Israel Jails American Journalist for Reporting on Iranian Missile Strikes
Jeremy Loffredo, an American reporter for The Grayzone, is facing ISRAELI criminal charges for his journalism in Israel.
“Today I was beaten, kidnapped, blindfolded and taken to a military base by the Israeli Occupation Forces, together with 4 other journalists,” the journalist, Andrey X, wrote on X. “Two of us were held for 11 hours without charges, my phone was confiscated (stolen), and one of us is still in custody.”
Ron Harold: “Here’s the back story: Israel is SCARED SHITLESS that the world is going find out through some journalist like Jeremy, that Iran did in fact penetrate ALL Israeli anti-missile defenses BIG TIME. What Iran did was, prove to Israel that Iran can easily overwhelm and overcome ALL Israeli anti-missile batteries with Iran’s new, advanced hypersonic missiles.
In other words, Iran gave Israel a taste of what Iran could do to Israel at will with Iran’s current missile capabilities. Israel has been trying to hide from the world the fact that Iran did indeed strike Israeli military targets at will, easily penetrating all Israeli defenses.
I have written for years that the issue of whether or not Iran has nuclear weapons is virtually a moot point, due to Iran’s absolute ability to flatten Israel within hours, by firing thousands of conventional missiles per hour, destroying and eliminating Israel’s anti-missile defense systems, leaving Israel completely open and vulnerable to additional waves of Iranian missiles.
For example, Israel now knows for certain that Iran can indeed destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv as they stand today - Iran has so many missiles Iran could literally fire thousands of missiles AT THE IRON DOME, DAVID’S SLING AND ISRAEL’S ARROW SYSTEMS DESTROYING ALL OF ISRAEL’S ANTI-MISSILE SYSTEM WITHIN A SINGLE HOUR, leaving Israel 100% vulnerable to additional waves of Iranian missiles, as Iran can fire thousands of missiles per hour for hours and hours in one day.
On balance, Iran’s last missile attack was absolutely effective in proving to Israel they are literally defenseless once Iran targets, hits and destroys Israeli anti-missile systems within a single hour. Finally, Iran proved to Israel if you send F-35 jets to go bomb Iran, those Israeli pilots won’t have any airbase runways to return to and land on. In fact, there’s been discussion as to other landing options for Israeli pilots, such as landing on U.S. aircraft carriers.
THAT’S WHY ISRAEL ARRESTED THIS AMERICAN JOURNALIST REPORTING THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER.”
Jeremy Loffredo, an American journalist for The Grayzone, has been arrested by the Israeli military for his reporting inside Israel.
Loffredo was jailed just a few days after releasing a report on Iranian missile strikes in Israel, information the Israeli military has been trying to censor. According to the Israeli news site Ynet, because of the report, Loffredo faces charges of “aiding the enemy during wartime and providing information to the enemy.”
Representatives from the US embassy attended a hearing on a police request to extend Loffredo’s detention, but so far, the US government has been silent and has not publicly called for his release.
“Israel is detaining and prosecuting an American journalist for doing journalism. Will his media colleagues defend him?” Aaron Maté, a journalist for The Grayzone, wrote on X.
An independent journalist who was arrested alongside Loffredo but has since been released said they were beaten and blindfolded by the Israeli military.
“Today I was beaten, kidnapped, blindfolded and taken to a military base by the Israeli Occupation Forces, together with 4 other journalists,” the journalist, Andrey X, wrote on X. “Two of us were held for 11 hours without charges, my phone was confiscated (stolen), and one of us is still in custody.”
British journalist Kit Klarenberg, a contributor to The Grayzone, is asking people to contact the US embassy in Israel (JerusalemACS@state.gov) and urge pressure on the Israeli government to release Loffredo.
here’s what Caitlin Johnstone wrote about this:
Israeli news outlet Ynet reports that the charges against Loffredo “include aiding the enemy during wartime and providing information to the enemy,” which, as his fellow Grayzone reporter Kit Klarenberg notes, can be punished by the death penalty in Israel.
The Grayzone has further clarified in a statement that officially Israeli police are holding the reporter “on suspicion of serious security offenses for publicly publishing… 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.”
Loffredo’s report on the missile strikes features footage of explosions at the IDF’s Nevatim Airbase, as well as shots of the location where a missile landed near the headquarters of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Imagine if an Iranian missile landed right next to the CIA headquarters and the US said was forbidden on pain of death to report anything about this major news story, even for foreign journalists.
Interestingly, these same things have been reported on by other foreign news outlets without any arrests being made. As journalist Dan Cohen noted on Twitter, a report from Nick Schifrin of PBS News also featured footage of the blast site near Mossad headquarters, but Schifrin has not been arrested. Perhaps Loffredo is being singled out more because The Grayzone has been reporting on Israel’s lies and criminality than because of his work in this specific instance.
As of this writing, Loffredo is still jailed.
