"An independent journalist" who won't remain nameless

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For the past 3+ months I’ve tried to keep my head down and do the work. I often remind myself that my problems are wholly insignificant compared to those of the people I speak to and write about, and complaining is a bad look. But even the most hard-nosed journalist has her breaking point, and last night I found mine.

CBS News published a piece late Friday with the headline “Trump administration in talks with Rwanda to take deportees from U.S.” Sound familiar? In the fifth paragraph of the story, they wrote, “The Rwanda arrangements were first reported by the Washington Post, which also cited work by an independent journalist who had uncovered the recent deportation from the U.S. of an Iraqi national to Rwanda.” Hi, it’s me. I’m the independent journalist. And a multi-billion dollar news corporation couldn’t be bothered to write my damn name.

If you’ll recall, I reported on April 22 that the US had sent an incarcerated man—an Iraqi refugee named Omar Ameen—to Rwanda via a new diplomatic arrangement between the two countries. I first learned of the potential relationship in mid-March when a State Department source shared a copy of a cable sent by the American Embassy in Kigali informing the department of “Rwanda's willingness to accept third country national removals.” I didn’t immediately report on the cable at the time because I wanted to be 100% confident in its veracity, and didn’t want to cause undue alarm if the Rwanda scheme wasn’t so much a plan as a concept of a plan.

As story after story rolled in and March gave way to April, I still kept the Rwanda cable in the back of my mind. I’d confirmed with multiple sources that the cable was legitimate, but none could say how serious it was. Something in my gut told me to sit tight. 

Then on April 22nd, a source reached out to let me know that it actually happened: The US had “relocated” the first prisoner to Rwanda. In a cable dated that same day and reviewed by me, the American Embassy confirmed: “...the U.S. interagency effectively supported a capable Rwandan government to relocate detained Iraqi national Mr. Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who could not be removed to Iraq pursuant to U.S immigration proceedings. This successful relocation - and Rwanda's subsequent agreement to accept additional third-country nationals (TCNs) - proved the concept for developing a new removal program to relocate TCNs from the United States to Rwanda.”

The cable also confirmed the US had paid Rwanda $100,000 to help with Ameen’s resettlement and that “Rwanda also agreed to accept another ten TCNs of various nationalities.”

I double-checked with another source that the cable was legitimate. Then I did some research on Mr. Ameen: I found out he’d been a target of deportation by the first Trump administration in 2018, which attempted to smear him as a “terrorist” and “member of ISIS” who had abused the refugee resettlement program to gain entry to the US. Though a judge later called the case against him “dubious” and ordered his release, he was immediately picked up by ICE under President Biden and remained in custody until he arrived in Rwanda on April 4th.

I wrote my story, hit publish at 4:35pm ET, and waited for the bombshell to explode. Instead, crickets. I posted that evening on Bluesky:

Nearly a day later, The New Republic was the first outlet to run with my reporting and credit me. The following day, Reuters published a news story about the US-Rwanda deal that cited The Handbasket as the source…all the way down in the 8th paragraph. 

A week later, the Washington Post published a story that offered no new information about the new diplomatic relationship, but was presented as brand new. Many paragraphs down, they had the temerity to note “Ameen’s presence in Rwanda was first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas, who cited a State Department cable that described it as a new ‘removal’ program for third-party nationals. The Post has not independently confirmed the contents of that cable.”

Then on Thursday, CNN entered the chat.

“There have also been conversations as recently as this week between the US and Rwanda to advance a plan to use the country for third-party deportations of undocumented immigrants in the US, sources familiar with the matter said,” CNN wrote. It’s entirely possible CNN had other sources who confirmed the details of the plan. What seems impossible is that they didn’t do a cursory search to see that it had already been reported days earlier.

And by Friday, CBS News went to such enormous lengths to deny me credit for the scoop that it almost felt like trolling. Though I’m furious, I can’t completely fault them: The Washington Post—a publication owned by one of the wealthiest billionaires in the world—had by that point obfuscated the true source of information. Of course CBS wouldn’t think twice about giving their fellow legacy media compatriot the lion’s share of the credit. But to not even name me or my site feels less like ignorance and more like malice.  

Despite all the evidence and the outpouring of support online, I still feel somewhat embarrassed writing this. I want my work to stand on its own. But in order for it to stand on its own, credit must be paid. 

Scoops don’t drop out of the sky; they’re a result of building relationships and trust with people who have a lot to lose by telling the truth. Not crediting my work isn’t just an insult to me, but to my sources who took a risk by choosing to share information with me. Having their version of events treated as illegitimate because it wasn’t printed in a media outlet with a household name is a slap in the face. It’s also a complete misreading of the moment by legacy news outlets, and evidence of a refusal to evolve. And that’s the real bad look.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But it’s time to set a boundary. Corporate, legacy, traditional—whatever you want to call it—media must respect that independent journalists are a part of the new news ecosystem. For those like me who’ve proven time and again that their reporting is reliable and fact-checked as vigorously as any outlet with an entire legal team on call, it’s time to give us our due. 

I get the sense that some journalists at legacy outlets believe that one day they’ll be the boss. Or even better, the owner of their publication. They see self-publishing as a last resort for people who can’t hold down a job, despite media jobs disappearing every day. But in the same way a vast majority of Americans (despite their delusions) are closer to being homeless than becoming billionaires, so are the salaried legacy journalists closer to having to make it as independent journalists than becoming media moguls.

I’ve spent my career reading, sharing and referencing the behemoths of American journalism who’ve weathered the many storms this industry has faced. All I ask in return is for recognition that some of us have taken a different path—and that makes us no less worthy of credit.