American Journalist Arrested After Reporting Censored News in Israel
Yesterday, American journalist Jeremy Loffredo was arrested in Israel two days after publishing an
investigative report verifying that Iranian missiles struck near an Israeli Air Force base and less than 1,000 feet from Mossad (Israeli CIA) headquarters.
LOFFREDO: “Iran fired over 200 ballistic missiles in retaliation for the assassinations of Lebanese and Iranian political and military leadership. Since the missile strikes, Israeli authorities have attempted to downplay the significance of the attacks, censor the locations of missile impacts from media publication, and claim that Iran was targeting Israeli civilians.”
The location of Mossad headquarters is no secret but Israel seeks to keep missile impact locations hidden and bans the publication of such information. Times of Israel reports, “The exact locations of such impacts and damage are barred from publication by the IDF censor.” Loffredo’s report states Israel’s intention is “to downplay the significance of the attacks…and claim that Iran was targeting Israeli civilians.”
Two days before his arrest, Loffredo wrote that he pursued the story “despite the Israeli military censor’s official ban on publishing the locations”.
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LOFFREDO: “While on the ground in Israel, I was able to track down the impact sites of Iranian missiles on key Israeli military and intelligence installations, including Nevatim Airbase and Mossad headquarters, despite the Israeli military censor’s official ban on publishing the locations.”
At the end of his last report, Loffredo documents details that suggest his phone was hacked. As Loffredo left the missile impact site near Mossad headquarters, his phone and his cab driver’s phone both lost GPS functionality, went blank, and then placed their geo-locations in another country. See this video.
LOFFREDO: “As we left the area, an unsettling incident occurred. Our cell phones lost GPS functionality, maps went blank, and then both devices, mine and my taxi drivers suddenly showed we were at Amman Airport in Jordan.”
Yesterday, independent journalist Andrey X reported he’d been “beaten, kidnapped, blindfolded”, “held for 11 hours without charges”, and had his phone “confiscated (stolen)” by Israeli forces. Andrey noted he was with 4 other journalists and “one of us is still in custody”. Today, The Grayzone editor, Max Blumenthal, reported that Loffredo was the journalist who remains in an Israeli jail.
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BLUMENTHAL: “I’ve just learned that @loffredojeremy was among the journalists arrested by the Israeli military and is still in jail. His phone has been confiscated. That is all I’m able to say for now.”
The retweet / re-post button on all of Loffredo’s posts is disabled and his posts are “protected”. I don’t know if this occurred before or after his phone was confiscated by Israeli forces.
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