CNN Journalist "Rescues" Syrian Intelligence Officer - The Monday AM Quickie 12/16/24
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THE BIG NEWS
CNN Journalist "Rescues" Syrian Intelligence Officer
Last Wednesday, CNN published a video piece by correspondent Clarissa Ward of her apparently assisting in the "rescue" of a Syrian man left behind in one of the many dark prisons that had been abandoned by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It was a strange story that caused a lot of people to think: this smells.
Accompanied by a rebel soldier and film crew, Ward wanders through a seemingly empty Syrian prison, explaining that she's looking for clues as to the fate of the American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared twelve years ago. Ward and members of her crew look through the window of a cell that they say is still locked. Ward claims that the soldier is making them turn off their camera, during which time he shoots off the door lock. They then open the door to find a blanket, which they are surprised to learn conceals a man who claims he's been imprisoned for three months without seeing daylight and for four days without food or water.
The man looks clean and healthy. His clothes are also clean, despite him being found on a cement cell floor. He then goes on to shake (and maybe fake) his way through a tale of months-long persecution and privation. "In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed," wrote Ward, who seemed as much protagonist or shaper of events as witness to them.
Anyway, don't take my cynical armchair analysis as the final word: a Syrian fact-checking group called Verify-Sy looked into the story and found something much different than what Ward presented. The man appeared to tell the truth about where he came from – the city of Homs – but lied about his name and identity. He's a Syrian Air Force intelligence officer known as Abu Hamza, who was notorious in Homs for exploiting, robbing, and detaining and torturing people. Local residents testified to Verify-Sy about Hamza's crimes against them. He may have ended up in Syrian prison because of beefs with other intelligence officers. It's unclear why Hamza was the only person in the prison Ward was visiting or if she knew anything about his true identity. CNN hasn't commented, and Ward's most recent X post claims that the man "was reunited with a relative in Damascus."
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Media Cowardice: ABC Pays Off Trump With $15 Million
In other tales of corporate media perfidy: ABC News and Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation suit from Donald Trump. The money will go to a future Trump presidential library (which sounds like a hilarious oxymoron, but hey George W Bush got one too). ABC News will "release a statement of regret" concerning when Stephanopoulos, while interviewing Rep. Nancy Mace, said that Trump had been "found liable for rape" and "defaming the victim of that rape."
In two civil suits involving the writer E. Jean Carroll, Trump was found liable for "sexual abuse" and defamation. In the former case, Carroll testified that Trump raped her. The judge said that Trump raped Carroll. New York law contains some grim qualifications about what counts as "rape" versus "sexual abuse." That may have contributed to ABC's decision to settle. Corporate news deserves little respect, but a quick $15 million settlement is still a startling and expensive concession to a president who will only do this again and again.
US Politicians Have Been Entertaining A Wanted War Criminal
In the last week, US politicians and Biden administration officials have met with former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, including using "starvation as a method of warfare." Despite having lost his government job and being wanted for war crimes, Gallant seemed proud of the visit, posting photos of his meetings. In one photo, likely taken inside the White House, Gallant did a grip-and-grin with longtime Middle East advisor and deep-state slug Brett McGurk. On X, Gallant posted a photo of himself with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, thanking him for his support of the country currently waging a "7-front war." In the background was a portrait of Frederick Douglass. The US is still not a signatory to the ICC.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- OpenAI Whistleblower Dead of Reported Suicide Suchir Balaji, a 26-year-old former OpenAI employee who blew the whistle, saying that his employer (and the industry) was dependent on the mass theft of copyrighted works, was found dead in his apartment last month. Balaji was going to testify in copyright lawsuits against the massively hyped AI startup. via BBC News and Mercury News.
- Luigi Mangione Gets A Big-Time Lawyer The accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will be represented in his murder trial by Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former deputy district attorney. Friedman Agnifilo's husband represents Sean Combs. via AP News.
- Trump Brings Back Intel Loyalists Trump has called back a couple 2020 appointees, announcing that former House Rep and current TruthSocial CEO Devin Nunes would be chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Richard Grenell, whose Trump-world jobs included firing a bunch of people during a blink-and-you'll-miss-it term as acting director of national intelligence, will be "presidential envoy for special missions." via NBC News, WaPo, and NPR.
- Israel Is Already Working To Settle More Syrian Territory After seizing a portion of the Syrian Golan Heights that it hadn't previously illegally occupied, the Israeli government adopted a plan of "strengthening the Golan" by building new settlements and encouraging Jewish Israelis to move to the area. Israel said it wants to "double the population of the Golan." via WaPo and Reuters.
SOME NUMBER
$106,000
That's was the latest record high price for Bitcoin, which has benefitted enormously from the election of Donald Trump, who promised crypto holders everything they could possibly want (less regulation, more free money, the end of all those annoying federal investigations). The latest news driving speculators and your tech-bro cousin crazy comes from Trump promising, once again, to establish a government-held Bitcoin reserve. It'd be a huge giveaway to crypto bros and rich VCs: the next Trump administration wants to pour real US dollars into subsidizing tech oligarchs' and cyber criminals' magic bean fund. Expect more like this in 2025.
ON THE SHOW TODAY
12/16: Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Stefania Barca, distinguished researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, to discuss her recent book Workers Of The Earth: Labour, Ecology and Reproduction in the Age of Climate Change.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
Lindsey Graham Visibly Flustered After Meeting Tulsi Gabbard
Is it the cult stuff or the homophobia stuff or the Assad stuff or the Islamophobia stuff?
How Society Failed Jordan Neely
Hell Gate's Katie Way talks about the end of the Daniel Penny trial and how defense lawyers used Jordan Neely's genes against him.
PARTING WORDS
"I was worried what it was about. They told me: we wanted to take pictures with you, we are fans even if you didn’t stand with us."
-- Syrian actor, comedian, and director Duraid Laham speaking to a Saudi news station about being stopped at a checkpoint by soldiers from HTS, the Islamist rebel group that led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship.
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