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"Mint Press News incorrectly used my byline for an article it published on August 29, 2013, alleging chemical weapons usage by Syrian rebels,” AP freelancer, Dale Gavlak.
BEIRUT — A freelance contributor to the Associated Press whose byline appeared on a
controversial story that alleged Syrian rebels had gassed themselves in an accident told McClatchy on Saturday that she did not write the article and has been seeking to have her name removed from it since it was published by a small Minnesota-based website. Dale Gavlak, a long time contributor from the Middle East to AP, released an email statement to McClatchy and several blogs denying any role in reporting the story, which was published Aug. 29 by Mint Press News, which describes itself with the phrase “independent advocacy journalism.” The article carried her byline along with that of Yahya Ababneh, a Jordanian Arab-language journalist.
The story likely would have gone unnoticed in pre-Internet days. But thanks to social media such as Twitter and Facebook, it’s become a crucial piece of evidence for those arguing that the rebels, not the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, were most likely responsible for an Aug.
21 chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs.
Within hours of the story’s release, Mint Press’s website crashed from excessive traffic, and the story continues to be cited by conspiracy-minded websites and supporters of the embattled Assad
government in the wake of a U.N. investigation whose findings, many say, implicate the Syrian military.
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