Free At Last! Yemeni Reporter Who Exposed U.S. Missile Strike Goes Home After 3 Years in Jail

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He has—he is under two years of house arrest and, after that, three years of a travel ban, not able to really—he still has no—he’s still not able to speak. He’s still not able to write. He’s not allowed to go anywhere without having security around him at all times. And this is all on the concept of him still—of him still being linked to al-Qaeda, with no evidence being supported or presented against him. So there’s still this idea that he is, you know, quote-unquote, "aiding the enemy" or part of al-Qaeda, with no evidence against him. So, although he’s part of—he’s out of jail, he still feels that he is imprisoned inside.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Jeremy—

ROOJ ALWAZIR: So I think—

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead, Rooj.

ROOJ ALWAZIR: So I just think that’s really important. Although this is a big victory that he has been released, I think that’s something that we really need to be focusing on, that although—that he’s never been given a proper trial, that due process was completely skipped, that it was completely a political decision based on no—with no legal basis, only outside interference by the Obama administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy, put Shaye’s treatment in the context of how reporters are being dealt with today.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Yeah, I mean, 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. The fact that 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.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy, before you go, I just wanted to ask you about a very significant Senate hearing that was held yesterday addressing the closing of Guantánamo Bay prison for the first time since 2009, when Obama made his first and failed concerted push to shutter the prison. One of those who testified was Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, which opposes closing Guantánamo. The topic of drones came up when he was questioned Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.