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Former Trump official attacks former MSNBC intern on Twitter — because he got pranked
September 16, 2021
Right-wing radio host and former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka, the self-styled "Dragon of Budapest" who drives around the nation's capital in his 2.3L EcoBoost Mustang, was duped by a fake Twitter account on Tuesday — which in a bizarre turn of events led to a former MSNBC intern being the recipient of an outpouring of online hate instigated by Gorka.
On Tuesday morning, Hajah Bah, a USC Annenberg journalism student, and former MSNBC intern, woke up to numerous Twitter notifications. Many of those notifications stemmed from Gorka's tweet accusing her of being a "bigoted ableist."
The former Trump adviser had clearly been duped by a fake account pretending to be the journalism student. As of Wednesday morning, after Salon had reached out to Twitter, the social media company suspended the spurious Bah account, which appeared to have been operated by a troll who frequently retweeted right-wing content, such as tweets from Fox News host Dan Bongino.
"This person works for NBC12. Why is MSNBC OK with their employee calling someone she politically disagrees with a 'retard?'" Gorka posted, implying that the fake account actually belonged to Bah. "What protects foul-mouthed bigoted ableists like @Hajahbahh?"
That tweet sent out to Gorka's over 1 million followers tagged a profile page of a troll account that used a picture of Bah, a former MSNBC and NBC12 Richmond newsroom intern. Then, as too often happens on Twitter, Bah's real account was rolled into the drama.
This person works for @NBC12. Why is @MSNBC OK with their employee calling someone she politically disagrees with… https://t.co/uhG8DJPBpq— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@Sebastian Gorka DrG) 1631636225.0
In a phone interview with Salon, Bah said the incorrect Gorka tweet had provoked hatred from his followers and tarnished her reputation in the industry.
"Wow, this is not what I said to him," Bah explained, citing messages that the dubious account had sent Gorka pretending to be her. "I don't even know who he is. So I'm like, what is going on!"
Neither Gorka nor a spokesperson for Salem Radio Network, the conservative radio empire that employs him, returned a Salon request for comment.
Speaking to the impact this incident has had on her young career, Bah said that Gorka's irresponsible tweet had "tarnished MSNBC and NBC 12, which are amazing companies." As to how and what needs to be done to correct the situation, Bah suggested the nattily attired but notably hot-tempered former Trump associate, who has built a subsequent radio career on his iconic baritone voice, should retract his tweet and issue a public apology.
"He should at least acknowledge, 'Oh, this is not her,'" Bah said, noting that she is "a young journalist trying to break into the industry, it's just really wrong. I would like an apology."
Bah said that she and some of her friends had attempted to make Gorka aware of the error via Twitter, but that Gorka had rapidly blocked them.
In 2019, Gorka, a self-proclaimed free-speech warrior, told a reporter at the White House that he had blocked thousands of users on Twitter. "I block whoever I want to," Gorka said. "I block 16,000 people because they're asshats."
Gorka holds a somewhat dubious doctorate from a university in Budapest, and has been long criticized as a "fake terrorism expert." According to established national security experts who spoke to CNN, he "lacks practical experience in government, is not an expert on terrorism, and has never served in a diplomatic agency."
Highlighting a persistent problem in the right-wing media ecosystem, Bah noted that the hate directed at her was genuinely horrific for no apparent reason. "It's really ridiculous," she said. "I have been receiving a lot of hate because of the tweet, and it's not a reflection of my character at all."
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Australian nuclear subs will be banned from New Zealand waters: Ardern
September 16, 2021
New Zealand will not lift a decades-long ban on nuclear-powered vessels entering its waters in the wake of key ally Australia's decision to develop a nuclear submarine fleet, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday.
Ardern said her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison had briefed her on Canberra's plan to develop nuclear-powered submarines with the help of the United States and Britain.
She described the deal as "primarily around technology and defence hardware", playing down implications for the so-called "Five Eyes" partnership of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
"This arrangement in no way changes our security and intelligence ties with these three countries, as well as Canada," the New Zealand leader said in a statement.
But she also said New Zealand would maintain a ban on nuclear-powered vessels that dates back to 1985, meaning Wellington will not allow the prized naval asset being developed by Australia into its waters.
"New Zealand's position in relation to the prohibition of nuclear-powered vessels in our waters remains unchanged," Ardern said.
The ban was introduced in the wake of French nuclear testing in the Pacific and led to the US navy banning its warships from entering New Zealand ports for more than 30 years.
The destroyer USS Sampson visited in late 2016 but only after the then-prime minister John Key gave a special exemption, saying he was "100 percent confident" the vessel was not nuclear powered or carrying nuclear weapons.
Official US policy is to neither confirm nor deny whether its vessels are nuclear-capable.
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France said Thursday its troops deployed in the Sahel region of Africa had killed the head of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) extremist group who was wanted for deadly attacks on US soldiers and foreign aid workers.
Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi formed ISGS in 2015 after splitting with Al-Qaeda linked jihadists and pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, which at that time controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Sahrawi was "neutralized by French forces," President Emmanuel Macron tweeted early Thursday.
"This is another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel," Macron said.
Defence Minister Florence Parly said Sahrawi died following a strike by France's Barkhane force, which battles jihadists across the arid expanses in the Sahel region of Western Africa.
"It is a decisive blow against this terrorist group," she tweeted.
"The attack was carried out a few weeks ago, and today we are certain that it was the Number One of ISGS," Parly told RFI radio later Thursday, without identifying where Sahrawi was killed.
Sahrawi was "the one we were looking for, since he was the uncontested, authoritarian leader with no rival" within the jihadist group, she said.
"When you take out a key link in the chain, you disrupt and weaken these terrorist groups," she said, adding that the second- and third-in-command of ISGS had been "neutralised" over the spring and summer.
String of killings
Sahrawi was behind the killing of French aid workers in 2020 and was also wanted by the United States over a deadly 2017 attack on US troops in Niger.
The group is also blamed for most of the jihadist attacks in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The flashpoint "tri-border" area is frequently targeted by ISGS and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) with deadly attacks against civilians and soldiers.
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for information on the whereabouts of Sahrawi, who was wanted over an October 4, 2017, attack in Niger that killed four US Special Forces and four Niger soldiers.
On August 9, 2020, in Niger, the ISGS head personally ordered the killing of six French aid workers and their Niger guides and drivers.
In late 2019, the group carried out a series of large-scale attacks against military bases in Mali and Niger.
A former member of Western Sahara's Polisario Front independence movement, Sahrawi joined Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and had also co-led Mujao, a Malian Islamist group responsible for kidnapping Spanish aid workers in Algeria and a group of Algerian diplomats in Mali in 2012.
The French military has killed several high-ranking members of ISGS under its strategy of targeting jihadist leaders since the start of its military intervention in Mali in 2013.
In June this year, Macron announced a major scaleback in France's anti-jihadist Barkhane force in the Sahel after more than eight years of military presence in the vast region to refocus on counter-terrorism operations and supporting local forces.
"The nation is thinking this evening of all its heroes who died for France in the Sahel in the Serval and Barkhane operations, of the bereaved families, of all its wounded," Macron added in another tweet after Sahrawi was killed.
"Their sacrifice is not in vain. With our African, European and American partners, we will continue this fight."
'Take back control'
The north of Mali fell under jihadist control in 2012 until they were pushed out of the cities by France's military intervention in 2013.
But Mali, an impoverished and landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups, continues to battle jihadist attacks and intercommunal violence, which often spills over to neighbouring countries.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated Thursday the need for local governments to step up efforts to wrest back control of vast swathes of the Sahel from the insurgents.
"It's particularly important, especially in Niger, that state actors quickly take back control of territories abandoned to the Islamic State and recover its role, so that daily life can resume with essential services," he told France Info radio.
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