After spending three years in jail on terrorism-related charges, prominent Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye has been released. Shaye was the first to expose the US cruise missile attack on the Yemeni village of al-Majalah—the first Obama administration–approved bombing in Yemen. In 2011, then–Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced his intention to pardon the journalist, but changed his mind after a phone call with President Obama. While Shaye was accused of having connections to Al Qaeda, his trial was widely criticized by rights groups and the White House has not provided any public evidence to support the charges.

The Nation’s national security correspondent Jeremy Scahill and Yemeni-American activist Rook Alwazir join Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! to discuss the bombing he exposed and the role of the Obama administration in his ongoing detention.

—Jake Scobey-Thal

Jeremy Scahill takes us inside America’s new covert wars.