Gonzalo Lira has died. He didn’t just die; he was killed while in prison. I didn’t agree with most of his stories when he was doing his shows, and I was not a fan either. I don’t want to be a hypocrite and pretend otherwise. Still, he was in a warzone and blogging his views which were antithetical to the government of the country in which he lived. This fact, for him, was highly problematic.
In Economics and Empires 3, we learned several things about media control and national interests. The bottom line here is, and this has to be clear to all of us: If a nation is in an existential war, hostile-minded journalism, blogging, etc., will not be allowed within this nation. This holds for any nation in the world, regardless of its political views. Don’t get me wrong; this is not my opinion or what I wish. Certainly not, as I blog as well! This is how processes are designed to not let any force undermine the political and military goals.
If you go back to WW2 and research how Western countries dealt with enemy citizens and journalists during the war, this is exactly how it would be nowadays as well. If you ask today's authorities whether it would be this way, they would immediately deny it. But as soon as an existential war is in sight or even started, such oppressive laws would be activated in any country worldwide. And it would happen again in the same way. Of course, there have been resistance cells which operated secretly. But publicly, such journalism and blogging will not be allowed anywhere. This is not my opinion; it is reality.
Hence Lira, by staying (for whatever reason) in Kharkov and blogging from there, was doomed from the start. At the beginning of 2022, when I saw a few of his videos, I KNEW that he would not make it out alive from this war. That is, of course, a tragedy, and I pity him for that very much. May he rest in peace.
Here are several problems:
As an American (and Chilean) citizen, Lira should have been detained and, after due process, he should have been expelled from Ukraine. That’s the usual procedure. He should have been neither imprisoned nor killed, regardless of his views or opinions. Especially since he is the citizen of an allied state. Well… of the main ally.
And even if he wasn’t expelled for whatever reason, you don’t torture or kill such an individual. He was no foreign agent, combatant, mercenary, or whatever. He was a civilian blogger who didn’t pose any threat to the state.
Even though it is impossible to overtly blog or report from the territory of a country which is in an existential war, he was able and allowed to do that freely for several months. This is something that is impossible. The world doesn’t work this way. Again, that’s not my opinion/wish; it is how war processes and laws are designed. Again, he should not have been killed. Either extradited to the American Embassy or at least kept under arrest as long as hostilities are active. Neither tortured nor killed. But since he is an American citizen, he definitely should have been extradited since America is Ukraine’s main ally and supporter.
All of this leads me to the following possible scenarios. I cannot choose any one possibility because we have no means to verify what actually happened:
He was a fool and managed somehow to stay online with his “American citizenship status”. Later it was too much for the SBU, and then they stepped in.
Lira’s blogging was used by the SBU as a sort of “honey-trap”. At that point, he was connected to many influential anti-war activists, which is a very valuable asset for an intelligence agency. This leaves us with two sub-scenarios:
a) He was forced, by threats to his life, to continue his show and grant SBU access to the information and devices of his foreign contacts and friends. There are more than enough possibilities through the access to Gonzalo’s devices and thereby through “social engineering” to spread malware/trojans, whatever, to his contacts.
b) The same scenario again, but this time without his knowledge. Since his first devices and accounts had been confiscated (at least that’s what I understood; I might be wrong), he could have been equipped with “bugged” equipment to monitor his partners. Whatever this might mean.
His work served for some political advantage in the United States for some period of time. Not for the US as a country (national interest), but for one faction in the USA against another faction in the USA.
Why did he disappear then? Whatever reason there was that he was left alive to do what he did, the reason disappeared. Either they collected enough intelligence and he was of no use any longer for the Ukrainians, or the purpose within the factions of the United States was done, and he was of no use to the factions in the United States any longer. Whatever reason it was, the SBU was greenlighted that he was of no use any longer and that he could be “unplugged” from the internet.
In this case, as I said, the right thing to do would be to immediately drive him to the US embassy and get him out of the country. He was a US citizen and a journalist/blogger; he was no threat to the country.
Unfortunately, we all know the “ideologically confused and highly motivated” leadership of Ukraine… It looks like they (or someone else) had the need to take revenge on a little blogger… Not very heroic. Whatever scenario actually happened of the four mentioned above, it was highly criminal and odious. There is no justification.
Rest in peace, Gonzalo.
[i] Edited by Piquet (EditPiquet@gmail.com)
Thank you for offering your thoughts this tragedy, and the puzzling fact that Gonzalo Lira was allowed to report freely so long in a hostile country. Last summer, after he posted his last videoes when trying to escape, there was some heated discussions about his activities among the influential anti-war activists, which unfortunately quickly became very emotional and personal in tone, where I don’t think the different sides – Scott Ritter accusing Lira of serving the SBU – and Larry Johnson, Brian Berletic etc. which defended Lira – addressed each other’s main points in a satisfying manner.
A previously unknown fact added to Gonzalo Lira’s situation added by Alexander Mercouris in his video yesterday was that his two children also where in Ukraine, which means that not only Lira’s but his children’s lives could be threatened. That he under such circumstances still continued reporting gives greater credence to the scenario that he was used. And in such a case, letting him get alive out of Ukraine to tell the story would be all the more impossible.
Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, wrote following about Gonzalo in his Telegram (translated):
"Gonzalo Lira, who was tortured by the Kiev regime in SBU custody, contacted me on the eve of his trial last summer, asking me to help him get to Russia from Kharkiv. At that time he was already arrested and kept under house arrest and there was no way to help him… I offered him then to speak live at the UN Security Council and tell what was being done to him and ask the whole world for help. He hesitated for a few days and in the end never decided to do it. Too bad, maybe it would have saved his life…"
https://t.me/dpol_un/814