(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Much of the world is still reeling from the shocking footage of US Air Force member Aaron Bushnell setting himself ablaze outside the Israeli Embassy in D.C. on Sunday.
Whether they were mocking Bushnell or praising him as heroic, observers agreed that the 25-year-old’s actions were a protest of the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza, which has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
But a Tuesday report from the New York Post raises more questions about Bushnell’s self-immolation and subsequent death.
Citing a “close pal” to Bushnell, the Post reported that the night before his death, the airman had ranted that he had “top-secret clearance’’ for military intelligence data.
“He told me on Saturday that we have troops in those tunnels, that it’s US soldiers participating in the killings,’’ said the “close pal,” according to the Post.
“His actual job involves the processing of intelligence data. Some of what he was processing had to do with the Israeli Gaza conflict. One of the things he told me is that coming across his desk … was the US military was involved in the genocides going on in Palestine,” the close pal reportedly said.
“He told me that we had troops on the ground, you know, that were there and were killing large numbers of Palestinians. There’s just too many things I don’t know, but I can tell you that the tone of his voice just had something in it that told me he was scared.”
The Post’s report caused a stir online, though readers didn’t quite know what to make of the news.
It is somewhat strange to be an Air Force intelligence analyst who tells a close friend extremely sensitive information and then self immolates the next day. That is a series of events that gives me pause https://t.co/YvPt2sSPDF
— 12 Ball (@BoltzmannBooty) February 28, 2024
However, the reporter who initially released the video of Bushnell said the Post’s report is fake news.
That reporter, Talia Jane, quoted one of Bushnell’s family members, who reportedly told her that “Aaron has not been doing his military job for like four months so there’s no way he has had access to any intelligence.
“Also, I don’t think there being American troops on the ground in Gaza would be the thing to push him to do this. He had a strong enough analysis to recognize the US role regardless of whether or not there were literal Americans soldiers on the ground,” the family member reportedly said.
Regarding a recent New York Post article claiming Aaron Bushnell had inside knowledge about U.S. forces in Gaza, I reached out to actual friends of his (not just an anon “pal” talking to a conservative rag) who stated Bushnell had not been working for the USAF for four months:…
— Talia Jane ❤️🔥 (@taliaotg) February 28, 2024
Jane also noted that it’s public knowledge that the U.S. has troops in Israel—though the official story is they’re helping with logistics, while Bushnell supposedly told his friends that troops are participating in combat missions in Gaza.
The information Bushnell allegedly told his friend aligns with what retired Col. Douglas MacGregor told Tucker Carlson last October, when he said that U.S. Special Forces were “shot to pieces and took heavy losses” while assisting Israel on a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
