Don't Sell @Villagecrazylady Short

Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar, a retired US Army Green Beret who had taken a position as a subcontractor with UG Solutions, a private security company for aid distribution sites managed by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has publicly reported observations of alleged war crimes committed by the IDF. Ultimately, exposing GHF’s complicity with war crimes and the starving of Gazans created a backlash he had to have anticipated.

His “eyes wide open”, idealistic mission in May and June to feed Palestinians in Gaza devolved into a concerted effort at character assassination once he opened up on the blatant atrocities he witnessed. In an interview with France24’s Jessica Le Masurier last week, Aguilar could not have been more clear about the war crimes he witnessed.

“Palestinians are getting hurt,” Aguilar tells Le Masurier, recounting episodes in which he claims his fellow personnel were “utilizing nonlethal munitions and lethal munitions in unauthorized ways.” In one instance, he says he saw a contractor throw a stun grenade that detonated, its metal top hitting a woman’s head and rendering her motionless before she was wheeled away by a donkey cart. (France 24 and Mother Jones could not identify the woman or determine whether she was killed.)

In an incident on May 29, Aguilar says he witnessed two contractors firing rifles “in bursts” from vantage points around a GHF distribution site “into the crowd.” In video footage supplied by Aguilar, someone can be heard yelling, “I think you hit one.” Another shouts, “Hell yeah, boy!”

“There was catcalling and celebrating,” Aguilar says. “They were cheering.” (The video was previously reported by the Associated Press.)

Last week, Tucker Carlson published an interview with Aguilar, including an extensive follow-up today.

In response to his statements, his former employer has disputed Aguilar's accounts, characterizing them as false and Aguilar a “disgruntled contractor”; he addressed these rebuttals with Carlson, but GHF didn’t stop there. An allegation of domestic violence by Aguilar from years ago in North Carolina went viral on 𝕏, clearly to shut down the decorated former Green Beret’s war crime accusations.

Surprise, surprise. The smear machine cranked up and a media pile-on from Israel supporters was gaining traction, until podcast journalist Melissa Witte - a former wife of a Green Beret and former paralegal - took it on. Wife beater allegations that Aguilar had actually been arrested, prosecuted and indicted, were just not passing the smell test.

If successful, the ramifications would be considerable. Owning and using a firearm, obtaining a top secret security clearance, would be history. Moreover, a conviction of assaulting a woman would rule out Aguilar even getting hired in Hornet County, North Carolina, where Melissa Witte had worked, much less a job with a U.S. security contractor in a conflict zone.

In short order, however, Melissa observed that the zip code and indictment identification number were fraudulent, and that the address listed on the document was nonexistent.

Witte’s lawyer podcast co-host followed up by examining the docket and court database. Nothing. No conviction, no arrest, and Aguilar’s photograph was even pointed out by a court clerk to be a fake. An alcohol-related argument resulted in a domestic incident call to the sheriff’s office, providing enough information for bots to conjure up a clumsy, malicious smear.

Glenn Greenwald’s Systems Update interview with Melissa Witte is definitely worth a view. I noticed the System Update transcript wasn’t available today on Glenn’s Locals community site. While it might have been ambitious for a transcription app or even AI to complete one so soon, Melissa was delightful and thorough nonetheless, effectively unravelling this deep state attempt at character assassination.

Neocons are still trying to attack the substance of what Anthony Aguilar exposed. Challenging chaos and ground truth is tough enough with no reporters allowed in Gaza, but investigative alternative media pushed back. And none of them saw Melissa Witte coming.