Yemeni Journalist Who Reported US Missile Strike is Released From Jail

Weeks ago when Ron and I saw author and investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill speak here in Portland and first learned the story of Abdulelah Haider Shai, I literally felt sick to my stomach when I learned of Obama's role in keeping this courageous Yemeni investigative journalist in jail in 2011. The more I learn, the more I recognize the truth of our oldest son Brian's words to me many years ago - "What better way to control a people than to convince them that they are not being controlled?" American propaganda is so insidious and dangerous. My continuing prayer is that we be courageous and fiercely caring enough to increasingly awaken. Another world is possible. And whistleblowers, truthtellers, and all who look deeply and share what we are learning are an essential part of birthing a more sane, sustainable, just, caring, and compassionate world. Peace ~ Molly

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Abdulelah Haider Shaye, imprisoned on charges of being an 

al-Qaida operative, reportedly had pardon revoked by US request

• Tom McCarthy in New York
Follow @TeeMcSee
• guardian.co.uk
  

 

Sana'a in Yemen, Abdulelah Haider Shaye was imprisoned. Photograph: Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images

A Yemeni journalist who was kept in prison for years at the apparent request of the Obama administration has been released in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, according to local reports.

Abdulelah Haider Shaye was imprisoned in 2010, after reporting that an attack on a suspected al-Qaida training camp in southern Yemen for which the Yemeni government claimed responsibility had actually been carried out by the United States. Shaye had visited the site and discovered pieces of cruise missiles and cluster bombs not found in Yemen's arsenal, according to a Jeremy Scahill dispatch in the Nation.

Shaye was arrested in August 2010 and charged, the following month, with being an al-Qaida operative himself. He was known for his ability to make contacts with extremist groups, skills that led to regular work reporting for western media outlets such as ABC News and the New York Times. At his trial, his reporting work was marshaled as evidence of terrorist ties. In January 2011, he was sentenced to a five-year term.

The charges against Shaye provoked an outcry among tribal leaders, human-rights activists and fellow journalists. Bowing to the pressure, then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned Shaye weeks after his sentencing. But in a February 2011 phone call with Saleh, PresidentBarack Obama "expressed his concern over the release" of Shaye. The pardon was revoked.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi reversed that decision in May, issuing an order to release Shaye "soon", according to the London Times correspondent Iona Craig, who covered the case extensively. "Soon" turned out to mean two months.

As a condition of his release, Shaye is required to stay in Sana'a for two years, according to local reports. A photograph circulating on Twitter showed him smiling after nearly three years of detention.

Please go here for the full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/23/yemen-journalist-us-drone-strike-released

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jeremy scahill        ✔ @jeremyscahill -- "Can't stop smiling at this pic of Abdulelah Haider Shaye, just after he was released from prison today": pic.twitter.com/cVKrq3qOz0

11:15 AM - 23 Jul 2013

The White House had no immediate comment on the release.