Blinken Brags Over Gershkovich, Pretends Gonzalo Lira Didn’t Exist

Submitted by Liam Cosgrove,

While speaking to “journalists” during a Friday press conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken patted himself on the back for securing the release of the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich – telling them “Maybe the most striking part of spending time with Evan, is simply how wonderful it feels to see him free. Home where he belongs.”

“Evan’s freedom is also a reminder of all Americans who are still held hostage or wrongfully detained,” Blinken continued.

“We will not forget you, and we will not rest until we get you home.”

It’s hard to overstate what an egregious display of sanctimonious hypocrisy this is when Blinken’s department wittingly neglected Gonzalo Lira — the California-born writer for mainstream financial outlets like Business Insider, Seeking Alpha, and even ZeroHedge — as he was tortured in a Ukrainian dungeon for eight months until his eventual death at the start of this year. State Spox Matthew Miller was aware of Lira being tortured for at least five of those months.

Anthony Blinken spoke today after meeting WSJ’s Evan Gerskovich, recently freed from Russia.

“Evan’s freedom is a reminder of all Americans who are still wrongfully detained… We will not forget you.”

But they did forget one. Left to be tortured and die in Ukrainian prison 🧵 pic.twitter.com/yaJyQHbx1q

— Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) September 13, 2024

Lira’s father has accused Biden administration of greenlighting the arrest of his son, pointing to a video published to Lira’s YouTube days before his arrest in which he was uncharacteristically critical of Biden and Kamala. The video, interestingly enough, is titled “Joe Biden Will Be Removed—Kamala Will Be President.”

That such a greenlight was given is not far-fetched considering Ukraine’s massive incentive to curry favor with the American government that had approved more than $100 billion already by this point (now at $175 billion). Would the Ukrainians risk the political backlash of arresting a U.S. citizen unless first given the go-ahead?

Regardless, the State Department’s Miller acknowledged to me that he was aware of Lira’s arrest in May of 2023. Three months later, Miller then — after being made aware of allegations that Lira’s prison guards had tortured him with severe beating and having his cornea scraped with a toothpick — said he wanted to investigate the torture claims.

Yet, despite near-constant email correspondence between Lira’s father and State Dept officials, nothing was done and Lira died of pneumonia, an infection commonly treatable with antibiotics.

Ukrainian Government Becoming More Despotic

A story that slid under the radar this July: Natsya Umka, a Kyiv-based fashion blogger with 600k followers, made an Instagram post, saying “people want peace” and that Ukraine does not need “the border of 1991” (which would include Crimea). For doing so, she was promptly called in to the offices of the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) for “talk”.

Umka posted videos before and after the meeting, appearing noticeably shaken up in the latter video where she claims to have been unable to eat for three days. Most notably… in the video after her “meeting” with the SBU, Umka suddenly supports the war effort: “Everything is fine and we will definitely win.”

WSJ: Ukraine’s national police summoned a Kyiv blogger because she posted:

“No one needs the border of 1991. All people want peace… How many more people must be lost for this to stop?”

After the meeting — despite an inability to eat from “stress” — she now supports the war: pic.twitter.com/iSGlL3d9Ve

— Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) September 14, 2024

Is this the liberal democracy we are risking nuclear war to maintain? Hundreds of billions of dollars and the possibility to destroy life on Earth so we can pay the pensions of these thugs who intimidate mothers into silence, who imprison and torture Americans to death?

From an email Lira’s father sent Friday morning, coincidentally a few hours before the Blinken presser:
“I ask for justice in this violent world, Gonzalo expressed his political views without violence, never threatening, nor advocating violence. Gonzalo Lira Sr.”