The arrest of the Wall Street Journal’s Russia-based correspondent for allegedly engaging in espionage solidifies the West’s view that Putin is a totalitarian monster, but also exposes the West’s shameless hypocrisy. This was a stupid move by the Russians (I will explain in a bit) but the reaction of Western politicians and media types exposes the grotesque double standard that has become the operating procedure in Washington and London.
Let me state my view on the First Amendment and the rights of journalists. No journalist should ever be arrested and prosecuted for trying to obtain or publish classified information. NONE!! One of the keys to freedom is that a government should never be able to hide behind the claim that something is “classified” and that the people that government supposedly represents are not entitled to that information. Daniel Ellsberg’s leak of the Pentagon Papers involved reporters handling and publishing classified information. Does anyone reading this piece want to argue those damning documents should have remained hidden?
I can think of several scenarios other where classified information should be or has been put in the hands of journalists. Sy Hersh received classified information from sources in the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community in 2014 alerting him to the fact that the Obama Administration lied about the provenance of an alleged nerve gas attack in Syria in August 2013. The Obama folks claimed it was the Syrian Government. That was a lie; the act was carried out by Islamic radicals with ties to British Intelligence, among others.
What happens if an analyst or contractor in the intelligence community discovers that the President has authorized illegal spying on American citizens? Is that worth the public knowing. Absolutely. Just ask Edward Snowden.
The very folks in Washington, DC vilifying Russia for arresting a journalist just trying to do his job in Moscow are the same degenerates demanding that Julian Assange be sent to America, tried for treason and punished with a life time in prison.
I will make this simple. What Moscow is doing to Evan Gershkovich is the same thing that London and Washington are doing to Julian Assange. Both Russia and the West are guilty of egregious conduct with respect to investigative journalists.
I think the FSB made a stupid mistake in arresting Gershkovich because it feeds the Western narrative that Putin is an authoritarian and eager to recreate the horrors of the former Soviet Union. Putin and his team need to understand that the West, especially the media, have no clue about the prowess of Russia’s defense industry. It would actually work to Russia’s favor if all reporters were given access to the defense plants so that they could accurately report on Russia’s ability to produce tanks, artillery, artillery shells, cruise missiles, and armored vehicles.
The U.S. Intelligence Community certainly is not providing an accurate picture of Russian military manufacturing capabilities. Getting a cold shower of reality from Western press reporting from Moscow might force the Washington decision makers to throw away their Ukrainian fantasies and come to grips with the fact that Russia can out produce the United States and NATO countries combined. That could be a real wake up call for the war party in Washington, D.C.
Let me suggest another possibility regarding the arrest of Mr. Gershkovich — he was used, unwittingly, to bait the Russians in hopes that the Russians would shoot themselves in the foot. They took the bait and blew a big hole in their boots.
If I was Putin, I would order the immediate release of Gershkovich and then have Medvedev give him a personal tour of the tank factory. That would shut up the mob in Washington. As long as Julian Assange remains incarcerated and facing charges of treason, the West has no moral standing to lecture Russia on how to deal with reporters “suspected” of espionage.
By the way, a retired CIA officer who served overseas reminded me of this:
The agency can’t use American journalists for anything, by law. The use of any American in the private sector requires the personal approval of the CEO of the company, in this case the CEO of WSJ; and DCIA’s approval. On the common sense side of things, only a nitwit would use an American to collect inside Russia or any other denied area.
By Via https://sonar21.com/evan-gershkovich-meet-mr-julian-assange/