How does a 21-year-old from Cambridge end up on a U. S. government watch list and living in a Hezbollah-controlled neighborhood of Beirut, spreading pro-Iran propaganda? That’s the question investigative reporter Jay Solomon wanted to answer when he started digging into the troubling case of Calla Walsh late last year. Her path might not be common for her generation-thankfully, not many American teens get as deeply radicalized as she has. But her journey into extremism, and what’s behind it, touches on some of the biggest issues facing America today. -The Editors
Since the U. S. and Israel began their joint attack on Iran, few Americans have publicly supported the Islamic Republic more fiercely than Calla Walsh. Operating now out of Lebanon, this 21-year-old activist raised in Cambridge has taken to social media and left-wing podcasts urging fellow Americans to disrupt U. S. and Israeli defense companies whenever possible. On March 3, she mocked four American soldiers killed by an Iranian drone strike with the post: “They all died fighting for fascism, genocide, pedophilia, and cannibalism.” She included pictures of the deceased soldiers. Recently she also shared a list naming missile-production sites inside the U. S.
“We have a duty to escalate,” Walsh told her host on the Psychic Militancy podcast last Saturday from Beirut, saying that “lockdowns” of weapons factories and vandalism alone are “not sufficient at this point.”
She went on: “And as the genocide and these wars of aggression continue to escalate, much more is demanded of people in the West.”
Walsh fits right in with an art-school vibe-thick-rimmed glasses and curly hair-but she’s like a terror chameleon. Five years ago at just 16 years old, The New York Times praised her as a young activist savvy with social media who was shaking up Massachusetts Democratic politics. But after months-long reporting by The Free Press reveals she’s now fully committed to supporting Iran’s Islamic Republic along with its Axis of Resistance allies like Hamas and Hezbollah. U. S officials told me that because of her extensive connections with Cuba’s government and Iran-as well as multiple groups labeled terrorist by America-the government put her on a suspicious persons watch list.
You can see Walsh’s radicalization unfold right before your eyes on X and Instagram over recent years. She shifted fast-from organizing Democratic campaigns to joining Democratic Socialists (DSA), then carrying out guerrilla-style raids against Israeli defense firms in New England that got her jail time in 2024. She regularly calls for killing Israeli leaders and their supporters both here and abroad.
Last October she officially moved to Beirut, according to The Free Press findings, where she became a regular contributor for Iranian state media-in particular Tehran’s English-language Press TV site which Washington has sanctioned-and actively takes part in propaganda efforts backing Iran’s regime and Hezbollah forces battling Israel in southern Lebanon.
Probably no other American has pushed so hard publicly for Iran like Calla Walsh has done recently (@Calla Walsh via X)
In early February, Walsh visited Iran as part of an official media group backed by Tehran aiming to drum up worldwide support against expected U. S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. She was also there trying to cover up Tehran’s January massacre of thousands protesting by painting them instead as defenders against imperial powers and Zionist threats.
The counterterrorism officials I spoke with warned any money or operations Walsh handles tied to blacklisted groups-in Cuba, Iran or Lebanon-could lead to charges against her for providing material aid to terrorist organizations under U. S law. Her latest trip puts her at even greater legal risk if she ever comes back home.
“I’ve never seen someone who’s done jail time so publicly integrate herself into terrorist infrastructure,” one top national security official said bluntly about her situation now being very exposed.
Walsh’s family back home near Boston-including three siblings-are growing worried about someone who just years ago seemed poised for success within Democratic politics here at home. “We love Calla deeply and absolutely,” they wrote me via email but added they strongly disagree politically with where she’s headed now. They didn’t want any further comment though. Walsh herself nor her lawyer Jeffrey Odland replied despite repeated requests from The Free Press.
A lot about Walsh’s story feels familiar-a Gen Z’er who got politically active during Covid lockdowns plus nationwide protests after George Floyd’s murder then later after Hamas attacked Israel last fall. She wrote that climate change activism first drew her into political work addressing racial divides too.
But how quickly she jumped into far-left revolutionary talk is a warning sign experts tell me about how foreign spies along with extremist groups here prey on young Americans nowadays. Experts from around US-Europe-Canada said when Walsh was just 17 months after appearing in The New York Times then writing Teen Vogue pieces about DSA ideology, she got invited repeatedly between 2022-24 by Cuban groups linked closely with Castro intelligence services. Then dropping out soon after starting at Mc Gill University Canada, she hooked up with Fergie Chambers, a Marxist organizer worth millions due partly inheritance from Cox Communications. Her activism led deeper into contacts connected directly with Iranian Revolutionary Guard info units, Hizbollah, and PFLP-the latter banned since ’97 by US due terrorism. She kept getting louder calling for more extreme actions every step along this path.
“I’ve never seen someone who’s done jail time so publicly integrate herself into terrorist infrastructure.”-Senior national security official
Officials tracking her worry that what happened decades ago among female leftist revolutionaries fighting US imperial power could repeat itself. She draws comparisons critics say including figures like Ulrike Meinhof & Gudrun Ensslin from Germany’s Red Army Faction, Bernardine Dohrn (Weather Underground) & Assata Shakur (Black Panther turned Cuban exile). Some counterterror folks nicknamed Walsh “The Little Drummer Girl” referring ironically back John le Carré novel heroine brainwashed by Israelis into bombing Palestinian targets.
Most women didn’t fare well. Meinhof & Ensslin ended suicides behind bars. Dohrn & Shakur spent long stretches running or hiding.
Experts warn it may be too late already.
“To understand her is much easier than to get her off her path, because we don’t have the power to change her realities, she experiences,” Arie Kruglanski, a psychology professor specializing extremism at University Maryland told me.“She’s extremely strong on this quest for significance, and all that she does is a way of getting this significance.”
Calla grew up right there in Cambridge Massachusetts, the college town full liberal types known sometimes jokingly locally as People’s Republic of Cambridge.
Both parents are part local literary scene. Her dad Chris teaches English at Boston University while mom Mary Sullivan teaches fiction writing through Harvard Extension School. Chris used assist Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow during his final dozen years living nearby. Mary writes books aimed mainly at teen readers.
Back then Calla told Boston magazine writer Tom Mc Grath she’d often debate fiercely politics within family especially capitalism’s evils plus racism built deep inside police systems.“I think generally I’m able persuade them issues. Like they vote how I tell them vote,”she said, in interview tape he shared.”They support candidates because know I follow closely.”
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