Posted on 03/06/2022 5:43:42 AM PST by billorites
A Spanish journalist arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia recently worked for Voice of America, the United States government's international media organization.
Pablo Gonzalez was arrested at the Poland-Ukraine border earlier this week on charges that he was secretly working for Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. Gonzalez, a Spanish national born in Russia, was identified as a freelance reporter for the Spanish outlets El Sixto and Publico. He has also worked as a freelance reporter for Voice of America (VOA) since at least 2020. Gonzalez helped produce a VOA segment from inside Ukraine last month, according to a Washington Free Beacon investigation.
Gonzalez’s previously unreported work could raise concerns that he used his VOA position to collect intelligence for Russia. If Gonzalez is indeed a Russian spy, it would lend credence to concerns raised by Michael Pack, who oversaw VOA during the Trump administration. Pack came under fire from Democrats when he said VOA was "a great place to put a foreign spy" given the agency’s lax security standards. VOA staffers and others in the media accused Pack of undermining the agency and putting its journalists at risk.
Poland’s internal security agency said Friday that Gonzalez was "conducting his business for Russia while taking advantage of his journalist status." The counterintelligence agency said Gonzalez collected information for Russia’s spy service during his recent stay in Poland and that he planned to continue his activities in war torn Ukraine.
Gonzalez is identified as a cameraman for a Feb. 4 Voice of America story from Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine. The story told of residents’ preparations for a Russian invasion of Ukraine. A reporter who worked with Gonzalez on the story cast doubt on the allegations from Polish authorities.
"The accusations against Pablo are ridiculous, I have worked with him in many places and I know he is a top-notch professional," said Ricardo Marquinia, another VOA contributor.
Gonzalez was detained two days after the VOA report by Ukrainian authorities and accused of reporting from military-controlled areas without proper accreditation, Reuters reported. He was released hours after that initial arrest.
The GRU is one of the world’s most aggressive spy agencies. It was behind the cyber attacks during the 2016 U.S. elections and is alleged to have hacked Ukrainian government websites during the current war. Reuters has reported that American intelligence officials also determined that the GRU has long operated a so-called illegals program, where undercover spies live under assumed identities in their target countries, sometimes for years.
Founded in 1942, VOA is the United States’ megaphone to the world, operating in dozens of countries that have historically stifled the free press. The United States used VOA during the Cold War to broadcast anti-Communist messages, prompting Russia and Soviet republics to jam VOA’s radio signal. Russia designated VOA as a foreign agent of the United States in 2017 in retaliation for Washington placing the same label on Russia Today.
Gonzalez reported extensively last year for VOA about the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, according to his Twitter feed and VOA’s website.
A spokeswoman for VOA said the agency is aware of Gonzalez’s arrest, and that they reported it "to all relevant security authorities." The spokeswoman said Gonzalez was a stringer—another term for a freelancer—but that he had not filed a story since July 2021. The spokeswoman declined to comment about his recent story from Ukraine.
I thought it was going to be Rachel Maddow or someone like that.
One spy? All it takes is a US Citizenship, which any foreigner can get, to obtain a security clearance. US loyalty not required.
Spies should be out of business, since our media does all their work for free.
Following CW-II, we’re gonna need a treason execution production line.
How do you determine, at the time, that journalists “lie?”
It’s just a bunch of “he said/she saids,” which is why you need to get it from multiple sources.
This latest Red Scare is pretty boring.
Should we eliminate VOA? Sounds like another bloated government program.
How about PBS first?
“Gonzalez is identified as a cameraman for a Feb. 4 Voice of America story from Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine.”
“A spokeswoman for VOA said the agency is aware of Gonzalez’s arrest, and that they reported it “to all relevant security authorities.” The spokeswoman said Gonzalez was a stringer—another term for a freelancer—but that he had not filed a story since July 2021. “
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Say what?!
“Should we eliminate VOA? Sounds like another bloated government program.”
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Like NATO, with the collapse of the USSR it should have also folded. We have enough problems with government run media in the US. Besides, it’s not as if there’s not enough private corporate media shilling propaganda.
I'm not concerned about one little foreign spy. I'm concerned about the rapidly diminishing numbers of true Americans.
This is nothing new. The VOA has been riddled with Communists since its inception.
Joseph McCarthy fought battles with the issue of including Communist propaganda in the VOA reading rooms and broadcasts. (IIRC, they used to have VOA libraries in some countries that had books and literature written by Communist agents)
Of course it was meant to be propaganda, that was its purpose, even if only to transmit to people around the world the things that are good about Democracy and the West to people who didn’t have access to news except their own state-run media.
As Roger Stone’s & Kyle Rittenhouse’s arrest both tell us, arrest is not the equivalent of guilty. If the FBI (the American Stasi) had anything to do with Pablo Gonzalez’s arrest, there is definitely a (huge) doubt in my mind.
RW II instead of CW II in my view.
It takes “need to know” to get a security clearance; and, a specific need to know for specific material. Employees of news radio stations do not have “need to know”.
Really? I thought that all the Russian spies are writing supportive articles for Putin on our FreeRepublic.
russian moles in America’s news media ……
Are VOA employees required to get security clearances? If so, and a contractor without a clearance comes through (this did happen when I was at DoD), it’s up to them to clear the area of classified material.
If this is not practical, they should not be dealing with uncleared contractors.
If that is not practical, the cleared VOA employees should not have classified material either.
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