American political commentator Scott Bennett has died of pancreatic cancer at age 53, his friends and family said on Friday.
A former US army psychological warfare officer, Bennett provided political commentary to RT and other media outlets. He also travelled to Donbass in 2023 to witness the situation on the ground firsthand.
RTD aired a documentary detailing his journey to Donetsk and other frontline cities titled “Frontline Diary of an American Officer.”
In 2014, the analyst authored the book ‘Shell Game: a Military Whistleblowing Report to Congress’, which focused on former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner granting permission for an arms sale to Qatar. Weapons sold as part of that deal ended up in the hands of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), according to Bennett.
In June 2024, Bennett visited the Russian border region of Belgorod, where he witnessed the Ukrainian shelling of the village of Saltykovo. At that time, he condemned what he called an attack on civilians.
The following month, he prepared a report to the US Congress, accusing Ukrainian forces and foreign fighters of “systematically” and “intentionally” targeting civilians in Belgorod Region and Donbass.
“Non-military targets are being attacked, irreparably damaged or destroyed, and civilians are being intentionally murdered as a result,” Bennett said in his report, accusing the Biden administration of making the US a “legally culpable party to international war crimes” through its support of Kiev’s actions.
In his report, Bennett also stated that he faced “death threats and threats of violence” from the Ukrainian government, military personnel, and media over the course of his investigation. He also allegedly received similar threats from American and NATO “elements and agents” backing Kiev’s cause.
The analyst published his report on Telegram as well, and accompanied it with a message saying that he was not “suicidal in any way.” “If anything happens to me it will be in order to try and bury this report,” he wrote.