'Off To Jail': Gaza Aid Whistleblower Arrested For Interrupting Senate Hearing

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Two United States military veterans, including a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) whistleblower, were arrested for interrupting a Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. They said “the U.S. government is complicit” in the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza and were quickly removed by U.S. Capitol police. 

GHF whistleblower Anthony Aguilar stood up. “You have an obligation to the Constitution of the United States.” Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Josephine Guilbeau also spoke up. “Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza. They’re building a concentration camp!” 

Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman James Risch declared, “Off to jail,” and when he hear Guilbeau, “Someone else is anxious to go to jail.” He even asked an officer if there was a person filming Aguilar and Guilbeau. Though it does not appear that the person recording Aguilar and Guilbeau was arrested, that certainly was the implication behind Risch’s question.

The hearing was convened to present ambassador nominations. “We don’t usually have this happen here, but it happens,” Risch remarked. (In fact, with CODEPINK and other groups active on Capitol Hill, police are rather used to this type of dissent against war and human rights atrocities.)

While police handcuffed and escorted the military veterans, Aguilar said the “U.S. Congress is paying for the death of children.” 

“When the United States Congress comes after veterans, they will come after you. Every American sitting at home right now needs to realize that you are paying for genocide,” Aguilar added.

Guilbeau also continued to protest. “They are complicit in the slaughter of babies,” she said as an officer put her in handcuffs. 

Risch, who has accepted over $250,000 in campaign contributions from pro-Israel lobbying groups, recessed the hearing so that the “racket” in the hallway could be cleared by police. “It’s distracting.” 

As the hearing reconvened, Risch quipped to one of the nominees: "Be glad you're not going where they're going." Then he grinned.

Journalist Marisa Kabas, who publishes at The Handbasket, reported that Aguilar was taken to jail and held in isolation for a few hours before he was released.

Aguilar is a former Green Beret who was a contractor for UG Solutions, which partnered with GHF to help deliver humanitarian aid. He witnessed war crimes committed by GHF and saw firsthand why Doctors Without Borders has called their operations a “deadly aid distribution scheme.” 

In an interview with Defending Rights and Dissent policy director Chip Gibbons, a guest contributor to The Dissenter, Aguilar claimed the “distribution sites were intentionally built in operational combat areas.” He emphasized, “They were death traps from day one.”

Aguilar allegedly witnessed several incidents. On May 29, he filmed a UG Solutions contractor as they opened fire on civilians at a site in north central Gaza. The contractor cheered, “Woohoo!” Another contractor replied, “I think you got one.” Then the pleased contractor uttered, “Hell yeah, boy!” 

Philip Reilly, who is the owner of Safe Reach Solutions, holds the contract for aid distribution by GHF. It subcontracts to UG Solutions, and Reilly is the former chief of the CIA’s Special Activities Division. 

Aguilar further alleged that Reilly is a “chapter president” of the Infidels Motorcycle Club, a biker gang with veterans and former paramilitary contractors as its members. “They proclaim to be the modern crusaders. Their emblem is a crusader cross.” He insisted that the gang members believe in the “eradication of Muslims from the Earth.”

On August 31, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Peter Welch sent a letter to the State Department demanding information about the “decision to award $30 million” to the GHF in late June and called for the termination of GHF’s contract. It referenced Aguilar, who said he witnessed “Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians.” 

“In the weeks since the State Department issued funding to GHF, the private security contractors GHF employs to distribute aid in Gaza have used live ammunition, pepper spray, and stun grenades near GHF sites. The UN has confirmed that 994 Palestinians have died near GHF sites while trying to access food since May,” the senators declared in a press release. 

“Ahead of the State Department’s award to the organization, Senator Warren highlighted concerns about the organization’s lack of experience with food distribution, significant leadership turmoil, and the absence of transparency regarding any of its funders.”

The press release continued, “A month later, following hundreds of deaths near GHF sites, a coalition of Senators led by Senator Van Hollen and Senator Welch pressed the Administration to restore funding to the UN-led system and questioned why State decided to exempt GHF from a comprehensive audit required for organizations working with USAID for the first time.”

“GHF’s apparent coordination with the IDF contradicts humanitarian organizations’ longstanding adherence to principles of neutrality, independence, impartiality, and humanity,” the senators stated. They maintained that reports of coordination with the Israeli military provide ample justification for immediately terminating GHF’s contract.