US Lawmaker Demands Opening Probe Into CNN, NYT, Reuters for Accompanying Hamas on Oct. 7

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Senator Tom Cotton accused four major media outlets and their journalists of taking part in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and demanded US Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a national security investigation into them, according to a letter, published by the lawmaker on Friday.

“I write regarding reports that so-called 'journalists' employed by the Associated Press, CNN, New York Times, and Reuters accompanied Hamas terrorists into Israel during the October 7 terror attack. These individuals almost certainly knew about the attack in advance, and even participated by accompanying Hamas terrorists during the attack and filming the heinous acts,” the letter said. “The Department of Justice must immediately open a national security investigation into these four media outlets,” the senator added.

Cotton claims that he knows of at least one case in which a journalist working for one of these media outlets even took a selfie of himself being kissed on the cheek by one of the Hamas leaders who planned the attack on Israel, according to the letter.

On Thursday, The Honest Reporting, a non-governmental organization, accused these news agencies' photojournalists, who filmed Hamas fighters infiltrating Israel and killing civilians on October 7, of being implicated in the attack.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office's National Public Diplomacy Directorate, for its part, demanded immediate action against these photojournalists, describing them as "photographers in the service of Hamas."

In addition, Israel's Government Press Office (GPO) said on Thursday that its Director Nitzan Chen had sent an urgent letter to the heads of the regional bureaus of Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and the New York Times, demanding clarification over their photojournalists being near Hamas combatants during their October 7 attack on Israel and filming the events.