Entertainment
CNN claims military vet who saved 20 women’s lives broke Taliban law and demands lawsuit dismissed
CNN previously asked a judge to force the US military veteran to travel back to the United States from Central Europe to attend in-person mediation as part of a dramatic effort to end a multibillion-dollar defamation battle that has resulted from the episode of Jake Tapper’s show.
August 4, 2024, published at 4:27 am ET
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CNN previously asked a judge to force the US military veteran to travel back to the United States from Central Europe to attend in-person mediation as part of a dramatic effort to end a multibillion-dollar defamation battle that has resulted from the episode of Jake Tapper’s show.
In its motion for summary judgment, a last-ditch legal move to avoid a full-scale lawsuit, the ratings-challenged CNN said one Florida Judge Young’s activities were almost certainly illegal under Taliban law.
“The discovery has shown that the activities he orchestrated and financed, including moving women out of Afghanistan, were almost certainly illegal under Taliban rule.” Deana Shullmanwrote a lawyer for CNN.
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Correspondent Alex Marquardt, who co-hosted the story with Jake Tapper, reportedly called the military veteran “f***ing Young” and said “it’s your funeral boko.”
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Although the US government does not recognize the Taliban or its interpretation of Sharia law, CNN claimed that the terrorist’s regime should be taken into account in its defense of the lawsuit.
The radical Islamist group advocates public executions, amputations, stonings and floggings and is widely regarded as a human rights violator.
The terrorist organization, responsible for the massacre of 2,459 US service members, also believes in the systematic segregation of women, also known as gender apartheid.
They also stipulate that women are not allowed to work and that they are not allowed to attend education after the age of eight.
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President Joe Biden withdrew almost all US personnel from Afghanistan in August 2021.
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Nevertheless, in its motion to the court, CNN cited their harsh law as the basis for its demand that the lawsuit be dropped – a confrontation that has exposed secret treasure trove of expletives communication and an admission that the story about Young was “full of holes like Swiss cheese” and “not ready for primetime”.
A CNN spokesperson defended his latest legal maneuver, filed at the eleventh hour and before settlement discussionsnarrate RadarOnline.com: “Recognizing the state of local law is a necessary part of the legal analysis.”
Young saved at least 20 women’s lives and charged $14,500 each for their evacuation for his all-business clients, according to previous lawsuits.
But CNN said the report about Young was not defamatory because it was about profiteers taking advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan to charge prices that Afghans could not afford.
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the network expressed concern that the story would be “a mess,” consisting of 80 percent “emotion” and 20 percent “obscured facts” and “full of holes like Swiss cheese,” according to the lawsuit.
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The story, presented by Marquart, the chief national correspondent, was largely the truth, CNN argued.
“All of the journalism at issue in this case arose from the events of August 2021, when the US military withdrew from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to take control of the country and banning women from leaving,” CNN said in the filing by August 1. .
“As thousands of women faced possible execution or enslavement by the new government, Afghans’ desperation to escape provided a brief period – about two and a half months – of exploitable economic opportunity.”
CNN added: “Young’s company, Nemex, suddenly found himself making a lot of money quickly, and in turn, Young lined his pockets at an astonishing rate. Yet Young did not personally evacuate anyone. Instead, at all relevant times, he sat at his computer in Vienna, acting as an intermediary for another intermediary, overseeing evacuations carried out by unknown people half a world away.
“Young couldn’t guarantee the success of an evacuation because he literally didn’t know what the people on his payroll were doing. He even left some potential evacuees behind as they looked for alternatives and demanded refunds.”
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Tapper’s colleagues admitted that the controversial broadcast questioning Young’s practices was “not at all ready for prime time” in a secret trove of communications.
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CNN said Young had recognized that the Taliban was Afghanistan’s sole government when he undertook the dangerous, people-saving operations.
“One of the Taliban’s most notable policy changes was banning women from traveling and leaving the country,” according to CNN.
“As the prosecution’s expert, General (James) Young, explained, the Taliban ‘imposed rules on women’ that made leaving Afghanistan against the law, meaning those who tried to escape without the consent of the Taliban ‘were in serious, serious danger’. ‘
“To get women out, the operators on site had to either break the law directly or find someone to break the law for them.
“For these reasons, the private evacuation market in which Young operated was, as Young’s own expert admitted, based on ‘avoiding the Taliban’, ‘getting easier’.[ing] past Taliban checkpoints’ and ‘hiding people from the Taliban’ – that is, all activities that were illegal in Afghanistan at the time.
“As is typical in illegal black markets, private operators pocketed hugely inflated prices in exchange for the risk of being caught by the law, allowing Young to earn significantly higher than ever before.
“All of this leads to the unmistakable conclusion that Young and the other private operators in Afghanistan were, in fact, operating in an illicit market.”
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President Joe Biden said he “squarely” supports the US exit from Afghanistan as he faced scathing criticism over the Taliban’s takeover of the war-torn country.
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But in a sign of CNN’s desperation put an end to the ugly feud with Youngafter doubling down on the claims in the middle of the case, it has also hedged its bets with a spectacular backflip.
In another argument as part of the filing, the network claimed that it was “only intended to make clear that the market for private evacuation services in Afghanistan was unregulated, and not that it was characterized by illegality.”
“Contrary to what Young has claimed, the focus of CNN’s journalism was never on whether what Young and other private operators did was illegal under Taliban law,” the network said.
“Instead, the focus was on how bad actors – war profiteers like Young – took advantage of Afghans’ desperation and chaos in the country to demand prices for evacuations far higher than what Afghans could afford.
“That’s what CNN journalists believed about Young and his company at the time — and still do. CNN reports this. And that is what the discovery in this case has proven to be true, apart from any material question of fact.”
It added: “But even if Young is correct that CNN accused him of illegal conduct – which CNN strongly disputes – he still cannot back up his claims.
“The activities that Young directed and financed were almost certainly illegal under Taliban law, as the Taliban banned Afghans (particularly women) from leaving the country without permission and severely restricted their freedom of movement within the country.
“Young’s own actions, in fact, indicate that he believes the evacuations he led and financed were likely illegal.”
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CNN asked a Florida judge to sensationally prevent Jake Tapper from being questioned about his involvement in a controversial story aired by the embattled network.
CNN has asked the judge to rule in his favor and dismiss the case because “with the benefit of full discovery, it is clear that Young cannot make good on his claims.”
If successful, it would end months of embarrassing headlines about the case for the controversial network, including Marquart’s admits he had “no evidence.” in support of linking Young to black market refugee trafficking, alleged destruction of evidence, please protect Tapper of making a statement,
Young, for his part, has done just that promised to take the case all the way to the right.
