Iranian foundation offers $3.3 million bounty for killing of Salman Rushdie
- Thread starter thernbroom
- Start date
Ugh, searching for that I ended up instead on a thread where he seems excitedly hopeful about us going to war with Syria and Iran. Others where he uses the
smiley in the title for a Mossad kill list and hopes (I'm sure trolling) for the same guys to take out an Indian guy with a pro-Hitler store. Mulitiple times where he positively quotes or daps general anti-Muslim tropes too. I thought he was just a warmongerer but it looks like he's pretty bigoted on top of that.Oh, also he brags that he's "independently wealthy" but barely works and owns some expensive commercial real estate.
Has there been any more recent health update? The lack of updates is worrying.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
On Friday morning, any sense that threats to his life were a thing of the past was dispelled when an attacker rushed the stage of Chautauqua Institution here in Western New York, where Mr. Rushdie was scheduled to give a talk about the United States as a safe haven for exiled writers. The assailant stabbed Mr. Rushdie, 75, in the abdomen and the neck, the police and witnesses said, straining to continue the attack even as several people held him back.
www.nytimes.com
terrible
Salman Rushdie Updates: Salman Rushdie on Ventilator Hours After Being Stabbed in Western New York (Published 2022)
“The news is not good,” the author’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said in an emailed update Friday evening. He said Mr. Rushdie might lose an eye and his liver had been damaged. The celebrated author, who has long faced death threats, was stabbed by a 24-year old New Jersey man. Police said the motive...
terrible
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
His agent said he's likely to lose an eye and was stabbed in the liver and neck
When I first got the alert I was surprised he wasn't killed initially
really doesn't sound good
That's the only statement I could find, but it seems to be 12 hours old and while he was still in surgery? Or am I confusing the time stamps on the articles?
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
He's in the middle of nowhere and then was flown to Erie Pennsylvania(also the middle of nowhere)
I think that's what is going on at least, you've got figure stabilizing him and the surgeries are super long as well....
He's in the middle of nowhere and then was flown to Erie Pennsylvania(also the middle of nowhere)
I think that's what is going on at least, you've got figure stabilizing him and the surgeries are super long as well....
Yeah, I just wanna hear "he's out of surgery and breathing on his own" if possible.
Livers are fukking resiliant, if you survive the initial days then that shyt grows back. Losing an eye is terrible but you can throw on that patch and life goes on. I'm more scared about the breathing shyt and possible brain damage if the eye puncture was deep or the neck punctures reduced brainflow for any time.
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Right
they can be but he's also 75... it's probably touch and go and that's why they're not saying a lot unfortunately, the next couple of days will be crucial
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Rushdie Stabbed Roughly 10 Times in Premeditated Attack, Prosecutors Say
The writer, who was gravely wounded and had been put on a ventilator after surgery, is now talking in the hospital, according to his agent.
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Salman Rushdie, Badly Wounded, Is Off Ventilator and Starting to Recover
Mr. Rushdie’s agent said Sunday that the writer, who was attacked on Friday after years under threat, was beginning a slow journey of healing.
Salman Rushdie Stabbing Suspect ‘Had Contact With Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’
Intel officials told VICE World News Hadi Matar had been in contact with members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. There’s no evidence Iran was involved in organising the attack.
www.vice.com
Salman Rushdie Stabbing Suspect ‘Had Contact With Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’
08.12.22
salman-rushdie-hadi-matar-revolutionary-guard
The 24-year-old man accused of stabbing author Salman Rushdie had been in direct contact with members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on social media, European and Middle Eastern intelligence officials told VICE World News.
Hadi Matar has been charged with attempted murder after Rushdie, 75, was repeatedly stabbed on stage ahead of a speaking event in Chautauqua, New York, on Friday. On Sunday, Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said his father was in a critical condition and had sustained “life-changing” injuries but had been taken off a ventilator and had been able to speak.
A NATO counterterrorism official from a European country said the stabbing had all the hallmarks of a “guided” attack, where an intelligence service talks a supporter into action, without direct support or involvement in the attack itself.
“Close scrutiny needs to be paid to his communications,” said the NATO official, who was not authorised to speak on the record. “More investigation will reveal more information on the exact nature of the links.”
There’s no evidence Iranian officials were involved in organising or orchestrating the attack on Rushdie. Security officials who confirmed the social media contact would not elaborate on the nature of the communications because investigations are ongoing. They would not disclose who initiated the contact, when it took place, or what was discussed.
A Middle Eastern intelligence official said it was “clear” that at some point prior to the attack, Matar had been in contact with “people either directly involved with or adjacent to the Quds Force,” referring to the Revolutionary Guard’s external operations force.
“It’s unclear the extent of the involvement, if this was a directly supported assassination attempt or if it was a series of suggestions and directions in picking a target,” said the official, who could not speak on the record for diplomatic reasons.
The Chautauqua Institution in New York state where Salman Rushdie was attacked on Friday. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Rushdie lived under police protection for more than a decade following the 1988 publication of his novel Satanic Verses, which enraged much of the Islamic world with what was widely seen as a heretical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, issued a fatwa – a religious edict – in 1989 offering a multimillion-dollar reward for Rushdie’s murder.
But in the ensuing decades Iran has rarely mentioned the situation, and over time, concerns for the author’s safety faded.
“A 24-year-old born in the United States did not come up with Salman Rushdie as a target on his own,” the Middle Eastern intelligence official said. “Even an avid consumer of Iranian propaganda would have some difficulty finding references to Rushdie compared to all the other, modern enemies, designated by the regime.”
Matar’s family hail from the South Lebanese town of Yaroun, an area deeply sympathetic to Iran and its local proxy Hezbollah.
There's no indication thus far that Matar had joined the group or received military training on visits to Lebanon. On Saturday, Hezbollah officials asked local journalists to stop visiting the village, according to local media reports.
“Most of the families in Yaroun support the resistance, there is no question of this relationship,” said a mid-level Hezbollah commander from a nearby village that cannot be named for security reasons. “But this boy has nothing to do with Hezbollah. We don’t know him and do not want to be drawn into international intrigues involving people we don’t know.”
A senior Lebanese security official said the US had requested additional information on the possibility of Matar’s travels to Lebanon in an effort to determine if he had received military training from Hezbollah, which maintains a powerful military training infrastructure in both Lebanon and neighbouring Syria.
A view of Yaroun town in southern Lebanon. Photo: MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images
“There is a lot of interest in this boy from the Americans and we will do our best to provide any information that can help their investigation,” said the senior Lebanese security official, who refused to be identified for diplomatic reasons.
“There’s a limit to our ability to assist, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect someone to admit to training him to carry out an assassination, the involved groups have a long history of keeping secrets.”
The Middle Eastern intelligence official said that a handful of Quds Force members taking the chance to inspire and direct an attack would not require high-level approval from the Iranian regime, where the internal security forces from the Revolutionary Guard Corps and military intelligence are often open rivals, directed by political factions.
They said that since the death in 2008 of Imad Mughniyeh – a Hezbollah commander who directed external operations – there had been a “certain sloppiness” in Iranian and Hezbollah operations.
“There seems to be a process where individual members of various agencies plan and activate their own operations, like the recent Bolton thing, where Iranian guys are offering money to hit men, acting like John Wick is a real thing,” the official said, referencing an indictment unsealed last week that accused a member of the Quds Force of attempting to pay $300,000 to assassins he believed worked for a Mexican drug cartel to target former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
In a court appearance on Saturday, Matar pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault. He was ordered to be held without bail.
At a press briefing on Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry said Rushdie “and his supporters are to blame for what happened to him.”
Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Iran had no information about Matar except what had already appeared in news reports.