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AP Condemns Israeli Raid, Seizure of Broadcast Equipment

May 22, 2024

AP Condemns Israeli Raid, Seizure of Broadcast Equipment

Israeli authorities conducted a raid on the premises of The Associated Press, based in the southern town of Sderot, where they confiscated broadcasting equipment and a camera on Tuesday. Israeli officials justify their enforcement action, claiming infringements of the country’s recent ban on Al Jazeera, of which the AP is one among thousands of clients.

The Associated Press condemned the Israeli government’s decision emphatically, viewing it as a serious violation of their commitment to visual journalism. Lauren Easton, the Vice President of Corporate Communications at the AP lambasted the Israeli authorities stating, “The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to shut down our longstanding live feed showing a view into Gaza and seize AP equipment.” She further explained that the shutdown did not relate to the content of the feed but amounted to an ill-advised use of the country’s novel foreign broadcaster law by Israeli officials. Easton called for the returned equipment and the immediate reinstatement of their live feed.

Before the Israeli Communications Ministry officials made their way into the AP premises and confiscated the broadcasting paraphernalia, which was authorized by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, the feed exhibited a generic view of northern Gaza.

The seized live shot regularly portrayed smoke billowing over the territory.

Unheeding a verbal directive given last week to terminate the live transmission, the AP chose to continue its broadcasts. The seizure of the equipment came as a subsequent enforcement action.

Utilizing the novel law, Israeli officials had already forced the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network to shutter its offices, seized their equipment, and placed a ban on their broadcasts on the 5th of May.

Trump Mulls Pentagon Plan To Deploy 10,000 Troops To “Monitor Iran”

May 23, 2019

Trump Mulls Pentagon Plan To Deploy 10,000 Troops To “Monitor Iran”

The White House is set to mull a Pentagon plan for deployment of 10,000 new troops to the Middle East on Thursday following heightened tension with Iran, the AP reported Wednesday. 

It’s as yet unclear whether President Trump will sign off on the full number, but the White House is expected to send at least some of the requested forces, the report noted, citing anonymous defense official sources. 

According to the Associated Press report the plan calls for “defensive forces” to “monitor” the Iran threat:

Officials said the move is not in response to any new threat from Iran, but is aimed at reinforcing security in the region. They said the troops would be defensive forces, and the discussions include additional Patriot missile batteries, more ships and increased efforts to monitor Iran.

Though at the start of this week there appeared a calming of war rhetoric out of Washington, with the president signalling that Iran’s leaders should “call me,” the situation remains highly volatile and dangerous, considering a US carrier strike group is in the region along with B-52 bombers flying over and near the Persian Gulf, based out of Qatar. 

Iran military leaders also issued new threats earlier this week over their “full control” over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow vital oil shipping choke point in the Persian Gulf. 

The statements, according to Reuters, came as tensions reached their highest, but simultaneous to the Pentagon signalling there’s no plan to go to war:

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Wednesday that Guards and regular Iranian military forces had complete control of Gulf waters north of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

 …click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Associated Press Associates Itself With War

October 26, 2017

Associated Press Associates Itself With War

Robert Burns and Matthew Pennington of the Associated Press tell us:

“U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is visiting the Korean Peninsula at a momentous juncture in the faltering effort to persuade Pyongyang to halt and dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Ominous questions hang in the air.”

Why momentous? North Korea has in the past been successfully so persuaded. And it’s subsequently been antagonized and threatened until it recommenced. This has gone on for decades, while it’s been 64 years since a peace treaty should have been signed that never has been. It’s been 14 years since North Korea resumed building nukes. It’s been ten grueling months of Trump’s regime during which nasty comments and threats have been passed back and forth across the Pacific schoolyard. What makes this moment momentous? Stay tuned. AP will explain.

“Is diplomacy failing? Is war approaching?”

Is the wind blowing? Are you kidding? Are diplomacy and war external forces that impose themselves on humanity? North Korea has been very clear and reasonable in its demands, even while screaming its threats and defiance. If the United States will stop moving missiles and planes and ships close to a country it once destroyed, and stop threatening to destroy it again, North Korea will discuss doing what Iraq and Libya did before they were attacked: disarming. The question is not “Is war approaching?” “Ominously!” The question is: will Trump and his subordinates continue to refuse to negotiate? Will they insist on war?

“Mattis’ second trip as Pentagon boss to Seoul will take place Friday, following his consultations with Asian partners on a unified approach to resolve the North Korea crisis. In the Philippines, his Japanese counterpart spoke darkly of an ‘unprecedented, critical and imminent’ threat posed by the North’s repeated demonstrations of its ability to launch an intercontinental-range missile, potentially armed with a nuclear warhead.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Syria Denies Plans For A Chemical Attack As Russia Accuses US Of “Provocation”

June 27, 2017

Syria Denies Plans For A Chemical Attack As Russia Accuses US Of “Provocation” 

The Syrian government dismissed the White House’s unsubstantiated, and bizarrely ominous late Monday night allegations that it was preparing a new chemical weapons attack. According to AP, Ali Haidar, the Syrian minister for national reconciliation, dismissed the White House’s warning and said it foreshadowed a diplomatic campaign against Syria at the U.N., according to the AP. Or maybe military campaign.

The Kremlin also dismissed the White House statement, which had warned that Assad and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it goes ahead with the attack. Russian  President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “such threats to Syria’s legitimate leaders are unacceptable.” As a reminder, Russia sided with Assad when he denied responsibility for a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Idlib province on April 4. Days later, President Donald Trump ordered a retaliatory cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.

Peskov also criticized the Trump administration for using the phrase “another chemical weapons attack,” arguing that an independent investigation into the April attack was never conducted despite Russia’s calls for one. The US has so far not explained why it is against an impartial third party determining all the facts.

A senior Russian lawmaker dismissed the U.S. warning as “provocation.” Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, accused the United States of “preparing a new attack on the positions of Syrian forces.” The U.S. strike in April was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming president. Trump said at the time that the chemical attack crossed “many, many lines,” and called on “all civilized nations” to join the U.S. in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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