FBI Agents Visit Journalist Lee Stranahan After Release From Hospital

"Thanks Augustana. For trying to be a part of the community, this is what I get."

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March 25, 2022

Sioux Falls, South Dakota (AA) - Investigative journalist was paid a visit by the FBI yesterday after offering his expertise on Ukraine to Augustana University.

"Thanks Augustana. For trying to be a part of the community, this is what I get...The FBI went away. They were satisfied. They said I was no threat, but this is the environment we live in where I am perceived as a threat simply because I work for Sputnik and it's disgusting. That's it. That's the story."

-Lee Stranahan, Investigative Journalist

• Stranahan is known for his appearance and work on the Oliver Stone documentary, Revealing Ukraine, recently suffered a stroke that required him to be hospitalized for several days. 

• Michael McFaul is set to be the keynote speaker at an event organized by Augustana University and its Center for Western Studies.

• The 25th Boe Forum on Public Affairs, "Russia and The Future of Europe", will be held March 31, 2022 at Augustana University's Elmen Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

• McFaul writes for The Washington Post and has appears regularly on NBC News as an analyst. 

• After reaching out to Augustana University to offer to speak at the event, the school administration called the FBI on the investigative journalist. 

• Lee Stranahan had just returned home from a short hospitalization following a stroke when he was visited by FBI agents at his apartment. 

• Stranahan stated the agents left with the impression that the recently discharged hospital patient was not a threat. 

Lee Stranahan 🇷🇺 @stranahan

Why the FBI paid me a visit yesterday part two.

Michael Mcfaul, who Stranahan describes as a "noted establishment talking head on the Russia story" and as being one of the characters involved in RussiaGate, was invited to be the keynote speaker at the South Dakota university's annual public affairs forum. Augustana University is a private Lutheran school and one of two colleges in Sioux Falls. McFaul served as the 7th United States Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014 and was the chief mind behind Obama's Russia Reset policy, in addition to writing for The Washington Post as a PR writer for the government. 

Prior to the start of the war and before Stranahan's hospitalization, the acknowledged expert on geopolitics in Ukraine, who has been featured in Oliver Stone's documentary, Revealing Ukraine, offered to be a panelist/speaker in conjunction with Michael McFaul. Augustana University then proceeded to call the FBI on Lee Stranahan after the journalist offered his services to the academic institution as a speaker at the event. 

Thinking it might be good for attendees of the free academic event to received a "more balanced presentation" of what is happening in Eastern Europe, Stranahan reached out to the college to offer his expertise. Instead, he was visited by law enforcement. 

The irony of the behavior of institutions of education in the United States has reached historic levels. One of the basic ideas of having an academic institution to learn from is the pursuit of new ideas and the existence of a platform where ideas can be openly discussed. The reality of the modern American college is almost the opposite: groupthink, censorship, and a culture of intellectual fear. 

"Thanks Augustana. For trying to be a part of the community, this is what I get." stated, Stranahan, who has hosted me as a guest on his show, "The Backstory", several times in the past. 

"The FBI went away. They were satisfied. They said I was no threat, but this is the environment we live in where I am perceived as a threat simply because I work for Sputnik and it's disgusting. That's it. That's the story." 

Leave it to the FBI to declare that a professional journalist who just returned home from stroke hospitalization is not a threat. What would we do without them?

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