AMERICAN CIPHER @penguinpress. Stories for @thefp @rollingstone @newyorker @harpers and other zines. Esto perpetua.
Joined March 2009
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Michael Ames retweeted
A record nobody should be celebrating.
For the first time since @theFIREorg began tracking campus deplatforming attempts, more than 200 efforts to shut down invited speakers have been recorded in a single year.
And 2026 isn't even over yet.
Michael Ames retweeted
Maybe an actual journalist would want to get to the bottom of how he was duped by a fraudulent pollster and wantonly shared a fake narrative on electability. That you have no such interest is just the latest indication that political leftism matters to you more than journalism.
Michael Ames retweeted
Absolutely incredible…
"Wedgewood Polls" just admitted they are a fake polling firm and made up their polls.
Their fake polls have been posted in both the NYT and Nate Silver’s averages.
Michael Ames retweeted
French journalist Paul Amar:
“They came prepared. They had the addresses of town halls. They had addresses of Jewish shop owners.
In a street in Marseille, all businesses owned by Jews were set on fire. Businesses run by Muslims weren’t”
Michael Ames retweeted
He's phenomenal and kudos to @havivrettiggur and @breakfastclubam for this great interview and discussion.
Michael Ames retweeted
Are you saying Israel is not really an apartheid state after all?
Explainer: Arab voter turnout could make or break Netanyahu in Israeli election buff.ly/OXI9lRv
Michael Ames retweeted
Rioting over a lack of educational resources in France, yet somehow the looters found every luxury boutique, electronics shop and footwear store while missing every bookshop and stationery store!🧐
Michael Ames retweeted
April 2024: Alex de Waal tells a Harvard audience that Gaza is "the most intense famine that we have seen since records began."
October 2026: After none of his dire predictions came true, Alex de Waal declares that Gaza was, actually, "a very different type of famine."
Alex de Waal wrote the standard textbook on famine, runs the World Peace Foundation, and helped write starvation crimes into international law. When the media says "famine experts warn," this is who they mean.
In March 2024 he told Democracy Now that Gaza's children were already dying of hunger and disease, "likely in thousands already."
Asked in October 2026 if Gaza made him rethink his work, he said yes. Was he wrong? Of course not. The most intense famine since records began was simply "a very different type of famine," with "a very different demographic profile." Not one word about the thousands of children he said were already dying.
When Noam Dworman pressed him on the deaths in September, de Waal's answer was that the pattern "was something that was puzzling" and "we actually don't know how many have died."
He was certain enough in 2024 to tell the world they were already dying by the thousands. Now he isn't certain enough to say how many died at all.
—
What actually happened:
The IPC's own Famine Review Committee, June 2024: the famine claims were "not plausible," and "the available evidence does not indicate that Famine is currently occurring."
reliefweb.int/report/occupie…
After the October 2025 ceasefire, a UNICEF-led survey found 0.5 percent acute child malnutrition in Gaza, one of the lowest rates in the region.
thefp.com/p/unicef-data-unde…
In 2016, he admitted in Boston Review that he had used "genocide" about Sudan "because it would grab headlines," and that "using the G-word was an error."
bostonreview.net/articles/al…
Full interview: youtu.be/s_8RwW9encs
September 24, 2026: Noam Dworman sits down with "the world's leading famine expert" and reads him his old predictions and declarations about famine in Gaza.
Alex de Waal wrote the standard textbook on famine, runs the World Peace Foundation, and helped write starvation crimes into international law. When the media says "famine experts warn," this is who they mean.
In January 2024, he told Owen Jones famine would probably arrive by early February. February came and went. In March 2024, he told CBS it was expected between then and May. Days later, he told Democracy Now that children were dying "likely in thousands already." In April 2024, at Harvard, he called it the most intense famine since records began. In October 2025, Democracy Now brought him back.
Nobody ever asked him about any of prior predictions and declarations. On September 24, 2026, Noam Dworman did.
0:00 Alex de Waal admits to overstating catastrophes to get headlines
0:30 March 25, 2024. De Waal: The Famine Review Committee is "the ultimate arbiter, the High Court"
0:47 September 24, 2026. De Waal admits his own "high court" found no famine
1:11 March 2024: "It's too late to avert" thousands to tens of thousands of deaths
1:22 De Waal recasts it as conditional: "I said, yes, if this trajectory continues"
1:47 Dworman reads him the published wording, which was not conditional. De Waal: "We actually don't know how many have died"
2:14 Dworman to De Waal: You let Feroze Sidhwa tell my audience that 62,000 Gazans died of starvation
3:10 De Waal: We don't know the numbers. Dworman: The Gaza Ministry of Health doesn't claim anything close to your numbers
3:43 Dworman calls out the moving goalposts: "So I never said they were dying." De Waal accuses him of arguing semantics
4:21 Alex de Waal claims that the famine call "made no comment on the mortality"
—
What actually happened:
The IPC's own Famine Review Committee, June 2024: the famine claims were "not plausible," and "the available evidence does not indicate that Famine is currently occurring."
reliefweb.int/report/occupie…
After the October 2025 ceasefire, a UNICEF-led survey found 0.5 percent acute child malnutrition in Gaza, one of the lowest rates in the region.
thefp.com/p/unicef-data-unde…
Full interview: xitter.cf/noam_dworman/status/21…
--
In 2024, Alex de Waal was certain enough to tell the world it was already too late.
In 2026, Alex de Waal just isn't certain enough to say how many people died.
Alex de Waal once wrote that you need to overstate catastrophes in order to get attention. He was not joking.
Michael Ames retweeted
Listening to him, you’d think Iran’s regime- with its state slogan of “Death to America,” brutal repression, and murderous fundamentalism - was America’s natural friend.
And that the real reason Washington and Tehran are enemies isn’t the mullahs, but Israel.
If that sounds like conspiracy bigotry, it probably is.
Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed shared his views on U.S.-Israel relations, saying he does not consider Israel an American ally: “I think it’s time for us to realize that Israel is not actually our friend.”
Watch the full conversation tonight at 8 p.m. ET on ABC News Live Prime’s “All Access with Linsey Davis” streaming on @disneyplus and @hulu.
Michael Ames retweeted
4,000 Palestinians could lose their jobs. And somehow, European politicians are calling this progress.
New restrictions on products from Israeli settlements could put thousands of Palestinians out of work. People who are earning a living, supporting their families and working side by side with Israelis.
And for what?
We've seen this before with SodaStream. The factory moved, hundreds of Palestinians lost their jobs, and those campaigning for boycotts called it a victory.
A victory for whom, exactly?
I strongly believe that peace is built by bringing people together, not by separating them. By creating opportunities, not destroying them.
Europe should be building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians, not tearing them down.
And perhaps, for once, we should ask the Palestinian workers themselves what they think before making decisions that could destroy their livelihoods.
@ynetnews
ynetnews.com/business/articl…
Michael Ames retweeted
A French woman says that the rioters and looters broke into her building and threatened her with rape while she was holding her child in her arms.
“That’s collateral damage” responds the feminist activist Bettina Zourli who holds a Master’s in gender studies and focuses her work on gender norms, motherhood, reproductive rights, and voluntary childlessness (“childfree”)
She describes herself as “feminist, childfree and Antifa”
Zourli also says that all the stores getting looted also constitute a case of collateral damage and that the revolution, which she supports, must be violent.
She has lectured in gender studies, including at the University of Lille and Université Rennes.
Michael Ames retweeted
BREAKING: UN torture expert denounces colleagues Francesca Albanese and Reem Alsalem for denying October 7 atrocities and ignoring Hamas torture of Israeli hostages: “My colleagues said nothing. I felt ashamed. Their one-sided, vitriolic reports added to families’ anguish.”
Dr. Alice Jill Edwards: “The UN had done so little to help them... I felt ashamed. I am still outraged that UN special rapporteurs Francesca Albanese and Reem Alsalem never formally documented these horrors. Instead, both have continued to issue a stream of what I regard as one-sided and vitriolic reports, and hard-to-justify excuses for their lack of attention. That, families and returned hostages have told me, only added to their anguish.”
Michael Ames retweeted
BREAKING: Abdul El-Sayed's campaign is responding to @FoxNews after unearthed social media posts from El Sayed's sister in 2012 appear to show her saying her family has been involved with and supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood. I asked the campaign if they deny the posts are in fact from his sister, and what comment they have given that El-Sayed just told Meet the Press over the weekend that nobody in his family has any ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. This is what they told me.
“Abdul is a dad and a doctor. He has spent his entire career working to keep Michiganders healthy and safe. Independent fact checkers have repeatedly debunked Mike’s lies, but their campaign continues to use bad faith attacks on Abdul's faith and family. Mike wants to distract from Trump’s agenda that is terrorizing Michigan families at the pump and at the grocery store."
- El-Sayed campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner.
On background, the campaign says that claims El Sayed and his family are part of the Muslim Brotherhood have been debunked as "racist" and "untrue".
Michael Ames retweeted
One year ago today, Hamas terrorists in Gaza publicly executed several innocent Palestinians from the Dughmash family. They forced people to watch and chanted that anyone who challenged Hamas’s rule would face the same fate.
The clashes with the Dughmash family began after the ceasefire agreement was signed, when Hamas ordered families to evacuate the buildings where they had taken shelter as it prepared to reassert its control. With nowhere else to go, the family refused. Hamas responded with gunfire.
Hamas then surrounded the family’s neighborhood, detained residents, and killed people based on their family name. More than 28 innocent Palestinians were killed.
Even today, only one human-rights group has documented even a small part of this story. Hamas has never stopped terrorizing the people of Gaza.
DOWN WITH HAMAS.
Michael Ames retweeted
You should be extremely cautious about accepting at face value claims by people who believe lying is an acceptable way to advance their cause theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1…
Michael Ames retweeted
NEWS RELEASE out of @FBISanFrancisco: Saudi National Arrested for Installing Surreptitious Audio Recording Device at San Francisco Super Intelligence Company
Read more about how this #FBI is protecting American businesses and defending national security. justice.gov/opa/pr/saudi-nat…
ALT Dark graphic with FBI seal with headline: Saudi National Arrested for Installing Surreptitious Audio Recording Device at OpenAI
ALT Quote graphic from FBI Director Kash Patel on Abdulrahman Alfozan's covert recording in an executive conference room of a super intelligence company, highlighting the FBI's counterintelligence priorities.
Michael Ames retweeted
After nearly 2 full decades in war journalism, I admit that it does depress me that of the many opinions I hold, the one that drives the most abuse, is the belief that I want both Jews and Arabs to live safely, securely & prosperously as neighbours & friends in the Middle East.
Michael Ames retweeted
Never forget: a senior U.N. official who was on the ground in Israel in the aftermath of October 7th revealed how the strategy of international organizations was to decide in advance on the crime for which they would accuse Israel. “I was there, and I was absolutely stunned.” 🧵
Michael Ames retweeted
Following tonight’s Houthi missile attack on Saudi Arabia, the headquarters of Saudi Aramco in Dhahran were struck.
A limited fire broke out at the facility, with no casualties recorded.
Source: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy
Michael Ames retweeted
Whoops
Abdul El-Sayed's alleged family ties to Muslim Brotherhood surface after denying any link during NBC interview trib.al/zCWjiEd
