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?”
Referring to State Department spokesman Matt Miller, Blumenthal said, “You too, Matt, you smirked through the whole thing. Every day, you smirked through a genocide.”
A few minutes after Blumenthal left, Husseini began asking Blinken questions. “I’m a journalist, not a potted plant,” Husseini told a State Department employee who told him to be quiet.
Blinken said he would answer questions after his statement, but Husseini said that Miller explicitly told him that he wouldn’t have the chance to ask questions. Husseini, a contributor to Antiwar.com, frequently attends State Department press briefings but is rarely called on.
“I am justified in what I’m doing,” Husseini said. After a moment of calm, armed security personnel approached Husseini and began ripping him out of his seat.
As he was being dragged out, Husseini said to Blinken, “Answer a damn question! Do you know about the Hannibal Directive? Do you know about Israel’s nuclear weapons? … You pontificate about a free press!”
Blinken told Husseini to “respect the process,” to which Husseini replied, “Respect the process? Respect the process? While everybody from Amnesty International to the ICJ says Israel’s doing genocide and extermination, and you’re telling me to respect the process? Criminal! Why aren’t you in the Hague?”
After the incident, Husseini said he made it home. “I was seriously manhandled but I’m back home… thanks for all the support folks,” Husseini wrote on X.
He listed the questions that he wanted to ask Blinken, which included:
- What was the point of the May 31 announcement to block implementation of the May 24 ICJ order?
- Why do you refuse to recognize the Geneva conventions as applying to Gaza?
- Everyone from Amnesty International to the ICC accuses Israel of extermination and genocide. Why are you not in The Hague?
- Why was your step father Pisar connected to both Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein?
- Miller here pretends not to know about the Hannibal directive – do you know about the Hannibal directive?
- Why do you not even acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons?
Husseini has written extensively about some of the issues listed above on his Substack.
By way of deception neocons make war, just like Israel.
Touché ole!!!
They are Israel!
These two were acting unprofessional. They were more interested in making a political point then being reporters. No doubt that was the last state department press conference two will ever be allowed to attend.
The issue is that acting "professional" these days means whitewashing atrocities. These 2 are heroes
Playing dumb in the service of empire, being parrot stenographers, that’s who most of the rest are. Although I think the AP journalist at least tried, but it got him nowhere being “professional”.
I knew if I read down far enough, there you would be. And lo and behold, there you are. And you wonder why you bring out the f-bomb in me? You fucking twit.
I glad you read my comments. Nice having fans. I do not wonder why you use the "f" word, I know. It is simply your lack of a proper education. Smart people have no need for that word, they can express their ideas without it. It is a go to word for the not so smart frustrated people.
You are extremely fucking dense where that fucking word is concerned.
Oh Tom. Seriously? You are much better than that. Act like the professional I know you are.
I’m not at all better than that. And “professionalism” is not defined as “foregoing the use of certain words lest Tim scold.”
"Act like the professional I know you are."
LOL. What's the professional way to act towards an enemy of freedom and a war crimes supporter like you Timmy?
I glad you read my comments.
Butchering your first sentence while calling me uneducated. I AM impressed.
You wouldn’t make it as a journalist, even as a lame one.
Oh I am not a journalist for sure. My writing is not so good. But so what? Those two were not journalists, they were simply protesters who are now banned from the State Department briefings.
It is indeed one of the symptoms of the sickness that killed off Western journalism and turned it into this mangled corpse of putrifying maggot infested rot, that is prostrating to power instead of keeping them in check, managing public opinion instead of informing them and indeed the valuation of form over content, like planting daisies on the manure under which the truth lies buried.
If being professional means sitting nicely like a good little boy and never challenging power, I'm all for being as unprofessional as possible.
It is OK to challenge power. But do it in a professional manner. They accomplished nothing with their actions except getting kicked out of all future State Department briefings. When you act like that you get only one shot and they wasted in on a guy who job will end very soon.
They were asking extremely important questions that the others would not.
The Zionists assaulting the freedoms of Americans should be dealt with in the most severe manner.
When Big Oil and the State dept Arabists controlled US policy-was that OK?
Of course not.
End all US aid to Israel.
That’s the priority
Of course, it’s the right of every American to lobby the government about this issue.
Unfortunately, the powerful Israel Lobby wants to outlaw opposition to US aid to Israel. Vile Zionist propaganda is now equating opposition to aid to Israel with support for Hamas. The (false) implication is that any and all opposition to Israel is support for terrorism.
The people making those accusations are enemies of America and the freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.
A true lover of peace and humanity.
Based.
Also CNN is a joke. An unfunny joke on covering Israel
CNN RUNS GAZA COVERAGE PAST JERUSALEM TEAM OPERATING UNDER SHADOW OF IDF CENSOR https://theintercept.com/2024/01/04/cnn-israel-gaza-idf-reporting/
Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal
CNN was central in manufacturing consent for the Gaza genocide, now it's trying to insulate the author of this titanic crime from accountability
I'd be happy to grant these corporate state media hacks a live in studio interview so we can compare notes on journalistic experience
jordan @JordanUhl
Incredible.
4h
This is how CNN framed it. "Cringeworthy heckling" by "activists." And while footage of Sam Husseini being dragged out by police plays, one CNN personality heralds the "open policy" in the press briefing rooms.
https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1879968423171789306
They're just not vicious enough. Now the editor in chief of the NYT has published an editorial outright calling for Rump to invade Venezuela. He'll be allowed to ask Blinken any questions that he might have.
https://archive.ph/dwhZm
JFC
;-}
The NYT is straight out evil.
I have a strong suspicion that invading Venezuela could end up like the one in Cuba or Vietnam.. They have been forewarned for decades & probably prepared. Would not profit Trump or America get lots of troops killed there.
Venezuela has hundreds or possibly thousands of small arms caches all across the country with local militias trained to use them. They have some outrageous terrain. And they have hundreds of “microbroadcasters”, small low power radio stations who service their local areas, in a completely distributed network. Finally they have a population who are well aware of who has been making their lives miserable.
Yes, Brian just as I suspected!! They were warned and have fortified themselves against any land invasion as Cuba did!
Eventually these big ideas of power projection like invading Venezuela will run into the problem of diminished military power, clout and deterrence and no way to stop hypersonic missiles. The Neocon war on terror diverted resources to chasing lone wolves, not superpowers with cutting edge nuclear & missile capabilities and will have to back down like Biden did on some of his threats on Ukraine. These clowns that think they can cow Russia & China are headed for WW3 or some big embarrassments!!!!!!!!!!
Dual citizens must be barred from serving at high levels of government and business.
I can understand your banned for high level government jobs. Not for businesses. There are so many multinational companies today.
Instead of banning particular people from high level government jobs, I’d prefer to just ban high level government jobs.
LOL. We know that is not going to happen.
D o you have any evidence that Blinken is a dual citizen?
YES !!! His entire political oeuvre!!!!!!
I agree. No way can he be a US citizen and be THAT loyal to Israel.
Julius Rosenberg was a US citizen and was THAT loyal to the Soviet Union.
Sam Husseini and Max Blumenthal are great examples of courage and integrity in journalism
No they are examples of being jerks in a public meeting.
Oh no! Some real journalists had the audacity to challenge the great Anthony Blinken!
I say good on them. Blinken is an evil scumbag, a vile & incompetent piece of sh&t.
You'd just sit there being a polite good little doggie I suppose. Blinken – a war criminal – would love you.
Challenging Blinken is one thing, acting like fools is other. They looked stupid and confused. They looked like they did not know how to act in society.
Yes, like that imbecile Brown broad of CNN who called an extremely rare instance of actual journalism in the US, quickly killed off, holding accountable warcriminals for their monstrous crimes, "cringeworthy." This because as a Western journalist she was being taught to value decorum over truth. "Anthony", because they call each other by their first names like they're all buddies exchanging pleasantries, called this type of slavish obedience expected of these despicable cowards 'respecting the process'. Because it is more important to respect this "process" than it is to ask tough questions about US active participation in an ongoing genocide. It is this "respecting the process" after all that is paying their salaries, not their duty to the public as an actual journalist would have. And so yes, being corrupt is how to flourish in a corrupted system.
Zionists control US media, lock, stock & barrel.
Prove it-
Every major media source in the US is heavily biased towards Israel and staff expression of support for Palestine is met with loss of employment
Cultural institutions in the US have become sites of censorship and oppression towards any expression of sympathy towards Palestinians.
Zionist domination of politics, government, media and culture is destroying freedom in America!
Saying "prove it" only displays PROFOUND ignorance over a subject ANY "reporter" should know by now! Those who you can't criticize are those in power.
Here’s another example:
The New York Times deleted a video of violence in Amsterdam it published once it realized that the perpetrators were Israelis and not an anti-Semitic mob. The Times had falsely claimed that the video showed Israeli football fans being attacked while in the Netherlands to support their team. What the video actually showed was a group of Israelis chasing and attacking locals.
Instead of changing their story and highlighting the bad behavior of the Israelis, the Paper of Record decided to delete the video. Why was it newsworthy when Dutch fans attacked Israelis but not when Israelis attacked Dutch people? The short answer is that the story no longer fits the long-running narrative of a new wave of anti-Semitic violence surging across the West. Therefore, it was dropped entirely.
THen there’s the BBC.
Raffi Berg, an Englishman who heads the BBC’s Middle East desk, formerly worked for the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a unit that, by his own admission, was a CIA front group.
Berg is currently the subject of considerable scrutiny after thirteen BBC employees spoke out, claiming, among other things, that his “entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel” and that he holds “wild” amounts of power at the British state broadcaster, that there exists a culture of “extreme fear” at the BBC about publishing anything critical of Israel, and that Berg himself plays a key role in turning its coverage into “systematic Israeli propaganda….
The CIA, however, is not the only clandestine spy organization with which Berg has a long history of collaborating. He also has a rich professional relationship with Mossad, Israel’s premier intelligence agency.
In 2020, for instance, Berg published “Red Sea Spies: The True Story of Mossad’s Fake Diving Resort,” a book that tells the story of the Israeli operation to clandestinely smuggle Ethiopian Jews into Israel. That the 320-page account lionizes Israel and its spies is perhaps unsurprising, considering how much input Mossad had in its creation. Berg said that he wrote the book “in collaboration” with Mossad commander Dani Limor, whom he relied on extensively, as he, in his own words, knew “next to nothing” about the story and its background before writing it. Limor opened numerous doors and was able to secure “over 100 hours of interviews” with Israeli military and intelligence officials, including with the head of Mossad.
Limor and Berg became extremely close friends. In 2020, he posted a picture of himself with his arm around the ex-Mossad commander. The first page of “Red Sea Spies” is simply a glowing recommendation from Efraim Halevy, former director of Mossad, a group Berg describes as “the world’s greatest intelligence service.”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/bbc-israel-coverage-raffi-berg-cia-mossad-links/288909/
Fight the Zionist stranglehold on Western media!
You sound stupid and confused if you think they looked stupid and confused. And of course, if they knew how to "act in society", they'd be little brown nose kiss asses like yourself who thinks dropping 80,000 tons of bombs on a largely civilian population is something that society should accept.
You are stupid and confused, but worse than that your an evil supporter of war criminals.
All Hamas supporters are war criminals. All colleges that allow anybody to be threatened with violence, especially because of ethnicity,should loose all grants and student loan privileges.
Did you strap your jackboots on before you wrote that comment, Jake?
"All Hamas supporters are war criminals."
Does that include Bibi? He funneled millions to Hamas.
"All colleges that allow anybody to be threatened with violence, especially because of ethnicity, should loose all grants and student loan privileges."
By far the most violence at any demonstration occurred when a gang of over 200 Zionists attacked the peace camp at UCLA in May, with clubs, fireworks, kicks and punches.
OTOH, there is no evidence of any attack by a pro-Palestine protester on anyone and no evidence of threats towards anyone by Palestine supporters at at any protests.
Zionist oligarchs in America have conspired to assault free speech, press and assembly in the US. They even had their own instagram account and they conspired with the mayor of NY to arrange the violent police supression of campus protest in the city..
99.9% of the violence was committed by police acting to protect the reputation and funding of a foreign nation.
You're right jake on one point- anyone with the decency to stand up AGAINST genocide IS a "criminal" in the eyes of the war criminals! You're just too cowardly to tell it like it is!
Only in a shitty, corrupt society would people politely stand by and go through the theatrics of pretending we’re living in a sane world as the government that purports to be the bastion of democracy shuts down anyone who dares oppose its unequivocal support of a genocide.
LOL.
Jerk? That's the pot calling the kettle black.
Blinken is a blood soaked Zionist war criminal.
Husseini is heroic.
The US government is a pack of Zionist owned thugs.
Define Zionist!
“Zionist” A person who has no soul trying to obtain the world by any means!
Zionism: A racist settler colonialist political movement that stole Palestine from the people living there.
Zionist: Anyone who supports Zionism.
Zionism-a national liberation movement for oppressed Jewish people.
Sure — in the same way and to the same exten that Nazism was a national liberation movement for oppressed “Aryan” people.
Israel “liberated” a homeland from the nation of people already living there
YOUR EVIL MIND MAY SOON PRECIPITATE YOUR DEMISE…. Gotta love seeing these genocide condonerz up on their high horse blathering indifference to the slaughter of women & children!!!! Makes me wonder how they got so corrupted. Killing innocent women & children is probably the lowest most despicable behavior known to man to man!!!!!!!!! Can anyone think of anything lower & more venal ??????????
Oh? Just like YOU are a "jerk" on this comment section?
Husseini was never called on, because he asked real questions and didn’t play along.
I challenge everyone to bring out a full Blinken Exposé with all the warts of Epstein and the Mossad to the msm.
Notice the difference in the treatment Husseini got from Blumenthal.
Sam Husseini @samhusseini
13h
No major US news organization has reached out to me.
I suspect they are desperate that the public not look at how murderous US gov policy is or think about what journalism should be.
GCB ~ @GCB79741306
20h
Replying to @samhusseini @JordanUhl
Has any news organization reached out to you yet Sam?
This is now part of the historical record. The US government killing freedom of press right in front of the camera. Intimidating, manhandling and silencing actual, real journalists in front of a room full of utterly despicable cowardly groveling pissants cosplaying one, shamelessly illustrating the state of journalism in the US with pristine accuracy. With all their collective might they cannot confabulate a narrative that makes this ugly truth go away.
Nonsense. These guys were rude and ignorant. They were out of line and refused to follow the rules of the meetings. Not only were they kicked out of the meeting, but Husseini should be charged with trespassing for failing to leave when he was asked to leave.
I don't know if you expect me to act surprised when someone who has spent inordinate amounts of time and effort advocating and cheering on genocide and the targeted slaughter of journalists for well over a year now would want to arrest and imprison journalists for doing their jobs.
I'm really not though. And you can't make me more disgusted with you than I already am either.
Ignorant? that's bullshit Timmy. Both reporters are extremely knowledgeable regarding Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza.
" Husseini should be charged with trespassing for failing to leave when he was asked to leave."
Your authoritarian Zionist desire to censor critics of Israel is showing, pig.
Tim Burns has a petty mind and a vindictive soul. Is this the America we want. One that condones GENOCIDE, even worse sends the planes & BOMBS to kill the people of the holy land.. ?!?!?!
It's always one-sided…! The Journalists get kicked out…! It's time for the speakers get kicked out too…!