"N.H. journalist jailed in Turkey over alleged terrorist link" by John M. Guilfoil, Globe Staff | August 15, 2010
A New Hampshire native has been detained by officials in Turkey over his alleged links to a Kurdish rebel group.
Friends said Jake Hess, 25, from Hampton, N.H., moved to Turkey about two years ago as a human rights activist concerned about the treatment of Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. Hess was detained late Wednesday on allegations of collaborating with Kurdish activists accused of having links to terrorism, his lawyer said.
Hess, huh?
Related: CAN WE SAY,”CIA/MOSSAD AGENT PROVOCATOR SENT TO DESTABLIZE THE ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT?
Yes, we can!
Lawyer Serkan Akbas said Hess will probably be deported rather than charged or jailed for an extended period.
Hess is accused of collaborating with the Union of Kurdistan Communities, the KCK, which is allegedly an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK.
Then he is a spy.
Related: Suspicion growing about possible link between PKK and Israel
Chris Caesar, a childhood friend, said in an e-mail that Hess recently began writing as a freelancer for the news organization Inter Press Service, which focuses on international reporting.
According to the agency’s website, Hess has written two articles for them.
Akbas said Friday that Hess did translation work last year for a group of Kurdish rights activists who have since been charged with aiding the rebels. Hess has written that the PKK, which the US State Department has designated a terrorist organization, “demands greater rights and freedoms for the country’s Kurds.’’
Hess was detained in his hotel in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, and was being held because his name appears in a prosecutor’s indictment against the activists.
Nicole Thompson, a spokeswoman for the State Department, declined to comment on the Hess case yesterday.
That tells you more than if they did.
Related: Obama's Airstrike Scalpel
State Department, CIA, Pentagon, what is the difference?
“He has a master’s degree from Brown and could probably do all sorts of work, but moved to Turkey about two years ago to do human rights work,’’ said Caesar.
Hess is a 2007 graduate of Suffolk University.
Hess’s most recent report, from Aug. 5, appears on the website Antiwar.com, written with the Inter Press Service tagline. The story details the plight of Kurdish civilians affected by Turkish and Iranian bombings targeting the PKK.
Never mind the P.J.A.K. giving it right back to the Iranians, Globe.
And now even ANTIWAR.COM is SUSPECT in my mind.
Of course, the Globe did drop this story after the one-day wonder.
Hess has also had several letters harshly critiquing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians published in the Portsmouth Herald in New Hampshire....
Oh, I'm sure that did NOT WIN HIM ANY FRIENDS!!
You know, he COULD JUST BE a GOOD KID!
Too bad the GOVERNMENT and MSM have DESTROYED ALL TRUST between us!!
Despite his work for a news organization, Turkish officials argue that Hess is a political activist, not a journalist, the state news service, Anatolia News Agency, reported. Hess appears to have been engaged in so-called advocacy journalism, where his stories take a particular stance.
You know, like the PRO-ISRAEL RUBBISH we call a newspaper!
“Clearly, he’s doing advocacy work as a journalist. There is a level of reporting he’s doing, but he’s clear he goes into it with a particular slant,’’ said Jeffrey L. Seglin, an associate professor of journalism at Emerson College and ethics columnist for the New York Times Syndicate....
What would the New York Times know about journalistic ethics?
Seglin said that while people may disagree with Hess or the nature of his work, it would be dangerous for a government to try to make a distinction between an advocacy journalist and someone like a newspaper reporter.
Now I begin to think Hess is an agent because these pukes never care when it is the U.S. killing or incarcerating some reporter.
Journalism groups issued statements defending Hess.
“Jake Hess is a legitimate journalist and the mere appearance of his name in KCK documents is not grounds for detention, prosecution, or deportation,’’ said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “We call on Turkish authorities to immediately release Hess and not hinder his reporting.’’
Okay, maybe.
“Kurdish media and journalists who cover the consequences of Turkish policy towards the Kurds are too often the target of harassment, which the authorities clumsily try to justify as a necessary part of their efforts to combat terrorism,’’ the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Friday calling for Hess’s release....
Yeah, governments are all the same.
Related: American journalist deported to the US and speaks about his arrest
Never saw a word of it in the Globe.
Also see: P.J.A.K. and Plan B