Source: CounterPunch
by Brian Hudson
“The seizure of Max Blumenthal’s phones shows how the war on Iran and the border-security state can turn foreign conflict into domestic repression. Max Blumenthal returned from a reporting trip to Iran and left Washington Dulles International Airport without the two phones that contained much of his working life. According to a federal filing submitted on his behalf, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers questioned him about his journalism, funding, and travel plans and seized the devices after he declined to provide their passcodes. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the episode alarming. What happened at Dulles exposed how war abroad, exceptional border powers, and hostility toward dissenting media can converge in a single act of state pressure.” (07/23/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/23/trumps-back-door-into-the-newsroom/