And I think that if people took a close look at the work of this journalist over many years … this was a guy who was asking very tough questions …. I’d say his real crime was doing real journalism …”
Abdulelah Haider Shaye wrote a letter from prison last week making clear who he blames for his detention.
“It’s inaccurate to say the Americans imprisoned me because some of them defended and supported me and opposed my detention. Actually, the only person responsible for kidnapping and detaining me is Obama. So, I don’t want the media to say America or Americans have incarcerated me because it’s obvious [who is responsible].”
Yemen is an incredibly poor and small country that is under tremendous pressure from the United States .... So for Yemen to defy the United States on this would be an extraordinary act.
And during his trial, Shaye condemned the strikes on civilians whose aftermath he had witnessed first hand.
Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattanssi, discusses this issue with guests: Jeremy Scahill, a National Security Correspondent for the Nation Magazine and Paul Eaton, a retired Major General with the US military who commanded operations to train Iraqi troops between 2003 and 2004 and who is currently a special adviser to the National Security Network, a think-tank in Washington DC.