Torrance: Where is Dhahran?
Hedges: Saudi Arabia.
Torrance: And that was a U.S. military headquarters of some sort?
Hedges: Well, it was the press operations run by the U.S. Army.
Torrance: And what was the asserted basis for detaining you?
Hedges: That I had been reporting without an escort.
Torrance: And was that a violation of some law or regulation that you know of?
Afran: Note, object to form. Laws and regulations are two different things.
Hedges: Not in my view. ...
Torrance: Did the people who detained you specify any law or regulation that in their view you violated?
Hedges: Let me preface that by saying that as a foreign correspondent with a valid journalistic visa, which I had, in a country like Saudi Arabia, the United States does not have the authority to detain me or tell me what I can report on. They attempted to do that, but neither I [nor] The New York Times [my employer at the time] recognized their authority.
Torrance: When you obtained that journalistic visa did you agree to any conditions on what you would do or where you would be permitted to go?
Hedges: From the Saudis?
Torrance: The visa was issued by the Saudi government?
Hedges: Of course, I need a visa from the Saudi government to get into Saudi.
Torrance: Did you agree to any such conditions?
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