US reporter threatened by Saudi Arabia over Syria chemical weapons attack

American reporter Dale Gavlak working for the Associated Press has reportedly received threats from Saudi Arabia to “end her career” after she helped revealing a story that militants were behind a chemical weapons attack in Syria.
US reporter threatened by Saudi Arabia over Syria chemical weapons attack Mint Press News executive director Mnar Muhawesh said the reporter received the threats 48 hours after an August 29th article published by the news site explained that how the militants admitted to Jordanian reporter Yahya Ababneh that they were behind the August 21st gas attack.

According to Gavlak, “the threats came from a third party who was most likely acting on behalf of Saudi Intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan,” Infowars.com reported.

The Mint Press News article said interviews with doctors, residents, anti-government forces and their families in Ghouta suggest the terrorists in question received chemical weapons via Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud.

Gavlak, who has been suspended by the Associated Press as a result of the article, said Mint Press News wrongly put her byline on a story in the article.

Her lawyer says she simply helped Ababneh translate the article into English. The lawyer says Ababneh is the sole reporter of the story, Politico reported.

In a statement released over the weekend, Mint Press said they understand Gavlak is under “mounting pressure” that her career would end because of the article but that she researched and wrote the article, along with Ababneh.

“We are aware of the tremendous pressure that Dale and some of our other journalists are facing as a result of this story, and we are under the same pressure as a result to discredit the story. We are unwilling to succumb to those pressures for MintPress holds itself to the highest journalistic ethics and reporting standards,” the statement reads.

“We hold Dale Gavlak in the highest esteem and sympathize with her for the pressure she is receiving, but removing her name from the story would not be honest journalism and therefore, as stated before, we are not willing to remove her name from the article,” according to the statement.