Never Forget | “Graham Phillips: British Reporter Is Exiled and Has His Banking Accounts Frozen for Telling the Truth” | Niall McCrae

Guest post by Niall McCrae

An unremarkable Turkish café-takeaway in London, with its slowly turning rolls of doner lamb and chicken, was a strange setting for the meeting. Graham Phillips, a YouTube journalist, had organised a fund-raising event at a hall in Islington, seeking contributions for a drone and other equipment. He had briefly returned from the Donbas region of Ukraine, where the government was using military force to suppress an alleged separatist movement. This was an untold story in Western mainstream media, and Phillips wanted to do more than basic recordings with his mobile phone. He also wanted to encourage others to come out to Donetsk, where he was based, to see and share the reality.

However, Ukrainian nationalists heard about this, and the hall owner cancelled the booking. A sign on the door redirected people to a nearby pub, where Phillips was intending to use the function room. This too was stopped when the landlord received threats. And so those who remained gathered in the kebab shop. It was a mixed crowd: Eurosceptics, Stop the War activists, Russian emigrants – and possibly MI6. Phillips began his address, showing photographs of dead or injured civilians, but was heckled by a smartly-dressed man shouting: ‘those people are terrorists’. Phillips demanded that he leave, and the two adversaries almost came to fisticuffs until they were separated by my friend and others.

This was back in 2015, when Phillips was already a thorn in the side to the Russophobic establishment. He has spent years with the Donetsk people’s militia, men (and some women) who took up arms against their oppressors, having military experience from conscription in their youth, or defectors from the Ukrainian army.

Phillips earned respect from his hosts for his bravery in reportage, accompanying fighters as bullets whizzed past. He was on the frontline of the Battle of Debaltseve, a vital road and rail junction where government troops were forced to retreat after three weeks of street fighting, with heavy losses on both sides.

When the Kiev government broke the Minsk accords in 2014 and 2015, the West did nothing. It was not until this year that Putin’s patience finally ran out. By then, about fourteen thousand had died in the uneven conflict. Aware of a coming offensive by the heavily armed Ukrainian forces, the Russians moved into the Donbas, supported by the resistance in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.

Phillips, like his American counterpart Patrick Lancaster, filmed the scenes and interviewed citizens which Western media failed to cover. If you took the BBC for the truth, you wouldn’t know that Russian soldiers are treated as saviours by residents of cities such as Mariupol and Sevierodonetsk, Showing the trail of destruction after its retreat, Phillips accused the Ukrainian army of war crimes: civilians who tried to evacuate were beaten by the Azov Battalion who blocked all exit roads with destroyed cars (this video was deleted by YouTube).

Here is video of Graham Phillips in Ukraine discussing his persecution in the UK.

When British mercenary Aiden Aslin was captured and prosecuted by the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, British media cried foul. When Phillips interviewed the prisoner (with his consent) Tory ministers accused him of a war crime. The Geneva Convention, as they should know, does not apply to mercenaries, who are fair game for captors. In July the UK government included Phillips in its sanctions against Russia and perceived accomplices.

By contrast to other enemies of the state, Phillips has had it easy. Unlike Julian Assange and Tommy Robinson, also persecuted for speaking truth to power, he was abroad and untouchable. Instead, Liz Truss’ would-be war office at Westminster froze his assets and blocked his bank account. This is a radical and dangerous development in our political and social history, although it was given limited attention on mainstream media, apart from outspoken Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens.

‘Freedom for all means freedom for nasty people’ was the title of the article, although this would not have been of Hitchens’ choosing. Giving credit where it’s due, Hitchens explained the implications of being deprived of access to a bank account. Phillips cannot pay bills, utility supply to his London home will be cut, bailiffs will be buzzing around, and any damage to his property cannot be repaired. His insurance will be annulled. Phillips, if he wanted to challenge his plight in court, could not pay for the air fare – although that’s probably for the best. If he returned he would surely be arrested at Heathrow and thrown into prison without trial.

On YouTube, Phillips remarked on his extra-judicial punishment, and the bypassing of a system of justice built over centuries on the foundations of Magna Carta, as ‘Kafkaesque’.

As Hitchens noted, Phillips has committed no crime. The government’s justification was that he is ‘a video blogger who has produced and promoted content that supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or throttle the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or independence of Ukraine.’ The last three years have woken many of us up to the sobering realisation that the law is an instrument of the state to use against inconvenient people. And if the law doesn’t work, another tool may be found, in this case sanctions against a foreign power. Expect more people to be denied access to their savings, because this is a slippery slope.

The post Graham Phillips: British Reporter Is Exiled and Has His Banking Accounts Frozen for Telling the Truth appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding

Coronavirus Crackdown: Judge Orders Canadian Church Locked to Prevent Sunday Worship Services

Show Me

Boeing fires dozens of employees for ‘racist’ behavior

Show Me

British public now trust Amazon more than the Royal Mail

Show Me

Sen. Manchin says he was ready to ‘stay and fight’ during Capitol riot

Show Me

EXC: A Top U.S. Teacher Training Org is Partnered With A Chinese Communist Group Promoting ‘Socialist’ Nursery Rhymes.

Show Me

Study Found Toxin from Genetically Modified Crops is Showing up in Human Blood

Show Me

May Day 1971: Daniel Ellsberg on Joining Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn at Historic Antiwar Direct Action

Show Me

The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot

Show Me

Is There a Case for Legalizing Heroin?

Show Me

CENSORED: Toensing, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General and diGenova, former U.S. Attorney & Special Counsel | Video: 9 Minutes 38 Seconds

Show Me

Are fully vaccinated liberals afraid to remove their masks because they’ll look like Republicans?

Show Me

Susan Wright advances to runoff in Texas special election

Show Me

Stone Says He Took ‘Not a Dime’ From Anyone Seeking Trump Pardon

Show Me

To be tracked or not? Apple Is now giving us the choice

Show Me

Doctors prescribe more opioids to COVID-19 ‘long haulers,’ raising addiction fears

Show Me

(READ) FBI releases Seth Rich-related documents | “The records appear to suggest that someone could have paid for his death.”

Show Me

Antifa Assaults Small Child, Seattle Police During May Day Riot, Say Cops

Show Me

BREAKING: Mitt Romney Booed At Utah GOP Convention, Tells Crowd ‘You Can Boo All You Want’

Show Me

Hacker Erases UNC Conservative Student Publication’s Website

Show Me

BLM-Antifa Rioters Target Upscale Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky – Heroic Patrons Refuse to Bow Down, Tell Mob ‘Bring It On, Let’s Go!’

Show Me

Assault On The Ballot Box – Lessons Learned In Pennsylvania

Show Me

Iodine is Important but a New Study Shows Too Much Causes Problems

Show Me

Even Texas Has Communists

Show Me

Here Is What Republican Voters Really Believe in. It’s a Shame the GOP Has No Idea

Show Me

Dershowitz: FBI’s Raid of Giuliani ‘Unconstitutional’

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 1 | Recorded May 1, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 18 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Saturday Edition Hour 2 | Recorded May 1, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 35 Seconds

Show Me

Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Astronaut, Remembered By NASA | Video: 1 Minute 44 Seconds

Show Me

The Things We Don’t Know | “Buzz Aldrin Took Holy Communion on the Moon. NASA Kept it Quiet”

Show Me

How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously

Show Me

Why Is the Left Allowed to Be ‘Transphobic’ and Racist?

Show Me

Could Your Body Render Future COVID Vaccines Useless?

Show Me

The Time Has Come for Cannabis Equity

Show Me

Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine returns next week and more Maryland doctors will offer vaccines

Show Me

100 Days from America First to America Last: GM Joins Ford and Moves Automotive Plant to Mexico to Escape Biden Taxes

Show Me

It’s Been 6 Months Since CNN Gave Zoom Masturbator Jeffrey Toobin ‘Time Off’ To Deal With a ‘Personal Issue’

Show Me

DNC Panelist Calls For The Destruction Of Capitalism

Show Me

Let’s Call BLM What It Is – Marxist

Show Me

After a year of digital hearings, Minnesota federal courts moving back to in-person operation

Show Me

Ashli Babbitt; Chip Crunch; Inside 60 Minutes at CBS

Show Me