Tag: journalists

‘Why Aren’t You in The Hague?’: Sam Husseini and Max Blumenthal confront Tony Blinken

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal confronted Blinken, asking why he continued to “keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May” and whether he was “compromised by Israel.” Moments later, Sam Husseini was dragged from the presser by cops after attempting to ask a question.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken held his final press conference on Thursday and was confronted about his support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza by two veteran reporters, including independent journalist Sam Husseini, who was dragged out of the room while telling Blinken he belonged in The Hague.

Max Blumenthal, founder of The Grayzone, disrupted Blinken’s opening statement, saying, “Three hundred reporters in Gaza were on the receiving end of your bombs, why did you keep the bombs flowing when we had a deal in May?” … “Why did you sacrifice the rules-based order on the mantle of your commitment to Zionism? Why did you allow my friends to be massacred?”

Blumenthal continued to pepper Blinken with questions as he was escorted out of the room. “Are you compromised by Israel? Why did you allow the Holocaust of our time to happen? How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?”

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American journalist handcuffed & forcibly removed from Blinken’s last presser

A journalist was dragged out of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s final press briefing on Thursday, after trying to ask a question about the Gaza ceasefire.

Blinken claimed that the past four years have seen successful diplomacy, including the truce, even though both Israel and Hamas gave President-elect Donald Trump the credit for the deal.

Sam Husseini, a well known reporter focused on the Middle East, began to put questions to Blinken on his personal reaction to the ceasefire, and reminded the official of the findings of genocide against Israel by multiple international NGOs.

Blinken responded that journalists had to “respect the process” and that he would take questions after he was done with his speech.

In a video posted by Ryan Grim of DropSite News, several uniformed Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) officers can be seen approaching Husseini, who is seated in the briefing room.

“Get your hands off me!” Husseini cried out as the guards seized him. “Answer my damn question.”

“You pontificate about a free press!” he called out. “I am asking questions after being told by [State Department spokesman] Matt Miller that he will not answer my questions.”

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Father of Gonzalo Lira Seeks Human Rights Attorney in Quest for Justice for His Son’s “Horrible Assassination” by Biden and Zelensky’s Regime

In an exclusive statement to The Gateway Pundit, Gonzalo Lira Sr., father of deceased American citizen and political commentator Gonzalo Lira, has launched a scathing critique of the Biden regime’s failure to protect his son.

Lira, who was detained in Ukraine and accused of being a Russian propagandist, succumbed to pneumonia after enduring months of neglect and mistreatment in a Ukrainian prison.

Lira Sr. is now on a crusade for justice.

He is urgently seeking a human rights attorney to expose the gross violation of his son’s constitutional rights and the failure of the U.S. government under Joe Biden to protect one of its own citizens.

Gonzalo Lira Sr. told The Gateway Pundit:

“As you know, I am in search of a Human Rights Attorney to bring justice and expose Biden to the American public for not caring at all towards an American citizen by birth detained un Ukraine and accusing him of being a Russian agent.

All my son did was to bring to light the reason that Russia invaded Ukraine, he was never a Russian agent. My son was exercising his FREEDOM OF SPEECH AS SANCTIONED IN THE FIRST AMENDMENT.

The US embassy in Ukraine knew on May 3, 2023 that Gonzalo was detained.

They never personally communicated with him never provided an attorney, Gonzalo was kept incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days without a trial in a dungeon prison, SIZO prison, in Kharkiv, his home town in Ukraine.

Gonzalo, deserves justice and the governments of the United States of America and of Ukraine should respond of his assassination. I am asking for your help, I need a human rights lawyer to bring justice to the horrible assassination that governments of the United States of America and of Ukraine brought to my son.”

Recall, Gonzalo Lira Sr. gave an interview to Tucker Carlson, released Dec. 9, 2023, describing the situation and charging the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv “hasn’t done a thing” to help his son.

“Neither I nor his sister living in the USA have been able to communicate” with Lira, his father said. “The Embassy never visited him, except, for the first time, at his court appointment Nov. 8th.”

“An American citizen is in jail because he was exercising his right of freedom of speech”, Lira Sr. told Carlson. “The US government’s silence suggests a degree of complicity, or at least tacit approval of Gonzalo’s arrest since nothing else convincingly explains the conspicuous lack of response.”

“Did the State Department give the green light to Zelensky to put my son in jail?” Gonzalo Lira Sr. asked.

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Safe while Syria burns

More than 350 Israeli airstrikes targeting Syrian territory in the past hours, and an enemy Israeli occupation of Syrian territory equivalent to twice the size of the Gaza Strip, and their army is less than 40 km away from the capital Damascus.

After a rather turbulent 48 hours I am safe and will be writing and broadcasting as normal very shortly. I had one hour to pack one suitcase, take one dog and get through a border swarming with armed thugs looting and fighting amongst themselves over the spoils. The night before was spent besieged by armed groups firing in the air to celebrate their “victory” while Israel started using bunker buster bombs on Syrian military sites and air defence close to the house. The house shook from top to bottom. At 10am truckloads of armed thieves arrived and battered at my front gate. I was on the phone to a friend who begged me to find a weapon – clearly I don’t have any. I yelled at them from inside and the dogs went crazy. After three batterings they left.

Much more to recount over the coming days. Social media is a mess of lies, misinformation and downright hypocrisy. Thank you to everyone who emailed and messaged, it really lifted my spirits at an all time low.

I wrote this note this morning. I need a long time to process the loss for the whole world and for me as a human being who saw my future living in my beloved Syria.

Anyone who can explain why Assad’s pre-recorded farewell speech and possible explanation of the catastrophic events was not aired, as planned, after he left the country, please get in touch.

All the backstabbers who are now turning against Assad, protecting their interests – you were in a position to say something for 14 years. Why didn’t you?

I don’t blame any of the ordinary people for adopting the new era. People in Syria are isolated and afraid, some are terrified.

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Israel’s War on Journalism

There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions, be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says are used by Hamas.

They dutifully attend daily press conferences. They are given off-the-record briefings by senior Israeli officials who feed them information that often turns out to be untrue. They are Israel’s unwitting and sometimes witting propagandists, stenographers for the architects of apartheid and genocide, hotel room warriors.

Bertolt Brecht acidly called them the spokesmen of the spokesmen.

And how many foreign reporters are there in Gaza? None.

The Palestinian reporters in Gaza who fill the void often pay with their lives. They are targeted, along with their families, for assassination.

At least 134 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, have been killed and 69 have been imprisoned, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, marking the deadliest period for journalists since the organization began collecting data in 1992. 

Israel bombed a building on Friday in southern Lebanon housing seven media organizations, killing three journalists from Al Mayadeen and Al Manar and injuring 15 others. Since Oct. 7, Israel has killed 11 journalists in Lebanon.  

Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi, who was shot in the neck in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza by an Israeli sniper earlier this month, is in a coma. Israel has refused permission for him to seek medical care outside of Gaza.

Like most of the targeted journalists, including his murdered colleague Shireen Abu Akleh, he was wearing a helmet and flak jacket that identified him as press.

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Moscow Blasts Detention of Russian Reporters as Breach of US Freedom of Speech Commitments

The United States has flagrantly violated its obligations to ensure freedom of access to information and media pluralism with its actions against Russian journalists at Washington, DC’s airport, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

US authorities have not notified the Russian Embassy in Washington about the detention of Russian journalists who went to cover the presidential election in the United States, Maria Zakharova said.

“They declared the goal of working as journalists to cover the elections. They went through all the procedures, got visas, permits, took the whole package of documents and went to the United States,” the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, commenting on the Russian journalists’ detention.

Zakharova specified that the detention of the Russian correspondents took place on the night of October 29.

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Wisconsin Reporter Puts Kamala Harris in the Hot Seat, Spars with Her Over High Grocery Prices, Asks Why She Hasn’t Already Done What She’s Proposing

Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with Wisconsin’s WISN 12 News Political Director Matt Smith with just 7 days to go until Election Day.

Matt Smith put Kamala Harris in the hot seat and asked her why she hasn’t already done what she is proposing.

“I think what some voters are struggling with, and we’ve heard this across the state [Wisconsin] is when you discuss your plan, they come back and ask, ‘well why haven’t you done it already?’”

Kamala Harris laughed and blurted out, “Well, I’m not president!”

“You’re Vice President!” Matt Smith said.

“Exactly, but I’m gonna tell you what I’m doing as president when I have the ability, then, to do what I know based on my experience is a new approach that is about building on the good work that is happened, but there’s more to do,” Kamala Harris said.

Kamala Harris did extraordinary damage as vice president since she cast the tie-breaking vote on the measures that brought us the worst inflation crisis in more than 100 years.

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UK Police Raid Home, Seize Devices Of Another Journalist For Reporting On Gaza Genocide

British counterterrorism police on Thursday raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley.

Approximately 10 officers arrived at Winstanley’s North London home before 6 am and served the journalist with warrants and other papers authorizing them to search his house and vehicle for devices and documents.

A letter addressed to Winstanley from the “Counter Terrorism Command” of the Metropolitan Police Service indicates that the authorities are “aware of your profession” as a journalist but that “notwithstanding, police are investigating possible offenses” under sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act (2006). These provisions set out the purported offense of “encouragement of terrorism.”

An officer conducting Thursday’s raid informed Winstanley that the investigation was connected with the journalist’s social media posts. Attempts to reach the Metropolitan Police Service for comment for this story have been unsuccessful.

Although his devices were seized, Winstanley was not arrested and has not been charged with any offense.

Winstanley is active on several social media platforms, and has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter/X, where he frequently shares articles, other peoples’ opinions and his own comments on Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, British government support for these crimes, and the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide.

The vaguely worded provisions relating to “encouragement of terrorism” would clearly violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech, however the United Kingdom lacks similar constitutional protections for freedom of expression.

The draconian legislation “curtails a range of freedoms,” according to University of Edinburgh law professor Andrew Cornford, including “the freedoms to discuss controversial topics openly, and to share moral, political and religious opinions.”

Human Rights Watch has called on the British government to repeal the repressive provisions of the Terrorism Act (2006), noting that “the definition of the encouragement of terrorism offense is overly broad, raising serious concerns about undue infringement on free speech.”

In August, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service issued a warning to the British public to “think before you post” and threatening that it would prosecute anyone it deemed guilty of what it calls “online violence.”

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Facebook Faces Heat for Blocking Report on Arrest of US Journalist in Israel

Facebook has come under scrutiny for censoring an article by Matt Orfalea that reported on the arrest of American journalist Jeremy Loffredo in Israel. Loffredo was arrested shortly after publishing a detailed investigative report on Iranian missile strikes near significant Israeli military and intelligence locations, including an Israeli Air Force base and Mossad headquarters.

Loffredo has since been released pending an investigation and is not allowed to leave the country.

Orfalea’s article highlighted the circumstances surrounding Loffredo’s arrest and his findings that reportedly contradicted some official Israeli statements about the missile attacks.

According to the Times of Israel, as noted by Orfaela, “The exact locations of such impacts and damage are barred from publication by the IDF censor.”

Facebook’s censorship of Orfalea’s piece raises significant concerns about freedom of the press and the role of social media platforms in moderating content related to sensitive geopolitical issues. Orfalea questioned the transparency and fairness of Facebook’s content moderation processes, especially given the public interest in Loffredo’s arrest and the broader implications for press freedom.

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Israeli jails Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo, releases him pending investigation

The criminal case against the American reporter fell apart after an Israeli journalist testified that his own article containing Loffredo’s full video report had cleared military censorship. Yet Israel refuses to let Loffredo leave the country.

On October 11, journalist Jeremy Loffredo was ordered released from Israeli jail.

Israeli soldiers had arrested the Jewish-American reporter and three other journalists at a checkpoint in the West Bank on October 8. According to one of the jailed reporters, the soldiers blindfolded them tightly, roughed them up and hauled them off to detention in Jerusalem. While Loffredo’s colleagues were released after 11 hours, the “Judea and Samaria” division of the Israeli police opened an investigation into Loffredo for supposedly “aiding the enemy in a time of war.”

The Israeli police’s accusation related to Loffredo’s video report for The Grayzone covering the aftermath of Iranian missile strikes aimed at Israeli military installations. According to the police, Jeremy had revealed “the locations of missile drops near or inside sensitive security facilities, with the aim of bringing this to the notice of the enemy, and thereby assisting them in their future attacks.”

Watch Jeremy Loffredo’s report, “On the ground investigating Iran’s strikes on Israel” here.

On October 9, an Israeli court declared it had “reasonable suspicion” to extend the journalist’s imprisonment. At a hearing the next day, the police insisted to Magistrate’s Court Judge Zion Sahrai that Loffredo was not an actual journalist, but did not present any evidence that he was pursuing a hostile ulterior agenda.

A journalist from the Israeli publication YNet countered the innuendo from the police by pointing out that the military censor approved his own article in which a tweet containing Loffredo’s full video report for The Grayzone was embedded. 

Judge Sahrai ordered Loffredo’s release, stating that since Israeli military censors agreed to allow Ynet to publish both “word of [Jeremy’s] arrest and the publications that led to his arrest,” Israel could “no longer justify his continued detention.”

However, the police appealed Sahrai’s decision, protesting that the censor only approved the YNet article retroactively, and would have never done so if it had been submitted in advance.

That police also complained that Loffredo had refused to unlock his phone for them, insisting they needed more time to crack the device. “We believe that we will find things on the phone and we will be able to link him [to the alleged crime],” a police representative stated.

That argument did not hold water with Jerusalem District Court Judge Hana Miriam Lomp, however. “The Court of First Instance did not err when it ordered the release of the respondent,” Judge Lomp stated during the October 11 appeal. “From the detailed investigative actions there is no fear of disruption [from Jeremy], and in light of the reasons stated above, the cause of the danger is also not clear.”

Though Lomp ordered the journalist be released, she gave police until October 20 to continue their digital strip search. Until then, Loffredo will remain without his passport and will not be permitted to return home to his family in the US.

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