澳彩开奖

To hear the conspiracy-spawning hosts at Alex Jones鈥� InfoWars operation describe it, Chobani Yogurt and its Turkish-born owner are part of a vast plot to populate rural areas with disease-bearing and rape-prone criminal refugees from war-torn nations, driven out by the machinations of 鈥済lobalists鈥� who want to destroy America. Or something like that.

This, more or less, is the conspiracy theory that InfoWars contributors have been spinning for the past year or more, reaching hyperbolic stages in the past month as the site has produced segments with videos titled and

This week, Chobani chose to fight back鈥攊n the courts.

Pointedly observing that Jones 鈥渋s no stranger to spurious statements,鈥� Chobani in Idaho District Court this week demanding $10,000 in attorney fees, full corrections on its false reportage聽and an apology from Jones and his InfoWars operation.

鈥淭he defendants鈥� conduct in this matter was extreme, outrageous and warrants punitive damages,鈥� the lawsuit said.

The focus of the conspiracists鈥� fearmongering was Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, a native of Turkey who has donated heavily to liberal causes and is well known as an advocate for refugee resettlement in the United States and elsewhere. It opened its Idaho plant near Twin Falls, the nation鈥檚 second-largest such operation, . InfoWars and its army of true believers鈥攚ho descended upon Ulukaya and other Chobani officials with a deluge of threats and hate mail through social media鈥攃laim that this is part of a nefarious scheme to drive 鈥渙rdinary Americans鈥� out of rural districts and replace them with brown-skinned foreign refugees dependent on their benefactors.

According to InfoWars, Ulukaya not only is bringing in crime in the form of child rapists to Twin Falls, he鈥檚 bringing disease in the form of tuberculosis.

The anti-refugee contingent had already been whipped into high dudgeon in the Magic Valley in preceding years over its longtime refugee program by a steady drumbeat of Islamophobia engendered with the help of various extremist anti-Muslim organizations, culminating in the open involvement of armed 鈥淚II Percent鈥� militiamen in anti-refugee protests.

However, the hysteria whipped into high gear in the summer of 2016 when a five-year-old in an apartment-complex laundry room, and the story hit local news media, and then went viral. The ensuing sensational news reports鈥攁mplified by screeching headlines at right-wing outlets such as Drudge Report and Breitbart News鈥攄escribed the assault as a 鈥渞ape鈥� and the boys as rapists. Some of the accounts claimed that the boys pulled a knife on the girl; others claimed they were from Syria.

However, as in a definitive report on the case for Slate, the facts are much more complicated. There was no rape involved; one boy inappropriately touched the girl鈥檚 genitals. There were reportedly other acts involved in the assault that were similarly appalling but did not constitute rape. The boys were from Eritrea and Iraq, not Syria. And there was no knife.

Nonetheless, InfoWars鈥� reports on the case consistently described it as 鈥渢he Idaho rape case鈥� and described the boys as rapists. Contributor LeeAnn McAdoo also described Chobani as 鈥渢he target of a lot of anti-refugee anger. People say that the factory there and other local businesses are linked to the refugee program, because the existence of the refugees as labor is needed to fuel Chobani.鈥�

The three boys, ages 14, 10聽and 7, to committing felonies in the assault earlier this month.

Host David Knight kicked off the reportage on the case in 2016 by describing it as 鈥渁 story of an unbelievable takeover of our country. It鈥檚 not just refugees coming in and taking blue-class factory jobs, or middle-class jobs with H1-B visas. No, they鈥檙e coming in and they鈥檙e taking over our entrepreneurship. They鈥檙e taking over American businesses. They鈥檙e taking that role and shutting us down, using their connections in Washington.鈥�

The attacks on Chobani led against the company and its founder. Social-media sites were flooded with calls for a Chobani boycott, as well as memes attacking Ulukaya, claiming he was 鈥済oing to drown the United States in Muslims and is importing them to Idaho 300 at a time to work in his factory.鈥� Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar was subjected to death threats when InfoWars and other sites began suggesting he was part of a 鈥済overnment coverup.鈥�

Knight later repeatedly claimed the refugees were responsible for a rise in disease in the area: 鈥淭hey have a five hundred percent increase in tuberculosis,鈥� he told the InfoWars audience. 鈥淭hat is another one of the costs, along with $54 million dollars from the local and state community. That鈥檚 the cost to the taxpayers.鈥�

Knight鈥檚 claim was based on a wildly distorted report from that 鈥淭B Spiked 500 Percent In Twin Falls in 2012, As Chobani Yogurt Opened Plant.鈥� The Idaho Department of Health shortly thereafter , while seven refugees with tuberculosis had indeed been admitted to the program, none of them had a contagious form of the disease.

Nonetheless, Knight repeated the charge last week, after CBS鈥檚 60 Minutes had featured an interview with Ulukaya: 鈥淪o the report from the hill said that Breitbart at the time had said that the plant had brought not only refugees but crime and tuberculosis鈥攂ut of course, [sardonically] that was just fake news. Remember when we heard the reports of that five-year-old special-needs girl who was raped? Everybody said, 鈥楢w, that was just fake news. That鈥檚 false.鈥� But now of course we have seen them admit to sexually assaulting five-year-old girl, getting their plea deal done last week.

鈥淎nd so now it鈥檚 time for CBS鈥� 60 Minutes to let鈥檚 sweep all that under the carpet and let鈥檚 revitalize the image of Chobani Yogurt.鈥�

As Jennifer Patterson, project director for the federal Partnership for Refugees, explained to , Chobani and similar companies working with refugees are not exploiting them.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the exact opposite,鈥� Patterson said. 鈥淭hese companies are looking to provide resettled refuges with the ability to live happy and productive lives. There鈥檚 never any malicious talk about getting them on the cheap.鈥�