other news stories that are out there so they let me highlight yet another great report by jeremy scahill that as usual the mainstream media is ignoring you know there are a whole lot of journalists these days that actually travel not only to war zones but to shadow war zones the places in which our government operations that they really don't want anyone knowing about and scahill is one of the few reporters actually willing to go there risked his life to bring the story but its latest piece highlights another such journalist yemeni journalist risks life and limb to report on civilian casualties of air strikes it was the last interview on our locky as far as that's known before was announced that along he was on the sas nation list and this journalist name is layla haider shape he's currently in prison in yemen and he was sentenced to five years in yemeni court on terrorism related charges but when there was enough outcry from locals from human rights groups president saleh drawn up a pardon for this journalist but here's the kicker scahill told artie's lucy caffein off earlier today he r

human rights groups president saleh drawn out a pardon for this journalist but here's the kicker scahill told artie's lucy caffein off earlier today he remains in prison today thanks to president obama and a phone call that he made to solly in february of two thousand and eleven president obama said we're very concerned about the release of despair we don't know the full extent of what happened that phone call at the white house and state department. for what it meant that obama said the u.s. . was rescinded and he continues to walk away in a prison after having been convicted in a kangaroo court and it's he's in prison because barack obama wants to close. so i'm going to give you a really basic breakdown of the story i suggest everybody go and read the original piece as reported by scahill what's most important for us to note here is that all the talk we hear from the us government about freedom of the press freedom of information we've seen countless times now that if a specific situation might embarrass the government highlights something that they want to keep a secret that they've b

well they haven't up to this point i mean i think you know jeremy scahill has written a really fabulous piece on this that's just appeared in the nation and the stirring up some attention to it but in general you're right and in general i think it tracks the white house in official government reporting so i think we have a lot of people in the media here who are really reluctant ever to cross the administration on its characterization of the situation then you know i found that when i was studying the situation in iraq i was really shocked how even media organizations that were being victimized would nevertheless faithfully report every completely erroneous and the the outrageous statement they came out of the pentagon about their own fellow workers and then the when. you know when the truth finally came out after trial and we got acquittals and release ordered this figure it is a very minor in consequential press story unlike the original arrest in the government charges so i think there's a structural problem here in the way the news is related well and that really plays into coverage

yemeni reporter in jail for the answer is the subject of a new piece in the nation magazine by jeremy scahill he is also the author of blackwater the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army and journey joined me earlier today take a look at that interview. well the united states has been waging a covert war in yemen for a number of years in fact president obama really escalated that covert war the first bombing of yemen that we know that president obama authorized was on december seventeenth two thousand and nine and the way it was reported in the press was that it was a yemeni strike and that thirty four al qaeda members were killed in that strike and because of this journalist out below hyder going to the scene taking photographs of missile parts and then sending them to media outlets and ultimately to amnesty international of the world learned that in fact it was that u.s. bombing because they were tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs neither of which you have it has in its arsenal and of course after it revealed that we then were the wiki leaks cables that general david pet