An imprisoned Yemeni journalist whose story was featured on Thursday’s Democracy Now! came up at the White House on Thursday during the daily briefing of Press Secretary Jay Carney. Speaking to Democracy Now! on Thursday, independent journalist Jeremy Scahill described the plight of Abdulelah Haider Shaye, who exposed how the United States was behind a 2009 bombing in Yemen that killed 14 women and 21 children. Shaye was sentenced to prison last year and has apparently been kept behind bars under pressure from President Obama.

Jeremy Scahill: “You have major human rights organizations — Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International. You have every legal and human rights organization in Yemen. You have very prominent foreign correspondents who have spoken out on this case, some of whom knew Abdulelah Haider Shaye. So they’re on one side of it, condemning his trial as a sham, talking about who he actually was as a journalist. And on the other side of it, you have the dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh, a specialized criminal tribunal set up to go after journalists, and the White House. And so, President Obama is the single person keeping that man in prison right now, because even the dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was prepared to release him, and it was a phone call, not from one of Obama’s people, from Obama himself that kept him in prison.”

Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was questioned about the case.

Jake Tapper: “There’s been some press notice to a Yemeni journalist who’s been detained. President Obama, when he spoke to President Saleh more than a year ago — it was actually mentioned in the readout that the President expressed concern over the release of — I know I’m going to botch the pronunciation of his name — but Abdulelah Shaye, who had been sentenced to five years in prison for his association with AQAP. There have been journalistic organizations, international ones, who have protested his detention and expressed curiosity, if not outrage, that President Obama would be involving himself in the detention of a journalist. Can you tell us anything about why President Obama thinks that this man — apparently thinks that this man is a threat?”

Jay Carney: “I appreciate the question, Jake, but I will have to take it, because I don’t have any information on it. But I’ll get back to you.”