Aaron Bushnell claimed he had secret knowledge of US troops fighting in Hamas tunnels under Gaza — just hours before setting himself on fire in an “extreme act of protest” against Israel, a close pal told The Post on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old airman — who served in the Air Force’s 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing, but also interacted with radical anarchist groups online — ranted that he had “top-secret clearance’’ for military intelligence data in the call to his friend Saturday night, he said.
“He told me on Saturday that we have troops in those tunnels, that it’s US soldiers participating in the killings,’’ claimed the pal, whose ties to Bushnell have been verified by The Post.
“His actual job involves the processing of intelligence data. Some of what he was processing had to do with the Israeli Gaza conflict.”
“One of the things he told me is that coming across his desk … was the US military was involved in the genocides going on in Palestine,’’ the friend said, referring to Israel’s war against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza.
“He told me that we had troops on the ground, you know, that were there and were killing large numbers of Palestinians.
“There’s just too many things I don’t know, but I can tell you that the tone of his voice just had something in it that told me he was scared,’’ the buddy said.
“I’ve never heard that tone come out of him.”
Although Bushnell claimed he was imparting top secret information to his pal, there is no way of verifying whether that is true.
The White House has repeatedly said it will not put US troops on the ground in Gaza, and President Biden has said he hopes to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas this week.
US special operations forces have been deployed in Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, according to the New York Times, to “identify hostages, including American hostages,” after more than 200 were taken by the group during its raid.
Special forces have also been on hand to assist with strategy for Israeli troops in Gaza, who are flushing out Hamas members from the network of tunnels under the territory, but the report noted troops are “not assigned any combatant roles.”
The Air Force confirmed Bushnell’s title was Innovation Services Technician but has not specified what security clearance he had. It did not immediately return a request for comment from The Post Tuesday.
The friend — who noted he does not “support Hamas in any way, shape or form” — said he was surprised as Bushnell never previously violated his military clearance.
“He’s had a security clearance for four years now, and it is the only time that he has ever, as far as I know, broke protocol and gave out information that he shouldn’t have,’’ the pal said of their conversation.
“He was frightened,’’ the friend said of Bushnell, who grew up in a controversial religious compound in a tiny seaside town in Massachusetts, but ended up fatally lighting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, around 1 p.m. Sunday while screaming, “Free Palestine!”
In the minutes before setting himself alight, Bushnell had livestreamed a short video address in which he said he would “no longer be complicit in genocide.”
In his final Facebook post, Bushnell also wrote: “Many of us like to ask ourselves … What would I do if my country was committing genocide? The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
Unconfirmed posts on Reddit linked to an account that appeared to belong to Bushnell included rants against Israel and justifying Hamas’ terror attack.
They were made in anarchist and anti-police groups and sat alongside more mundane posts about computer software and asking for career advice.
Bushnell also supported the Burning River Anarchist Collective and Mutual Aid Street Solidarity on his Facebook page.
Bushnell’s friend said he had no idea the devout Christian would commit suicide, especially since the airman previously told him he was against it.
“He said it was against God’s plan, there’s always better solutions than suicide, suicide is not going to fix anything,’’ the pal said of Bushnell’s comments to him at the time.
“So for Aaron to have done what he did, there were things that overrode that,’’ the friend said.
“The problems that he was looking at, he couldn’t fix. He would have made this decision to try to make it so somebody else could fix what the problem was.”
The friend said that when he learned about the livestreamed suicide, “My initial reaction is, ‘This can’t be real.’
“ ‘Suicide is not something Aaron would do,’ ” the pal said.
He added that when the pair discussed what Bushnell said he had uncovered about the war, “I told him to follow his conscience, that’s always led him in the right direction before,” although Bushnell did not hint at what he would do the next day.
“Aaron was very analytical, he would have made this kind of a decision after putting a tremendous amount of thought into it.”
“Aaron outwardly presents as the most calm, cool and collected person you will ever know,’’ the friend added.
“You watch the video of him, and you see just how calm, cool and collected he is, and that is his normal personality.
“The most upset we would ever see him … is he would go grab an ax and chop firewood.”
The pal, who had known Bushnell since he was a teenager, said he originally wanted to join the Army, but after the pair looked more closely at all the branches of the armed forces, the young man decided on either the Air Force or the Navy.
“He flipped a coin, [and it landed on] the Air Force. That was in 2019,’’ the friend said.
Over the next few years, Bushnell — who was “honest,’’ full of “integrity’’ and “would do anything to help anybody, anytime” — found himself struggling with constantly toeing the military line, the buddy said.
“Anybody who goes into the military, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed like Aaron did and gets involved with signal intelligence-related things is going to end up in the mindset of Signal Corps or they’re going to leave,’’ the friend said, referring to the military’s communications and information system.
“Aaron did not buy into the mindset of Signal Corps.
“That mindset can be best described as making little compromises to your own internal fortitude so you’re no longer the person you used to be,’’ the source said.
“Aaron couldn’t, that’s not within him.”
Two hit pieces today on this young man: The New York Post and The Washington Post.
Found out that multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Gotta print stories that keep the money home and keep the lies going. And another multi-billionaire, Rupert Murdoch owns The New York Post, one more publication that protects financial predators and smears any that try to expose any wrong-doing.
Interesting fact: The New York Post was founded by Federalist traitor Alexander Hamilton in 1801. His legacy of empire-expansion (globalization) is made evident in these papers.
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