MintPress Under Attack

Urgent Message From Editor-in-Chief Mnar Muhawesh on Social Media Censorship

MINT PRESS NEWS·MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018

Dear friends and supporters, I have an important announcement to make. Please read this post and SHARE with your friend as this is urgent. The future of MintPress News depends on your support. After the October 11th, 2018 Facebook and Twitter purge of over 800 activist sites and pages — many of which were partner sites with MintPress News — we believe our days as an independent journalism organization on authoritarian social media platforms are numbered.

Since 2012, MintPress News has been at the forefront of exposing the dangers of the national security state, the military-industrial complex, and the corporations that have hijacked our democracy and are destroying the planet. We have stood up strong against a media Goliath [the corporate media] that controls over 90% of what we see, hear and read in equipping the American public with pertinent information that holds the establishment accountable.

Our independent, watchdog journalism is creating a shift in consciousness among the millions of readers we’ve been able to reach in the last 6 years, and the very powers that be are taking notice. They realize the impact MintPress is making and are trying to silence us where we reach most of you and where the majority of people are getting their news from: on social media.

The very establishment the media should be holding accountable are working hand in hand with corporate media giants including The Washington Post and Buzzfeed to play thought police and “fake news” spotters that have targeted MintPress on Facebook. To make matters worse NATO funded think tanks like theAtlantic Council has also partnered up with Facebook to suppress our content, flag our posts as “inappropriate” or “spam” and in many cases censor us under the guise of fighting “fake news”.

Facebook has been flagging several of our articles and our reader’s political comments as spam. It’s only a matter of time before our page and some of our readers end up in Facebook jail, or purged completely. Facebook has also admitted to deleting user accounts at the behest of the U.S. and Israeli governments.

Hopefully we’re wrong, but it feels like our Facebook days are numbered.

And it’s not just Facebook. MintPress articles are even being blocked by Google News in search results. Not only that, but we are consistently being threatened to have our ads cut off by one of our main sources of revenue: Google Adsense, which is flagging several of our investigative pieces as “not appropriate” for advertisers. This article addressing Obama’s policies as racist is just one example

This has affected our readership and drained our advertising revenue by over 70%. They are doing everything they can to drain our bank accounts and prevent us from reaching our own readers and operate as an organization. As a result, we’ve had to cut staff and restructure our business plan time and time again to be able to function on a very small budget that is stretching us very, very thin. We can no longer rely on ads and are appealing to our readers and supporters to sustain us and help us create better, stronger content.

Our future depends on your support. We need your financial help to not only sustain MintPress’s operation costs but to help us make a comeback against the powers that be who are trying to silence us — before these social media giants wipe us off the map.

While Facebook, Google, and others ramp up their efforts to make watchdog journalism algorithmically disappear, we’re ramping up our efforts to circumvent corporate censorship and provide our readers with the kind of journalism that empowers we the people.

How you can help: Help us raise $25,000 in 60 days

We have an initial first phase fundraising goal of $25,000 to help us sustain some of MintPress News’ operating costs and other journalism projects right here on GoFundMe:

1. An investigative unit led by award winning journalist Max Blumenthal;

2. Bring back “Behind The Headline” video series, hosted by me — Mnar A. Muhawesh;

3. Series reporting in censored conflict zones like Yemen + more.

We are fighting real “fake news” that is choking up the airwaves produced by the establishment, corporate media, but we can’t win against them in educating the masses without your help.

We’re offering our donors special gifts like personalized keychains, stickers, reusable shopping bags, stainless steel water bottles (BPA free) and t-shirts with snazzy messages about peace and government accountability. (read more in the link) Check the link in the comments to learn more about what we’re doing to fight for truth.

In solidarity,

Mnar Muhawesh

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, MintPress News

Alternative to War – The Book

 

Get it here:

A Global Security System: An Alternative to War — 2017 Edition Now Available

#SpringAgainstWar marches this weekend

 

In organizing, we speak about the cycle of activism, which waxes and wanes throughout the seasons of the year. During the winter months, many turn inward to home and hearth. But with springtime upon us, it’s time to dust off our signs and banners and put on our marching shoes.

To kick-off the upswing of activism that comes with the spring, join World BEYOND War and our allies for a National Day of Anti-War Action!

Initiated by the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, the demands of the Spring Anti-War Action are:

• End U.S. wars, bombings, drones, and other forms of U.S. aggression
• Close all U.S. foreign bases
• Bring all U.S. troops home
• Dismantle nuclear weapons
• Use the funds of the massive U.S. military budget – $1 trillion/year – for human needs and environmental protection

Actions are being organized in mid-April in locations across the nation – from New York City to Minneapolis to the San Francisco Bay Area. Find an event near you.

We are witnessing a time of increasing cross-connections between movements, with the U.S. military-industrial complex at the root of many systemic issues. The Spring Day of Anti-War Action highlights both the foreign and domestic impact of U.S. warmongering. Our nation’s perpetual state of war fuels the militarization of the police at home, contributes to an increasing surveillance state that infringes on our civil liberties, and abuses our tax dollars, leaving little to nothing for education, healthcare, infrastructure, and environmental protection.

Can you join this April for #SpringAgainstWar?

U.S. Humiliates South Korea, Threatens North Korea

 

By David William Pear

Fearing that peace might break out with the two Koreas talking to each other, Washington instructed South Korean President Moon Jae-in to keep the message about anything but peace. It is not just Trump. A former top official for the Obama administration warned Moon that South Korea was not going to get anywhere with the North Koreans unless they have the “US behind them”. Humiliating, that is like saying that Moon’s “button” is not as big as Kim’s. The metaphor is exactly how the Washington elite see South Korea: as Washington’s obedient eunuch. The official went on to say, “If South Koreans are viewed as running off the leash, it will exacerbate tension within the alliance”. Running off the leash! Now more humiliation, is South Korea a US poodle? Instead President Moon Jae-in is showing that he has teeth, and that South Koreans want their country back from US humiliating domination.

During the talks it was agreed for North Korea to participate in the Winter Olympics in February. The two countries will even march together under a common flag, and future talks between the two are planned to reduce tension. Trump continues to bluster, while the two Koreas have “engaged in the most substantive direct talks in years”. Neocons such as John Bolton are outraged that North Korea has proven once again that it is willing to come to the negotiation table. Bolton says it is a dirty trick and that North Korea is “taking advantage of a weak South Korean government”, adding more insulting humiliation. To Washington, South Korea talking peace is weak, running off the leash and going it alone without its US master. The North using the peace option is seen as a provocation and propaganda that Washington will not tolerate. In retaliation the US sent more nukes to Guam, and put the state of Hawaii on a full alert that a “ballistic missile was inbound“. The nukes outbound to Guam are real; the ones inbound to Hawaii were fake, just like the ability of the billion dollar THAADS to shoot them down. Too conveniently the Hawaii false alarm comes just as the US and its vassals are readying for what the US plots to be a show of solidarity and unity on killer sanctions against North Korea. The US wants its chorus to perform the tragedy of telling North Korea to obey or watch 500,000 of their children die. As Madeleine Albright said about Iraq’s 500,000 dead children from US sanctions, “the price is worth it“. The US does not think the price of diplomacy is worth it though.

The US continues to block efforts at diplomacy, and express its contempt for South Korea’s elected President Moon Jae-in. He was elected on a peace platform by the South Korean people. Moon’s predecessor Park Geun-hye sang from the US hymnbook until she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. In 2017 the South Korean people went to the street and demanded the granddaughter of former dictator Park Chung Hee be impeached, and now she is in prison. Peace is not anything that Washington’s plutocrats want to hear, although the South Korean people like the sound of it, and elected Moon their president by a wide margin. The self-interests in Washington preferred the corrupt warmonger Park. She carried the US’s tune with perfect pitch, even (allegedly) conspired to assassinate the North’s Kim Jong-Un. The message of the humiliation from US apparatchiks is that if Moon does not change his tune the US will try to undermine South Korea’s democracy with a regime change project might be in his future. The US habitually meddles in other’s elections, and wants to keep tensions high on the Korean peninsula, keep the South Koreans in line, make North Korea a boogeyman, frighten the American people, station 30,000 US troops in South Korea with wartime operational control, buy more multi-billion dollar THAADS from Lockheed Martin, and divide the Korean people. Even at the risks of a nuclear war, which the US proposes making easier.

The establishment nearly went to war with North Korea in 1994 until Bill Clinton negotiated peace. The neocons in Washington and the mainstream media keep saying that North Korea refused to come to the negotiating table. Clinton’s decision to use diplomacy instead of threats proved the warmongers wrong again. It was the US all along that refused to talk, preferring belligerence and threats just as it does now. Once Clinton showed a willingness to bargain, then a nuclear deal was struck. The deal was called the Agreed Framework. What North Korea wanted then for it to suspend its nuclear program was for the US to halt the massive military exercises on North Korea’s border, a non-aggression guarantee, compensation for abandoning its needed electric producing nuclear reactors, and relations with the US. Now the situation with North Korea is back to where it was in 1994. George W. Bush reversed the path of peace when he came into the White House. In 2001 he tore up the Agreed Framework, put North Korea on the Axis of Evil list in 2002, invaded Iraq in 2003, and hanged Saddam Hussein in 2006. Very predictably North Korea resumed its nuclear program for self-defense against a paranoid and unpredictable USA that sees enemies to attack under every bed.

Don’t Thank Me for My Service

 

Desmond Tutu #nowar

 

http://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2017

Syria Post Mortem

Did Trump Really End the CIA’s Secret War in Syria?