Below is my column in The Hill on the controversies involving far-left influencers rallying support for Iranian and anti-American interests. One figure, Calla Walsh, could face legal consequences for her participation in alleged Iranian propaganda videos. The question is whether she will be treated as a type of Tehran Rose by the U.S. government.
Here is the column:
On July 4, 1916, Iva Ikuko Toguri was born in Los Angeles — 25 years before she would go to Japan and become known as the infamous Tokyo Rose during World War II.
Roughly one hundred years later, Calla Walsh, 21, has stepped forward as a type of Tehran Rose, cutting propaganda films for one of the most blood-soaked regimes in the world. Walsh appeared at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and praised him as the “greatest anti-imperialist leader.”
Walsh is not alone. Other young Americans have rallied to the anti-American cause. That includes Jackson Hinkle, who appeared on a stage in Tehran, cheering on a crowd chanting “Down with America.” It also includes Max Blumenthal, 48, the son of Sidney Blumenthal, the columnist who became notorious as the “attack dog” for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
While supporting a regime that denies free speech and other human rights to its citizens, they are protected in the U.S. in voicing unpopular views, including denouncing their own nation. The question is where the line is between that and criminal conduct.
Walsh, Hinkle and Blumenthal fit a pattern not just as young and privileged radicals, often downwardly mobile from their parents’ careers and accomplishments, but also as voices groomed by U.S. media culture for years.
She would work on the campaigns of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. (Her work on the campaigns drew gushing reviews in The New York Times and Boston Magazine).
Hinkle was also celebrated by the media after he embraced socialism and then communism. Born in San Clemente, California, he was named one of “The 17 Most Inspirational Kids of 2017” by Reader’s Digest. As with Walsh, he was featured in Teen Vogue as an inspirational young activist. In a Los Angeles Times article, he was described by a source as “the kind of guy who gives you hope about the future … Jackson is fearless and well-informed.” Today, he is a vocal supporter not only of Iran’s regime but also of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its war against Ukraine.
The scion of the Democratic establishment, Blumenthal attended the exclusive Georgetown Day School in Washington and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. His connections gave him immediate access to elite publications. He wrote books denouncing Israel and espousing increasingly radicalized values.
He also wrote far-left columns for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. Liberal websites, including The Nation, The Daily Beast, and The Huffington Post, featured his work. He is viewed as an apologist for regimes fighting the U.S., often dismissing atrocities committed by countries such as Syria and Russia. (His father, Sidney Blumenthal, sent Hillary Clinton roughly two dozen of his son’s columns. Hillary responded with such praise as “Max strikes again!” and “He’s so good.”)
All three are examples of today’s radical chic in media and higher education, all given platforms as influencers.
And there are thousands like Walsh, Hinkle, and Blumenthal. Indeed, our colleges are cranking out radicalized young people who have a paucity of job prospects but an abundance of rage.
Recently, a Fourth of July event captured this culture in Chicago. The event featured Bill Ayers, a former professor, former fugitive, and one of the founders of the domestic terrorist organization, the Weather Underground.
The other speaker was Princeton’s Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a chaired professor in the African-American Studies department and a writer for the New Yorker. Taylor delighted the young audience by saying that they were all part of the “F— the U.S.” crowd and called on others to reject “the idea of loving a nation state, which is what patriotism is.” She repeatedly returned to the theme that borders are “deadly” and “borders kill people,” denouncing all borders as “a tool of death and destruction.”
Walsh’s emergence as a face of Iranian propaganda raises striking parallels to Toguri, who was arrested and convicted of treason after World War II. She was actually just one of several women who participated in the infamous propaganda radio programs for the Japanese military.
The difference is that Toguri, whom President Gerald Ford later pardoned, may have been an unwilling participant in the programs. Unlike Walsh, Toguri was effectively trapped in Japan after the U.S. refused to recognize her citizenship, preventing her from returning home to California.
Toguri was effectively destitute, subjected to cruel treatment by the Japanese. She insisted that she had been coerced into reading anti-American scripts and that even then she refused to attack the United States in her programs.
Walsh was not just a willing participant; she is a raving anti-Semitic ally to the Iranians — and seemingly any country that can do harm to the U.S.
She found ample support in the media as she veered further and further leftward while adopting anti-American views. Enablers at publications like Teen Vogue featured her manifesto: “I’m a 17-year-old socialist. For my generation, a fascist presidential administration, pandemic, economic collapse, and a historic uprising for Black lives have shaped our worldview.”
Following the attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Walsh asked: “Why should zionists feel safe anywhere“? After the Iranian government massacred tens of thousands of protesters, Walsh defended and helped whitewash the lethal response, instead blaming the U.S. and Israel.
The usual suspects on the American left helped facilitate and fund Walsh’s radicalization. That includes Fergie Chambers, the self-styled millionaire Marxist organizer and heir to the Cox Communications empire. Chambers, a college dropout who has helped finance Walsh’s Unity of Fields organization and at times to pay her legal bills, has said that “the most important thing for the prosperity of humanity is the destruction of the U.S.”
As for her current finances, if she has received funds from Iranian-linked groups, she could face legal jeopardy. Walsh has reportedly been working with Iranian state media that have been put under sanctions by the U.S.
Hinkle and Blumenthal may also face questions regarding any support they have given or received in relation to Iran and other countries. Hinkle, notably, was a high-profile participant as a “pro-Iran influencer” at the funeral of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last year. He was also a speaker at a Houthi rally in Yemen, with his speech again followed by chants of “Death to America!” Hezbollah, like Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the other violent paramilitaries it supports, has been declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The Tehran Times described Blumenthal as attending as editor-in-chief of The Grayzone with hundreds of other Western influencers. Again, there is no evidence he received or gave support directly to the Iranian regime. He can maintain that he is a journalist opposed to U.S. imperialism, acting within his rights under the First Amendment.
In our country, it is no easy task to show that someone has crossed a line. It is not a criminal act, after all, to join “F— the U.S.” chants in Chicago or even “Down with America” in Tehran. Also, if you were merely observing or reporting, you are not criminally culpable, even if you are a useful dupe for propagandists. Yet working directly with propaganda units associated with foreign terrorist organizations could lead to charges.
Fortunately for the anti-American influencers, they will be afforded all of the protections regimes like Iran and Russia deny to everyone. In the end, they are less important than what they represent: They are the enfants terribles of the American left, and they are being replicated in the thousands in our educational system.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Borders work in two directions. One type can keep people out or regulate those that wish to enter. The purpose of that type of border is to define the limits of sovereignty for a nation and provide security for those within. The second type of border is designed to keep citizens inside the boundary as captives to a regime. Those borders are intentionally lethal to those who attempt to cross them. Our would be commissars while condemning the presence of the 1st type would have no problem with the use of the latter type. I would expect them to replace the former with the latter if given the opportunity. A visit to the remnants of the Berlin wall and the border between North and South Korea would be instructive for those who know so much about borders.
Free Speech includes the speech we detest. PERIOD.
Really, you would lay down your life to protect the right of your mortal enemy to use infowarfare to destroy you, your family, your security, and everything you hold dear? Are organized media campaigns aimed at turning your children against you and against our country merely “speech you detest”?
You make it sound so simple. You haven’t thought about the contradictions.
“would lay down your life to protect the right of your mortal enemy to ..” Would you?
Define mortal enemy. So who is your mortal enemy? The one in your head?
Oh, and, that free speech amendment, its only for your kind?
You’re painting a dichotomization trap whose two extremes are disastrous:
• anything-goes, scortched-Earth, death-match infowarfare vs.
• totalitarian state censorship and propaganda (coerced harmony)
Obviously, the free-speech “sweet spot” is some nuanced middle-ground — where opinions are expressed freely with civility and received with open-minded critical thinking. That gives a society the most options when complex choices have to be made. That gives a healthy feedback loop to decisionmaking.
Mortal enemies: Fundmenalist Islamists, Chinese Communist Party, Putin’s Russia (FSB, GRU), IRGC, Hamas, Hizbollah, Houthi, NoKo regime.
So what are the contradictions?
Obviously you haven’t thought that thru and yet you want to kill because of speech you detest.
The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact.
No one said it was, but why do you even thunk that. Planning something?
Hullbobby (I think) is talking about giving foreign enemies unfettered speech freedom to burrow into the minds of Americans with anti-American propaganda, hoping to turn our youth against us. If that were to succeed, then 1A would effectively have been turned into a suicide pact.
And let’s not forget JANE “HANOI” FONDA from the 60’s posing on NVA Anti-Aircraft Guns. Scumbags come in all flavors but mostly white, young, and DUMB!!! Little rich punk a$$e$ that never got limits or corporal punishment from Corporate Mom & Dad who were too busy. Notice also that Walsh was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America – our newest members of Congress (most likely) as low IQ young idiots vote for like-minded whack jobs!
The Prarieland TX antifa trial verdict and sentences sets some new perilous boundaries for those “cosplaying” as revolutionary subversives. The lefties who got ensnared in a set of “anti-” activities that together fit a model antifa troublemaking cell — using encrypted Telegram messaging, wearing “black bloc” attire and facial coverings at nighttime civil disobedience events, studying antifa published “zines” to master CJS evasion, gun club training, and use of identity-obscuring codenames.
On the night of July 4th 2025, the leader of the cell organized a fireworks assault on the ICE Detention Center. About a dozen black-clad cell members gathered across the street and lobbed fireworks in the direction of the lockup. When confronted by 2 ICE officers who came out, the cell leader gave a verbal command to brandish firearms — something not necessarily illegal in concealed carry TX. Just then, a local police officer arrived, responding to a call from ICE staff. Gunfire broke out, and the cell leader (Song) shot the policeman above the collarbone very close to the neck. Most of the antifa group were arrested that night or afterwards, 18 all together. Charged with “material support for a terrorist group”, 6 flipped on the others in exchange for lighter sentences — 12 years instead of 50-70 years. The cell leader was additionally convicted of attempted murder of the cop, and got 100 years. The cop was not seriously injured by the bullet, and was released from the hospital the next day — but it was only centimeters from a lethal hit.
Their defense of being leaderless and merely peaceful protestors fell flat in front of the jury when evidence showed a pattern that included organized cover-up activities to protect leader and other cell members from arrest after the shooting. The antifa zines were taken to a safe house. The defense claim was “we were just helping our friends”.
It’s worth noting that such leftist, pseudo-militant, pretend revolutionaries are not being “let off easy” this time. The core group got essentially lifetime sentences — the cooperators got a dozen years. And a Ft. Worth jury was convinced that the group’s myriad tactical ploys used to make it hard to be held accountable for vandalism and scare tactics neatly fit the antifa playbook. Militants might want to take note — you’re only fooling yourself if you think your revolutionary cosplay will go unchallenged.
If the govt plans to do anything Tehran Rose, it better do it PDQ, like before the Democrats regain power. After that, we will have Biden 2, this time with a vengeance.
Imagine how ineffective and un-concerning anti-American rhetoric would be, if America’s children went to schools that taught the lessons of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, taught the history of what it means to live under a communist regime, taught the truth about which countries in the Middle East are democratic and are governed by people of different religions and genders who are chosen in free and fair elections (and which countries are not), and began each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord’s Prayer.
The garbage they’re consuming online after school, up until after midnight scrolling on their mobile device — what should we do about that? The problem isn’t confined to what students are being taught in school.
The purveyors of that online garbage are 110% convinced “free speech” gives them unfettered rights to influence children. Mr. Turley hasn’t come out strongly in favor of parental rights to exercise control over their childrens’ media influence. He seems to be conflicted about this because it might crimp the free speech of adult online content contributors. The moral confusion placing adult free speech over parental rights is frightening.
And what garbage is that?
Communist Propaganda
“The garbage they’re consuming online after school, up until after midnight scrolling on their mobile device — what should we do about that?”
Schools could, and imo should, also teach students the fallacy of relying on those sources for information, and on the potential mental and emotional damage from becoming addicted to them. Unfortunately, the teachers are just as addicted, and their unions love the idea of levering the smartphone universe to reduce their members’ workloads to a level even more negligible that it already is. Even worse, a large and ever-increasing number of parents suffer the same addiction, which makes it a self-energizing phenomenon.
“… if America’s children went to schools that taught the lessons of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, taught the history of what it means to live under a communist regime…”
Exactly right. The line between speech and action is clear. Free speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment and should not be punished. To do otherwise does more damage to our culture and Liberty than the speaker could ever hope to do. Actions such those in Turley’s example of throwing fireworks at ICE officers, on the other hand, are not protected, and should be treated as severely as is merited, by arrest, trial, and (if found guilty) appropriate imprisonment and/or fines. The best defense, quite possibly the only effective defense, against speech that is counter to our national principles of Liberty is a population that has been properly educated in our values and in identifying and rejecting phony rhetoric. The failure of our educational system to do that is the crucial source of the weaknesses in clear thinking and resolve on which these would-be destroyers feed, and that is what must be addressed. Anything less will never be more effective than trying to staunch a hemorrhage with a band-aid.
That would be wonderful, SBB! I would love to see the current education trajectory reversed.
There is no discussion herein regarding official activities of the government of the United States, or existing promulgated law the activities of which this individual would be in violation of that could lead to any charges of giving aid comfort to the enemy. As I see it, the nation would have to be at war by declaration in order for that sort of charge to be loving. There’s no seditious activity. Just a lot of rabble rousing.
Good point. Declarations of war were the hallmark of an honorific culture, where intentions were expected to be clearly stated.
Our political culture has descended into a lowly place where the distinction between dishonorable vs. honorable is barely recognized anymore. We have euphemisms for dishonorable behavior — gaming the system, voicing a “narrative”, bringing on “disruption”….or simply “fighting” (dirty). The moral laxity and confusion is not a good omen.
‘They are the enfants terribles of the American left, and they are being replicated in the thousands in our educational system.’
Finally. Yes, yes they are. Our universities are lost. We still need to go one step further though, and take a look at the coddling parenting trends of the past nearly three decades that makes students so susceptible in the first place.
They have the emotional maturity and experiential intelligence of (as evidenced by the, ‘Are they in kindergarten?’, ‘manifesto’) toddlers. People like Kamala compound it with her ‘you deserve to have all that you expect’ mentality. Service, respect, open-mindedness, and compassion for others are simply not a part of the programming. We will look back on these generations as socially engineered, no different than the Hitler Youth or jihadis.
I really appreciate Professor truly’s cogent commentaries on legal matters. I’m not so sure it is a good idea for him to stray into the realm of commentary on U.S. foreign policy.
While I agree that there are many wealthy, pampered children–and, in fact, children from all socioeconomic backgrounds–who have become indoctrinated with harmful far-left ideologies–that is a different issue from whether protesting the U.S.’s preemptive attacks on Iran, and ongoing military support for Ukraine and Israel, are in America’s interest and, for that matter, are humane and moral.
By mocking these foolish children, Turley is obscuring the question of whether our leaders, including the late Senator Lindsay (who Turley lionized in his post yesterday), are propagandizing American citizens into accepting the Neocon agenda of involving America in endless preemptive wars–wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in other countries, have caused deaths and injuries of American soldiers, and are contributing to the bankrupting of our own country.
“replicated in the thousands in our educational system.” Only a mater of a few more years and then you’ll all be in a mass grave.
These are the useful idiots that Lenin is said to have described.
Unless they took payments from Iran, they can cosplay as radicals all they want. They are best ignored.
Not a surprise. There were apologists for Hitler in World War 2. Especially prior to the war but many sort of disappeared once the war started. Almost every democracy in Europe had fascist parties including England. George Lincoln Rockwell ran the American Nazi Party post WW 2 (and was assassinated in 1967). There were apologists for Russia, North Korea, CCP, North Vietnam and now Iran. Red Army Faction in Germany were primarily from well to do parents. There were some pretty violent groups on campuses in the 1960’s.
They should be watched but our system protects their speech unless they commit acts that injure the nation. You may hate their message but they are protected as long as it’s just a message. Frustrating.
Watched?
I think I remember Calla Walsh getting arrested for doing something with an arms facility or some other building and of course never hearing about it again.
What a stupid comment.
Yeah my comment is stupid and yet after I posted it I looked it up and yes, she was arrested for damaging a company that supplied Israel.
Man, is anyone else sick of this nasty little moron?
Obviously no one else is sick of that nasty little moron. Can’t rally the troops eh stupid. You’re no leader, just a sick mind screaming at everything you can’t understand. End it finally.
HullBobby,
He is such a loser, is not worthy of being “sick” of.
Just ridicule how much of a low life he is.
They should all be tried, before a conservative judge and jury (I suggest Gov DeSantis recommends the locale). Venue would stick because their screeds reach deep red as well as blue and purple areas. Let’s not be cautious and assume they won’t be appropriately convicted and punished.
Tried? Why? You’d make a worthy exterminator for liberals. You sure you’re not one? Karen the commie.
Growing up in privilege, protected by the rights guaranteed in the very country they attack, these wealthy hypocrites would never, not even for a minute, choose to live as an average Iranian. They cosplay as Iranians or Cubans or Syrians or Gazans or whatever is the “oppressed” group du jour, but they won’t give up their status and live among those truly oppressed by the regimes they fawn over.
The primary reason the FBI, CIA, NSA, DHS and the military will never become a Gestapo or Stasi is the American Oath of Office.
American officials have an “indirect” loyalty oath to America. Not a single American official from the local police chief to the CIA swear supreme loyalty to the nation directly or to the people directly or to any religion directly.
American officials swear supreme loyalty in their job authority to a “constitutional rule of law” that protects individual rights and freedoms from gun rights to women’s rights. In this system local, state and federal laws must circumscribe (follow) the U.S. Constitution under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. Any law that betrays the U.S. Constitution can be overturned as unconstitutional.
Trump has never understood how the American model of government was designed to function. This ignorance of the American system and his love or foreign dictatorships also harms Republicans and Conservatives.
Gun rights and property rights only survive in the American “constitutional rule of law” system, not the foreign models of government. For decades the NRA has warned about the dangers of foreign models of government seizing your guns.
Trump should start following the American model of government and start being loyal to his Oath of Office. Let’s start at the top before pointing fingers elsewhere.
COINTELPRO!
YAWN.. More BS lies.
Try another angle.
Angle? Why, didn’t understand the comment. No surprise.
If we require naturalizing citizens to swear this oath, it seems we should expect all citizens to follow it. The boring performance art of anti-Americanism so popular with the left (because it is what they are programmed to think) should be treated as the treason it is. The first amendment doesn’t protect domestic terrorists and domestic enemy combatants, that was the laughable interpretation by the Alinski losers. Treason and/or sedition should not be tolerated.
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.
If nothing happened to Hanoi Jane, nothing will happen to these scions of the far left
@whig98
You’re probably right. Many are from globalist families that are very well connected, and it isn’t strictly a question of wealth, but also of nepotism. Aristocracy is the only fitting description. Couldn’t cut the irony or ignorance with a knife. It’s all just a game to them – the hate, the violence, the subjugation. Enfants terribles is right.
We have a president that favors foreign models of dictatorship (Putin and others) and strongly dislikes his own American officials. A president that has complete contempt for his own Oath of Office and contempt for the U.S. Constitution. So you really want to go there?
Proof?
You fools keep throwing this trash out, but NEVER prove it. Just heard say as usual.
Never prove it? If you were literate (doubtful), just read the news.
Not news… Just hear say. Try again
If you say it enough times, it becomes truth.
Repeat after me…
Here is the comment I just posted elsewhere in this thread regarding this little sub-thread conversation.
Figures. Dem-o-rats supporting murderous dictators.
It also includes Max Blumenthal, 48, the son of Sidney Blumenthal, the columnist who became notorious as the “attack dog” for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
cut n paste again dustoff. got any original thoughts? Didn’t think so.
All you do is cry. Is any part of this a lie?
DustOff,
Right?
And Hillary there, praising Max. Really shows how much we dodged a bullet.