On
a quiet Friday morning around 9:00 am, in a suburb of DC. Max
Blumenthal, editor of an alternative news outlet, The Grayzone
Project, was awoken to loud pounding on his front door. After threats
of breaching the entrance, Max opened the door to a swat-style gang
of police, a warrant in hand for his immediate arrest. Still wearing
his pyjamas, he requested that he retrieve a coat, and followed to
his bedroom. Then shackled like a serial killer, bank robber or a
member of Al Qaeda, and thrown into a paddy wagon with only a small
rope to hold on to, and remanded in D.C., Central Detention Agency
for two days, and refused his constitutional phone call to contact
his attorney. He was released without bail, and told to await the
“paper work” for his future hearing. The arrest warrant was for a
minor assault charge, that happened over five months prior, which
Blumenthal says is a complete fabrication.
Back
in May, the Venezuelan Embassy was under siege by the government's
opposition, a false party created by the US government to over throw
the democratically elected Maduro government. The diplomatic corp of
the embassy fled back to Venezuela, leaving a small group of
protesters within the embassy. This small group was given permission
to be there, while outside, anti-Maduro and pro- regime change
protesters, stood around the building spitting on any adversaries,
and engaging in mafia-style intimidation to anyone who crossed them.
The DC police were on the side of the spitting thugs, the US
government's support of the illegal Juan Guido regime. It was during
this time, while Blumenthal and other pro-Maduro protesters, were
attempting to give food to those inside the embassy, that this
alleged assault occurred.
The
Grayzone and particularly Blumenthal, for years have been critics of
the US government's foreign policies in Israel/ Palestine, Syria, and
Venezuela. In this case, The Grayzone's reporting challenged the
Trump administration main-stream narrative, and the MSM's as well,
revealing their blatant lies about Venezuela's economic crises. For
some pundits and journalist's this charge of assault against Max, is
a direct result of his honest reporting. As we know from the many
whistle blowers and journalist that have gone against the
establishments' narrative, have paid the price with fines, broken
lives and imprisonment. Indeed, Julian Assange comes to mind.
What
is mind-boggling, and from another perspective, not at all
surprising, is the vast majority of the media, have been silent on
this obvious authoritarian action against a journalist. This only
confirms the troubling fact, that journalism as we once new it,
punching up to power, is now part of corporate/government and the
wider Military Industrial Complex. This became more than evident on
the MSM's attacks or silence about Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Here
in Australia, for example, main stream journalist from leading
newspapers parroted the untruth that Assange was not a journalist.
Journalism, at least in the mainstream, are either stenographers or
beacon's of disinformation at the behest of the National Security
State.
It
should be extremely troubling and down-right terrifying, that our
so-called 4th
Estate has gone the way of totalitarianism. When a voice of truth,
speaks out against the lies of the establishment and are severely
punished for their reporting, we should be all alarmed.
Max
Blumenthal's false arrest, detention and intimidation should be a
warning not only to the “free press”, but to anybody concerned
about our human rights. Freedom of speech. Freedom of the Press.
Authoritarianism
is escalating, and something needs to be done, before it's all too
late.
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