The Huffington Post article by Akbar Shahid Ahmed—based entirely on unnamed sources—by design or defect, creates a distorted picture, leaving the false impression Blinken and Sullivan had plausible deniability of Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing. Ridiculous is the suggestion that it did not dawn on Blinken that Israel was engaged in ethnic cleansing until the "final weeks" of the Biden administration, with Blinken's question evidencing simply a "suspicion" as opposed to firm knowledge from the beginning. To paint Brett McGurk and Jacob Lew as running the show instead of being Blinken's bulldogs to silent dissent lacks credibility. Since the very beginning, Biden knew, Blinken knew, Sullivan knew, and Austin knew. As the Secretary of State, it was Blinken's job to know; and, of course, it was not difficult to know given the public statements by Israeli officials evidencing an intent to genocide and to ethnically cleanse. In fact, Biden, Blinken, and Austin were all sued in Dec 2023 as defendants in a complaint in federal court in California so alleging. In Dec 2023, South Africa accumulated enough evidence to file a complaint with the ICJ against Israel for genocide of the Palestinian people. Upon reading it in late Dec 2023, Professor John Mearsheimer concluded it was genocide. And, as the HP article itself states: "State Department lawyers told Blinken in December 2023 that Israeli conduct likely violated international law, per Reuters", but the HP appears to belittle this as mere "clues", as if Sherlock Holmes were still needed to solve the mystery. As early as Jan 2024, the ICJ and the US judiciary warned it was plausible Israel was engaged in genocide. Numerous US officials resigned in protest. State Department assessments were intentionally delayed and suppressed.