This
seems to illustrate the nature of political power – ANY political
power – in this age of decline and collapse of empire.
Rand
Paul uses new friends to terrorize Indy Media
When
US Sen. Rand Paul switched sides in America’s fight for liberty and
justice, he was accused of selling out America’s patriotic
grassroots movement by endorsing the elite establishment’s Mitt
Romney.
7
August, 2012
Confirming
his new loyalties, the former libertarian is now using federal
authorities and the shadow government to threaten and intimidate the
few indy media journalists trying to expose the truth – a cause
Paul used to support.
Media
Roots and We Are Change
The
series of threatening incidents began harmlessly enough – with two
reputable, credentialed, independent media reporters asking US
Senator Rand Paul a couple questions as he walked the Capital grounds
and then down a public street.
Luke
Rudkowski, founder of We Are Change, was fairly blunt with his
question. “Please Senator Paul, my name is Luke of We Are Change,”
Rudkowski told Sen. Paul as they walked down the busy public street,
“We had an interesting conversation before about the Bilderberg
Group. And knowing what you know, how can you support Mitt Romney
when the Guardian reported that he was at the Bilderberg meeting?”
Senator
Rand Paul (R-KY) ignored the reporter and the question and continued
walking with no response.
AbbyMartin, the popular and talented reporter and anchor from RT America,
isn’t just an indy media icon and founder of Media Roots. She’s
also a respected and credentialed journalist for an international
news outlet. As Senator Paul walked the halls of Congress with
members of his staff and a small contingent of other reporters, Abby
Martin trailed behind, asking her question to the former rising star
of the liberty movement.
“Hey
Rand. Abby Martin from Media Roots. I just wanted to ask one quick
question,” she began her brief questioning of Sen. Rand Paul, “Your
endorsement of Mitt Romney, people have a lot of questions about it?”
That was as far as she got. No reply, acknowledgment or response from
the darling of the Tea Party movement.
Empire
Strikes Back
Luke
Rudkowski and We Are Change are small potatoes and a mere pesky thorn
in the establishment’s side compared to the lovely and popular Abby
Martin. With her outlet at RT America, she has the potential to do
some serious damage to Rand Paul and his new partners in the global
corporate media. Between the two indy media journalists, Martin would
be their target.
Explaining
what happened to next, Martin says, “The next week, I went into the
studios, went into RT America. My boss said, ‘Come in to our
office. We need to talk to you.’” Once inside the main office at
RT, Abby was asked a series of mysterious questions.
Martin
described the exchange that took place behind closed doors, “They
just said, ‘What did you do last week and why are we getting
threatening phone calls from the Capital Police, and also the Senate
Media Relations Committee at the Capital building?’” Abby Martin
went on to quote her answer, “I just told them exactly what
happened. I showed them the video. I said that it was totally
unaffiliated with RT America.”
Martin’s
bosses at RT went on to tell her their account of the suddenly
strange situation. As paraphrased by Martin, “They said this guy
was calling them saying they were going to send the Capital Police
down there to arrest me, threatening to strip not only me of my press
credentials, but everyone at the station of their press credentials.”
America’s
free press feels the heat
When
asked who was behind the threatening phone calls, apparently coming
from within the government and targeted upon members of the press,
Abby Martin explained.
“They
originated from the Senate Media Relations Committee,” Martin
admitted. Speaking of the intimidating Committee senior staffer, she
goes on to say, “He was calling to threaten me, on behalf of him,
coming directly from the Senator. This was confirmed to me later.”
Explaining
what followed, RT and Media Roots’ Abby Martin recounts, “After
that, I actually had to go meet with them in the Capital building,
and it was really an intense and intimidating experience.”
Recalling her traumatic experience, Martin continues, “So, I had to
go to the Capital building and meet with this guy, in a small room,
like an interrogation room. And it wasn’t just him. It was the
bureau chief of Al Jazeera, the bureau chief of CNN, Fox News, MSNBC.
All these bureau chiefs had sat at a table and just basically
confronted me about what had happened and wanted to get my side of
the story.”
Abby
Martin goes on to detail her experience saying, “They said, ‘Did
you sneak Luke in, like how did you get in there?’. And I was just
like, no, we were registered, independent press. All we did was go
through the metal detector and go in the Capital building.”
Giving
a glimpse of the lax security at our nation’s Capital, Martin
describes how she walked right into a media event featuring US
Senator Rand Paul. “No one even checked. It was so lax,” she
describes with an incredulous tone, “We walked in there. We even
told the woman at the front desk ‘We’re here for this press
event, down the way’, and she was just like, ‘go ahead’.”
Confirming
Martin’s account is Luke Rudkowski of Media Change, who also
happened to be attending Senator Paul’s media event. He describes
his experience saying, “We were registered for an event inside the
Senate building. Nobody sneaked in. We walked in through security. We
were walking towards the event. We saw Rand Paul and we asked him a
question. There’s no other way to go around it.”
The
lesson
Regrouping
for moral support, and to relay the story to other independent media
outlets, Rudkowski describes Martin’s situation since the incident.
“These people came at you with full litigious might, verbal and
email jujitsu, tried to scare you and intimidate you, for simply
asking the question.”
What
was that dangerous question again – “Your endorsement of Mitt
Romney, people have a lot of questions about it?”
Looking
back on their experience, Rudkowski asks Martin, “It must have been
a very scary feeling?” Abby Martin confirms explaining, “It was
very scary, very, very scary. I was in contact with you the whole
time saying, what should I do? Should I come out with a story? This
story’s huge. I mean, Rand Paul is trying to get me stripped of my
press credentials for what happened. I mean, that is insane.”
We
Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski jumps in to continue the list of
threats made to Martin including, “and fired or arrested, for
simply asking him a question.”
Martin
concludes her recollection in the video released this weekend by
reminding the rest of us in the independent media and grassroots
political movements of what we’re fighting for, and what we’re up
against.
“As
we know now, there was no charge that they could really do. It was
totally baseless. It was completely empty threats, very underhanded,
intimidation tactics against journalism,” Martin finishes, “You
know, DC is just really scary like that. I just had no idea that that
would happen for what we did.”
Speaking
of Rand Paul, Abby Martin has some choice words that many in the
independent media community are now echoing, “Just the fact that we
asked him something he didn’t like, he ran away like a coward, with
his head down…It was just really, really, intense, really scary,
intimidating, and you know, at this point, I’m just going to come
out with a story. Because I think people need to know, who still
think that Rand Paul is somehow, you know, has to make deals for him
to play the long game so he can do good things later. No. I mean,
he’s sold out. He’s a sell-out to the Republican establishment
and he’s underhandedly trying to intimidate journalists who try to
confront him about his selling out.”
Posts
