Journalist: Newsweek Suppressed OPCW Scandal And Threatened Me With Legal Action

A Newsweek journalist has resigned after the publication reportedly suppressed his story about the ever-growing OPCW scandal, the revelation of immensely significant plot holes in the establishment Syria narrative, reports Caitlin Johnstone.

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

“Yesterday I resigned from Newsweek after my attempts to publish newsworthy revelations about the leaked OPCW letter were refused for no valid reason,” journalist Tareq Haddad reported Sunday via Twitter.

“I have collected evidence of how they suppressed the story in addition to evidence from another case where info inconvenient to U.S. government was removed, though it was factually correct,” Haddad said. “I plan on publishing these details in full shortly. However, after asking my editors for comment, as is journalistic practice, I received an email reminding me of confidentiality clauses in my contract. I.e. I was threatened with legal action.”

Haddad added that he is now seeking legal advice and looking into the possibility of whistleblower protections for himself, and said at the very least he will publish the information he has while omitting anything that could subject him to legal retaliation from his former employer.

“I could have kept silent and kept my job, but I would not have been able to continue with a clean conscience,” Haddad said. “I will have some instability now but the truth is more important.”

This is the first direct insider report we’re getting on the mass media’s conspiracy of silence on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons scandal [of covering up evidence that there was no chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria] that I wrote about just the other day. In how many other newsrooms is this exact same sort of suppression happening, including threats of legal action, to journalists who don’t have the courage or ability to leave and speak out? There is no logical reason to assume that Haddad is the only one encountering such roadblocks from mass media editors; he’s just the only one going public about it.

Newsweek has long been a reliable guard dog and attack dog for the US-centralized empire, with examples of stories that its editors did permit to go to print including an article by an actual, current military intelligence officerexplaining why U.S. prosecution of Julian Assange is a good thing, fawning puff pieces on the White Helmets, and despicable smear jobs on Tulsi Gabbard.

The outlet will occasionally print oppositional-looking articles like this one by Ian Wilkie questioning the establishment Syria narrative, but not without immediately turning around and publishing an attack on Wilkie’s piece by Eliot Higgins, a former Atlantic Council Senior Fellow who is the cofounder of the NED-funded imperial narrative management firm Bellingcat. Newsweek also recently published an article attacking Tucker Carlson for publicizing the OPCW scandal, basing its criticisms on a bogus Bellingcat article I debunked shortly after its publication.

The ubiquitous propagandistic tactic of fake news by omission distorts the public’s worldview just as much as it would if mass media outlets were publishing bogus stories out of whole cloth every day, only if they were doing that it would be much easier to pin them down on their lies, hold them accountable, and discredit them.

recent FAIR article by Alan MacLeod documents how the Hong Kong demonstrations are pushed front and center in mainstream consciousness despite the fact that to this day not one protester has been killed by security forces, while far more deadly violence is being directed at huge protests in empire-aligned nations like Haiti, Chile and Ecuador which have been almost completely ignored by these same outlets.

This deliberate omission causes a distorted worldview in casual and mainstream news media consumers in which protests are only happening in nations that are outside the U.S.-centralized power alliance. We see the same kind of deliberate distortion-by-omission with the way mass media continually pushes the narrative that Donald Trump is “soft on Russia”, while remaining completely silent on the overwhelming mountain of evidence to the contrary.

The time is now for everyone with a platform to start banging the drum about the OPCW scandal, because we’re seeing more and more signs that the deluge of leaks hemorrhaging from that organization is only going to increase. Mainstream propagandists aren’t going to cover it, so if larger alternative media outlets want to avoid being lumped in with them and discredited in the same sweep it would be wise to start talking about this thing today.

It’s only going to get more and more awkward for everyone who chose to remain silent, and more and more validating for those who spoke out.

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.” 

This article was re-published with permission.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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13 comments for “Journalist: Newsweek Suppressed OPCW Scandal And Threatened Me With Legal Action

  1. Hide Behind
    December 11, 2019 at 10:22

    The censorship within US while seemingly soft, as we can still access via internet and small publishing houses voices of dissent it is becoming less so almost daily.
    Yet even on Internet it takes dissatisfied voices from those who were once part of the censorship management before info is published.
    The access to data upon government, politics, Intelligence, finance and military by the public is becoming harder and harder and more costly to obtain.
    It is also costly to once data is obtained to get it out into public domain, and the size of interested parties grows smaller.
    What is not the least surprising is that such data has no power after its release to bring changes, while they who control what, when and where data can be either disseminated and controlled grow evermore powerful.
    The internet’s once promising freedom of information flow is largely under government and Corporate control and venues like those upon twitter, Facebook, Google, You Tube, every visual and audio medium whether news , entertainment of TV and Movies are part of governments not just censorship but socio- economic reprogramming.
    Data by itself is useless, it needs acting upon to be of any worth, except to those whose pay depends upon releasing the expose.
    A revolution is an expansion of ideas and ideals and no revolution has come about without someone getting teeth kicked in, and losing a job is not exactly suffering for a cause.

  2. Gall
    December 10, 2019 at 21:25

    I never read the Mockingbird media these days. I think the only thing that supports their lies and distortions is their advertisers and the CIA. If they had to rely on subscriptions they’d be toast. Funny how the capitalistas go on about free markets and their god given “right” to rape and pillage the planet for fun and profit yet ignore the fact that if the principles of the holy free market were applied to Mainstream News outlets they would be dead as dinosaurs.

  3. Janet Masleid
    December 10, 2019 at 06:18

    The rest of the world knows what’s going on. Americans are kept fat and happy and ridiculously uninformed. They actually pay people to lie to them.

    Great article Caity. Thank you.

  4. Mike from Jersey
    December 8, 2019 at 14:28

    I would love to see a copy of that non-disclosure agreement. I would love to see if it protects Newsweek’s legitimate interests or is designed to allow them to become censors.

    • Kratoklastes
      December 10, 2019 at 17:17

      It almost doesn’t matter what the NDA says: if Newsweek decides to retaliate, the legal costs to Haddad would ruin him financially.

      My sympathy for the guy is limited. Taking a job at Newsweek is like taking a job at the NSA, or at an abbattoir or a chicken processing plant: you know what you’re getting involved in.

      inb4: but people need jobs! He might have student loans!

      The logical consequence of that argument is that working at a concentration camp is OK.

  5. December 8, 2019 at 11:50

    “A recent FAIR article by Alan MacLeod documents how the Hong Kong demonstrations are pushed front and center in mainstream consciousness despite the fact that to this day not one protester has been killed by security forces, while far more deadly violence is being directed at huge protests in empire-aligned nations like Haiti, Chile and Ecuador which have been almost completely ignored by these same outlets.”

    Exactly what it means still to control the mainline news outlets.

    And exactly what it means to have a genuine propaganda effect without telling any direct lies.

    It’s the same underlying psychology at work as with heavy advertising, which always does have a sales effect.

  6. Jeff Harrison
    December 8, 2019 at 10:58

    Surprised? I’m not. Corporate media doesn’t actually have journalists.

    • Nathan Mulcahy
      December 8, 2019 at 17:10

      You are right. Corporate media employ presstitutes, not journalists.

  7. Bob Van Noy
    December 8, 2019 at 09:12

    ny thanks Caitlin Johnstone, one thing is for sure because of Robert Parry’s commitment to Journalism and recently Joe Lauria’s guidance, you’re going to get Real News here…

    • Bob Van Noy
      December 8, 2019 at 09:13

      Many thanks

  8. Dave LaRose
    December 8, 2019 at 08:28

    Caitlin, Thanks for your great article here and for your your work in keeping us informed. Our third President, Mr. Jefferson, would be proud of your chutzpa. To Freedom!

  9. Eugenie Basile
    December 8, 2019 at 06:27

    The Intel community has been rather successful the past 70 years in taking control of the MSM and I’m afraid a few whistleblowers are not enough to turn that around. MSM is lost forever.
    This story reminds me of the German journalist and author Udo Ulffkotte, who decided in the last years of his life to tell the truth, admitting he had been himself one of those ‘gekaufte journalisten’. German MSM and establishment then started a campaign to demonise him as a neoNazi, a racist, an agent of Russia and he had a hard time finding a publisher and distribution channel of his books. The 150 journalists in Germany he called out as working in concert with or being influenced by the German, British or U.S. intelligence services never dared to attack him in court as to not giving him an official audience.
    I wish Tareq Haddad the best of luck and admire him for the courage he displays putting his carreer, his personal life and his future at risk for the Truth.

    • December 10, 2019 at 08:09

      Ramsey Clark ring a bell anyone? How about Scott Ritter? William Binney? When not attacked directly truth tellers are pushed to the margins and have no mainstream voice.

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