According to this update from Kit Klarenberg, Jeremy Loffredo has been charged with aiding and abetting the enemy in Israel and could face either life imprisonment in Israel’s prison system – which is notoriously rife with torture and rape – or the death penalty.

YouTube link here.

Israel Charges American Journalist With ‘Aiding The Enemy’ For Reporting On Iranian Missile Strikes

By Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, 10/10/24

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The Israeli government arrested, detained, and charged American journalist Jeremy Loffredo with “aiding the enemy during wartime and providing information to the enemy.”

According to Israeli news site Ynet, Loffredo was arrested by security forces on “suspicion of endangering national security after reporting on where missiles landed in the attack launched by Iran earlier this month including in the [Israeli military’s] Nevatim Air Base and an intelligence base in central Israel.”

Loffredo appeared in an Israeli Magistrate’s Court on October 10 after being detained for nearly a day and a half. He was taken to an Israeli military base along with at least four other journalists, who were later released. 

Defense attorney Leah Tsemel, who is representing Loffredo, told Ynet, “He published the information openly and fully, without attempting to hide anything. If this information constitutes aiding the enemy, many other journalists in Israel, including Israeli reporters, should also be arrested.”

“A spy would not have acted so publicly and transparently,” Tsemel added. 

The Seventh Eye, which describes itself as “Israel’s only independent and investigative magazine devoted entirely to journalism, the media, freedom of speech and transparency,” reported that Israeli authorities informed the court that Loffredo was arrested for publicizing the location of where missiles landed. He allegedly intended to bring this information to the attention of “the enemy” (Iran) to assist them in future attacks. 

Judge Zion Sahrai said that Loffredo had published “confidential information” which was prohibited by the Israeli military censor. However, the court was presented with evidence that an article from Ynet reporter Liran Tamari was published on Loffredo’s detention with the Grayzone report from Loffredo embedded. 

The Israeli military censor allegedly approved the publication of a Ynet report with details of Loffredo’s arrest and the publications that resulted in his detention. That led Saharai to grant bail to Loffredo until the police appealed and claimed that Ynet had published the article before obtaining approval from the censor. 

Evidence that Nick Schifrin, a foreign affairs and military correspondent for PBS “NewsHour,” had traveled to the area nearby the Mossad headquarters like Loffredo was also presented.

“This is the impact site for one of those Iranian ballistic missiles, and if you see the size of this crater, that’s about 30 feet deep and maybe 50 feet wide. You can see all the debris around here, and to give you a sense of the target for these strikes, that white building back there about 1500 feet behind me is the headquarters of the spy agency, the Mossad.” 

Israeli radio news presenter Eran Cicurel responded to Schifrin after he posted his report. “I think you are breaking the Israeli censorship rules.”

On October 5, The Grayzone posted a video report from Loffredo on Iran’s strikes. He went to the area around the Nevatim air base and interviewed locals from a nearby Bedouin village. He later traveled to the area around the Mossad headquarters. His goal was to see for himself where Iranian missiles had landed. 

“The arrest of Jeremy Loffredo is deeply troubling. Israel, with its killing and arrest of journalists, anti-democratic military censorship and shuttering of news outlets, has made itself the gravest governmental threat to press freedom,” declared Chip Gibbons, policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent.

Gibbons contended the U.S. State Department must “use its unique leverage over Israel” to secure the release of Loffredo.

Emphasizing that the Israeli government is “among the world’s leading jailers of journalists,” the Freedom of the Press Foundation condemned the detention of Loffredo. It also said President Joe Biden’s administration must demand that Israeli officials explain why Loffredo was detained and charged.

“If the theory is that reporters illegally provide enemies with information whenever enemies read the news, that could criminalize a whole lot of journalism,” the press freedom organization further stated.

The Iranian military launched 200 ballistic missiles on October 1 that targeted Israeli military and intelligence sites. A number of the missiles hit Nevatim air base in the Negev Desert as well as an area near the headquarters for Mossad, Israel’s spy agency.

There is no doubt that the extent of the damage done by Iranian missiles was newsworthy. The Israeli military immediately claimed that no aircraft or critical infrastructure was harmed. 

The Telegraph, based in the U.K., published an article on October 3 under the headline, “Pictured: Israeli air base hit in Iranian missile strike.” 

“Nevatim is reported to be home to the Israeli Air Force’s most advanced aircraft, including US-produced F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets,” reported Paul Nuki, the media outlet’s global health security editor in Tel Aviv.

Nuki further noted, “The image shows serious damage to the roof of an aircraft hangar, with a hole torn through it. Another impact appears to have hit a road on the base.”

CNN, which is known to allow the Israeli military forces to censor their coverage, published a live update on October 1 under the headline, “The areas targeted in Iran’s missile strike on Israel.”

The update featured “CNN analysis of geolocated videos of the attack” that clearly stated that Iran’s military had targeted “the headquarters of Mossad, Nevatim Air Base and Tel Nof Air Base.” It mentioned videos that showed “at least two missiles falling near the Mossad HQ in Tel Aviv’s Glilot neighborhood, a densely populated area with a number of residential and commercial buildings.”

“In southern Israel’s Negev desert, videos show a significant number of Iranian rockets hitting the Nevatim base,” the update added. 

Another report from the Washington Post, “Iranian missiles hit Israeli military sites, visuals show,” featured satellite imagery that showed “what appears to be at least one destroyed building at Nevatim,” and “a large hole in the roof of an aircraft hangar and several impact craters.” 

Loffredo’s journalism did not “aid” Iran any more than CNN, the Telegraph, the Washington Post, or any other media organization did when they analyzed satellite images and video footage to confirm where Iranian missiles landed. (Or Schifrin who traveled to an impact site near the Mossad for PBS “NewsHour.”)

But the reason why Israeli authorities arrested and charged Loffredo instead of Schifrin—or any other American journalists who published sensitive information on Iran’s strikes—may have something to do with a disinformation or smear campaign that was previously attempted in June against The Grayzone.

A network of current and former officials and journalists in the U.S. and Israel falsely claimed—through a story later retracted by the Washington Post—that The Grayzone had received payments from Iranian state media. 

In 2023, the Russian government’s Federal Security Service accused Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of collecting “state secrets” about “Russia’s military-industrial complex” to further the U.S. government’s objectives in the war in Ukraine. He was reportedly investigating the Wagner paramilitary group and Russia charged him with espionage.

Israeli authorities charging Loffredo is no different, and in Gershkovich’s case, there was worldwide pressure on the Russian government to release him immediately. 

As Gibbons declared, “Press freedom cannot be based on selective solidarity. All journalists under attack by all governments deserve our unconditional support for their freedom.”