Iraq journalist kidnapping shows double standards of US

A journalist has been kidnapped in Iraq, and suddenly, the US government has decided it does, in fact, care about the safety of journalists. That is, as long as they’re white, and it’s not Israel killing or threatening them.

Iraq scene of kidnapping

Shelly Kittleson, an Italian-American journalist who contributes to Al-Monitor, was kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday. Reports suggest a suspected Iran-backed armed group was behind the abduction.

Videos circulating on social media show men capturing Kittleson on Saadoun Street in central Baghdad.

Middle East Eye has reported that authorities in Iraq had launched an operation to find the kidnappers, and:

they had intercepted a vehicle belonging to the kidnappers, which overturned as they attempted to flee.

Security forces were able to arrest one of the suspects and seize one of the vehicles used in the crime.

Dylan Johnson, US assistant secretary of state for Public Diplomacy, said on X that Iraqi authorities have arrested an individual linked to the Kataeb Hezbollah group.

Of course, we should take anything the US government says with a huge pinch of salt.

Murdering journalists

The US has stood blindly by whilst Israel has murdered journalists in both Gaza and Lebanon for the last two and a half years.

Back in 2022, Israel murdered Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) shot the Palestinian-American in the head while she was covering an Israeli army raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The US government claimed the death was unintentional – despite Israel’s long history of targeting journalists.

Since then, Israel has murdered over 300 journalists since October 7, 2023. It was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings in both 2025 and 2024.

Most of the media workers Israel killed were Palestinian. However, Israeli air strikes also killed 31 staff in newspaper offices in Yemen.

The IOF have committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since records began.

Only last week, Israel murdered journalists Ali Shuaib (Al-Manar) and Fatima Ftouni (Al-Mayadeen), along with Fatima’s brother, camera operator Mohamad Ftouni. They join a long list of Lebanese journalists that Israel has murdered.

Israel has repeatedly labelled media outlets and journalists as ‘terrorists’. Obviously, Western media and governments have parroted these claims without any evidence to support them.

The Israeli military also posted a photograph of Shoaib dressed in a military uniform. However, when asked by Fox News to provide the image, a spokesperson said:

Unfortunately there isn’t really a picture of it, it was photoshopped.

It provided no evidence to support its claims that Shoaib and Ftouni were Hezbollah combatants.

Israel goes after journalists in an attempt to stop the world from witnessing its war crimes. If it kills all the journalists in Gaza, Lebanon, and even Iran, then the rest of the world will not know what it’s up to.

Suddenly, the US cares?

The US has stayed quiet while Israel murdered over 300 journalists – many of whom were brown, and  often Muslim.

Now all of a sudden:

The FBI, National Security Council, state department, Delta Force and the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service were in contact about her abduction.

So, they can pay attention to attacks on journalists, after all. Of course, Kittleson is originally from rural Wisconsin.

So, whether it’s because Israel is not the perpetrator here or because Kittleson looks very white and is from a rural part of the US, the government suddenly decided it cares about journalists in the Middle East.

The US would not care if it were Israel that had kidnapped or even murdered Kittleson. Likewise, if a visibly brown, Black, or Muslim US citizen had been abducted, the US government would not care.

The hypocrisy is astounding – but what more should we expect from a government that Israel has so much influence over?

Featured image via Shelly Kittleson/Instagram