User talk:Justmeherenow/Yettaw1

John Yettaw of Falcon, Mo., swam across a lake in early May 2009 and spent two nights in democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Myanmar compound, claiming that he had come to save her from assassins.

Mr. Yettaw's motives were not entirely clear. But he told Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi that he was a Mormon and prayed extensively while he was in her house, one of her lawyers said.

A few days after the incident, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and charged with violating the terms of her house arrest. Mr. Yettaw was charged with breaching Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and for violations of immigration law and local ordinances.

On Aug. 11, Mr. Yettaw was sentenced to seven years of prison and hard labor. He had suffered recently from what were described as epileptic fits and was removed from the courtroom immediately after his sentence was read.

Mr. Yettaw was released on Aug. 16 and left the country together with a visiting American senator, Jim Webb. The release came one day after Mr. Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, met with the leader of Myanmar's ruling junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi.

At a news conference in Bangkok, Mr. Webb said the meetings and the release of Mr. Yettaw were gestures that could be helpful as part of the foundations for a relationship "of good will and confidence building so that we can have a better situation in the future." Although he said he was not an emissary of the administration, Mr. Webb's visit came at a time when the United States was exploring the possibility of a more cooperative relationship with the military junta.

On Aug. 11, the court sentenced Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months of additional house arrest, drawing widespread condemnation from around the world.

Playing up a moment of suspense, the court first sentenced Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi to three years of hard labor for violating the terms of the house arrest where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years. Moments later, it reduced the sentence and sent her home from the prison where she had been held since the trial began on May 18.

Many analysts have called the arrest of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi a ploy to keep her in detention at least through a parliamentary election scheduled for 2010. Her latest six-year term of house arrest expired in mid-May.

During the trial, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi testified that Mr. Yettaw had arrived at her home during the night of May 3 but that she did not learn of his presence until 5 a.m. on May 4.

She conceded that she had not informed the authorities and said that she had given him "temporary shelter" until he left on May 5. He was arrested as he swam away.

Her lawyers said she did not report the intrusion or make Mr. Yettaw leave immediately because he complained of cramps and because she did not want him or the security officers who guard her house to get in trouble.

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/y/john_yettaw/index.html

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Aung San Suu Kyi and two female assistants were charged after an American intruder swam across a lake earlier this month and sneaked into her residence. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.

Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer said the trial, which could last three months, will continue Tuesday.

The American man, John Yettaw, whose unauthorized visit triggered the proceedings, also is on trial for breaking Burma's security and immigration laws.

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Burma's foreign minister, Nyan Win, has denied allegations that the government had framed its case against Aung San Suu Kyi. In an interview published Friday in the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar he suggested the incident could have been created by the opposition to attract international attention.

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Yettaw entered Burma on a tourist visa. He said he dreamt the opposition leader would be assassinated, and that he traveled to Burma to warn her.

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Nyan Win said Yettaw, in his first testimony to the court, described how he received a vision from God that terrorists planned to assassinate Aung San Suu Kyi. He reportedly told the court that God told him to come to Burma to warn Aung San Suu Kyi.

The pro-democracy leader testified Tuesday she gave Yettaw "temporary shelter" until he left the next day. Her lawyers say she asked the 53-year-old American to leave, but allowed him to stay overnight after he said he was too exhausted and ill to swim back.

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Webb: (a) "I really regret what Mr. Yettaw did. I think he may have been well intentioned but he hurt a lot of people, including the very woman he was thinking he was going to help" -- in the clip that was later used by Chetry on /American Morning/. For example, in news reports filed on August 16th and 17th, Webb says these versions as well: (b) "I think that he may have been well- intentioned, but he hurt a lot of people including the very woman he was thinking he was going to help." (c) "I believe what he did was regrettable. I believe it was hurtful to the person that he thought he was trying to help."

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Dirk Vanderhart/Susan Saulny, Aug 19 NYT:

"[... ...]

"Mr. Yettaw, who has been ill since his arrest, wore a surgical mask to guard against infection while he traveled. He had suffered seizures during his trial and received medical treatment in Bangkok after being released.

also added: “I believe what happened was regrettable. He was trying to help. He’s not a mean-spirited human being.”
 * "Mr. Webb described him after the release as “not a well man” but

"Mr. Yettaw’s neighbors and friends said they had been praying for his safety, even while they do not fully understand what happened in Myanmar or why he went. Some thought the trip had to do with graduate studies in psychology, or perhaps a book Mr. Yettaw told them he wanted to write."

“I’ll be glad to see him back,” said one friend, Michael Assel, a retired Navy officer. “I would not question his motives like so many people have done. In my opinion, it’s just his business. He got in trouble and for a while, it looked like he wouldn’t get home, but he did, so I’m happy about that.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20yettaw.html?_r=1

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Tony's intrepid reporting [sic] ( http://www.newsweek.com/id/213129 ):

"[...] 'The man with the AK-47 shook my hand and let me in.' [......]

"A quixotic man who didn’t have a passport until last year[.... ...]Yettaw’s family, for its part, doesn’t know what to believe. After years of questions that have gone unanswered and behavior that doesn’t quite add up, they have come to accept Yettaw the way he is—bighearted but unsteady—without asking too many follow-ups. [......]

"Late Thursday night, the 53-year-old Missourian remained an enigmatic figure, failing to clarify lingering questions and offering rambling and occasionally contradictory responses. [... ...H]e says he traveled to Burma hoping to visit the Nobelist Suu Kyi—and to warn her that he’d learned, in a divine vision, terrorists were planning to assassinate her. [...] 'I’ve been accused of being CIA, of being on the books of the junta. The idea is just ridiculous'[.......]

"Still, the question remains: why didn’t guards stop Yettaw as he made his way across the lake to the home of the country’s most famous prisoner? [......]

"Yettaw declined to say where he initially got the idea to visit Suu Kyi by crossing the lake. But according to one Western diplomat, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, intelligence reports show that senior Burmese officials were told to come up with a way to keep the Lady incarcerated, as her May 27 release date loomed. Around a week before Yettaw’s second swim, this person says, two men posing as members of the reform-minded National League for Democracy allegedly approached Yettaw in Mae Sot, an untidy border town in Thailand, and told him that the Lady was ready to receive him. (The Burmese government did not respond to requests for comment.)

"[......]

"[......] He bristles at the suggestion that he is unstable and possibly mentally ill, as some people, including one of his three ex-wives, has suggested. 'I am not crazy. I am not insane. I am not bipolar.'

"Since touching down in Springfield, Mo., on Wednesday, Yettaw has kept a low profile—ducking out of an airport side door without picking up his luggage in order to avoid the waiting scrum of reporters and photographers. [......]

"[......] He also intends to spend some time working on his two book projects: a 'dissertation' about forgiveness (although he is not enrolled in an academic program) and a book 'about a higher power, about recognizing the bitter and the sweet.'

"[......] ---

2) On John King's August 16th Sunday morning current events talk show on CNN he says at the start to the second segment of his show, "I'm John King, and this is 'State of the Union.' Here are stories breaking this Sunday morning. An American man in prison in Myanmar is now safely out of that country. 53-year-old John Yettaw arrived in Thailand today with Senator Jim Webb, who helped to secure his release. Yettaw was sentenced to seven years hard labor after he went uninvited to the home of pro-democracy leader Aung Suu Kyi. Senator Webb is expressing hope for better relations now between the United States and Myanmar."

Yet, King asks no questions about Burma on his show and no guests talk about it.

That was at 9 am Eastern time; at 10, Howard Kurtz brings on the CNN show 'Reliable Sources.' Kurtz repeats the news blip about you and then talks about current events with a number of guest commentators. No one mentions you.

3) However, I now believe I see the point you felt sold out by Webb, perhaps.

On August 27th, CNN featured you and your story on its 'American Morning' show at 6 am Eastern:

John Roberts: An American freed from prison in Myanmar now talking exclusively with 'American Morning' about his surprise visit to the country's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and how his intrusion did her more harm than good. Kiran's got the interview coming up.

[... ...]

John Roberts: So he strapped on a set of cardboard flippers and swam across a lake in Myanmar to see Aung San Suu Kyi. And he was then thrown in jail, released when Senator Jim Webb went over there.

Kiran, you talked to John Yettaw a couple of days ago.

Kiran Chetry: Yes, he has a fascinating story to tell about visions, about feeling that he was actually saving this pro- democracy leader from assassination. He sits down exclusively with us to tell his side of this very, very, complicated story. It's 10 minutes after the hour. {cut to commercial}

John Roberts: Watching this morning from the tropical storm to the Kennedy library and beyond. Welcome back to the 'Most News in the Morning.' American John Yettaw made headlines around the world back in May swimming to the Lakeside home of Myanmar's detained pro- democracy Aung San Suu Kyi and sneaking in to see her. The stunt got Yettaw sentenced to seven years hard labor and Aung San Suu Kyi an extra 18 months under house arrest.

Kiran Chetry: And Yettaw was released earlier this month during a trip to Myanmar by Virginia Senator Jim Webb. In an exclusive interview with Yettaw, I had a chance to talk to him about why he would leave his wife and his children, and travel halfway around the world risking his own life to visit Suu Kyi and what drove him to do it.

{Video}:

TOI: She listens to BBC daily. And her situation from what I had read about her is slightly different than what I witnessed in the home. She lives in a mansion, and well taken care of. She's highly educated, a brilliant woman, lingual. And I shared with her that I had had a vision or dream that they were going to murder her.


 * KIRAN CHETRY: Did she think you were crazy?

TOI: Yes.


 * KIRAN CHETRY: Was she happy to see you?

TOI: Absolutely, yes, yes

Suu Kyi's house that Yettaw was captured by police. What he didn't realize is what effect his visit would have on the woman he'd come to save.
 * CHETRY, NARRATING VIDEO IN VOICE-OVER: It was only after he left

TOI: Little did I have any idea that they're going to arrest her and put her on trial. I wept every day, and I suffered every day. It's not about her and it's certainly not about some unfit fellow going through the water, it's about stopping the killings. And that's what it was from day one because my message was, why isn't anyone stopping the killings? And this has been her message of peace.

your actions, as benevolent as you thought the visit was ended up causing her to face more trouble?
 * CHETRY, ON CAMERA: And what was that like when you realized that

TOI: On one hand, heartbreaking. But on the other hand, grateful she's alive. Grateful that the entire world is watching and there's no way these generals are ever going to try to assassinate her.

premonitions of all of this happening and that his motives were purely humanitarian. But there are many asking if he's crazy.
 * KIRAN CHETRY NARRATING VIDEO IN VOICE-OVER: Yettaw says he had

that you're mentally ill?
 * KIRAN CHETRY ON CAMERA: Do you understand why people may think

TOI: Well, I can tell you one thing, they never talked to me. And based on the media frenzy, sure, I can imagine they think a lot of things.

Virginia helped secure Yettaw's release after he was sentenced to seven years' hard labor by a court in Myanmar. He thinks in the long run Yettaw's trip did more harm than good.
 * KIRAN CHETRY NARRATING VIDEO IN VOICE-OVER: Senator Jim Webb of

been well intentioned but he hurt a lot of people, including the very woman he was thinking he was going to help. KIRAN CHETRY: But Yettaw stands by his action, insisting to me that he really believes he saved Suu Kyi's life and the experience has given him a greater appreciation for his own country.
 * WEBB: I really regret what Mr. Yettaw did. I think he may have

TOI: I'm so grateful that we live in a country where we have freedom of speech. And over there where they speak the truth, they're killed and imprisoned. And I want you to know that even on our worst day to live in the United States, the United States is one of the greatest nations on earth -- on our worst day.

{end of video}

Kiran Chetry: He's a fascinating man.

John Roberts: He certainly seems to believe -- he believes

Kiran Chetry: He has a lot of passion about it.

John Roberts: Yes.

Kiran Chetry: He told them he would carry the message to the rest of the world who doesn't know what's going on in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. And he also said that he discussed it with his wife and said I had a vision, I had a premonition that I need to prevent an assassination. And that she, as well as their children said go do what you got to do.

John Roberts: I mean, his heart seems to be in the right place in terms of stopping the killings and what's going on there in Myanmar. But, you know, as Senator Webb said, you know, maybe the execution is a little misguided.

Kiran Chetry: Right. So how did he actually do it? This is another fascinating part. How did he -- this is a heavily protected area. Her home is on a lake. There are armed guards around the entire thing.

Coming up in our next hour, he's going to explain to us exactly how he was able to pull this off and what it was like when he was in captivity for as long as he was under the military junta.

John Roberts: Looking forward to that. It's fascinating just to hear from him.

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