Guatemala’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s office, via Associated Press John McAfee on Thursday was photographed in an immigration detention center in Guatemala City, where had access to devices he has used to communicate with the world.
The tumultuous relationship between the technology entrepreneur John McAfee and the reporters who have covered his flight from Belize took another turn on Tuesday, when McAfee announced on his blog that he would no longer cooperate with Vice, the publication that revealed his location when it posted an image embedded with information about where it had been taken.
That location – poolside at the Hotel and Marina Nana Juana in Izabal, Guatemala — made clear that Mr. McAfee had left Belize, where he is wanted for questioning in the death of a neighbor.
Thus Vice becomes the latest example of a publication that was granted access to Mr. McAfee only to have it withdrawn after events didn’t play out as expected. It is a strategy that has helped Mr. McAfee get publicity across a wide array of media outlets, as I wrote in an article that appeared in Monday’s newspaper. But that strategy has also backfired by, among other things, revealing Mr. McAfee’s location to the Guatemalan authorities, who now have him in custody.
McAfee wrote the following on his blog, which he has maintained while being detained in Guatemala on immigration charges: “Due to information just received, it is no longer clear to Mr. McAfee that the ‘accidental’ release of his co-ordinates due to Vice Magazine’s editorial department’s failure to remove location data from their now notorious photo, was indeed an accident. This incident led directly to Mr. McAfee’s arrest.”
The day before, on Monday, I at last spoke on the phone with Rocco Castoro, the Vice editor in chief whom I had written about. Over all, I got the sense that he was still struggling with what to believe in the McAfee case.
While we were chatting, an e-mail popped up in my inbox from none other than John McAfee, who hadn’t responded to my phone calls and e-mails since I published an account of his life in Belize for Gizmodo. The e-mail was addressed to me, but it must have been intended for Rocco. It read:
“Rocco – keep in mind at this point I believe Jeff is working for the lawyers so I am throwing the lawyers off…………”
Who can say what he meant exactly? At any rate, I immediately replied to the e-mail, expressing my delight at hearing from him, and asking if we could talk on the phone. I haven’t heard back.
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/mcafees-ride-with-the-press-is-still-as-bumpy-as-ever/?partner=rss&emc=rss
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