Yemen Releases Journalist President Obama Tried to Keep Behind Bars: “Some prominent Yemenis and tribal sheikhs visited the president to mediate in the issue and the president agreed to release and pardon him,” Abdulrahman Barman, Shaye’s attorney, told the Nation’s Jeremy Scahill. “We were waiting for the release of the pardon — it was printed out and prepared in a file for the president to sign and announce the next day.” Before Saleh could affix his John Hancock to the pardon, however, he received an urgent telephone call from the president of the United States. According to a White House summary of the conversation, Obama “expressed concern over the release of” Shaye because of his alleged “association with AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula].” Shaye did, in fact, have much greater access to AQAP leaders than most other journalists, but he did not use those connections to further AQAP’s cause. He used them to report on the group and, at times, to challenge their assertions. thenewamerican/world-news/asia/item/16111-yemen-releases-journalist-obama-tried-to-keep-behind-bars
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 04:51:41 +0000
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