Journalists Targeted For Drone Strikes

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On The Ground News founder Bilal Abdul Kareem and Al Jazeera correspondent Ahmad Zaidan are suing the U.S. government over having been placed on a kill list for drone strikes.

Kareem is a freelance journalist and U.S. citizen who conducts interviews with combatants in the Syrian War. Zaidan is the former Al Jazeera bureau chief in Pakistan, who famously interviewed Osama bin Laden.

Kareem spoke to his news agency, “I’ve received information as recently as just a few days ago by very well connected people in Turkey who don’t believe that journalism is a crime, that my name has reached the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey for assassination.  I was warned to be careful as much as possible.” Incirlik is the center for launching drone strikes in Syria.

Being Libertarian has relied on Kareem’s on the ground journalism in the past. He has traveled to the heart of the Syrian conflict to report on the most brutal aspects of the conflict. His journalistic efforts haven’t been well-received by everyone, however.

In June 2016 he was targeted for a drone strike assassination four times. Drone strikes hit his location in Idlib City, Hariyataan (near Aleppo), Khantounam, and again in Idlib City. In August of last year a drone strike hit his location in Kulliyatul Midfaiyyah.

Having been targeted for his association of enemy combatants Kareem had the following comment, “Being a journalist in a war zone brings you in contact with all sorts of people.  Some you like and some you don’t.  However, a journalist’s likes and dislikes are irrelevant.  People have a right to hear the views of major players in Syria even if it ruffles the feathers of some. I am committed to those principals.”

News source: On The Ground News and Middle East Eye
Photo credit: www.bilalabdulkareem.com

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Brandon Kirby

Brandon Kirby has a philosophy degree from the University of New Brunswick and is a current MBA candidate finishing his thesis. He is an AML officer specializing in hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, owns a real estate company in Canada, and has been in the financial industry since 2004. He is the director of Being Libertarian - Canada and the president of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

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