BLACK STAR NEWS — VICTIM OF CYBER ATTACKS FOR SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER
Over the years Black Star News has covered many stories about corruption, including the alleged egregious misconduct of judges in the New York courts system, and about the U.S.-supported Ugandan military regime, just to name a few subjects.
Sometimes the articles we’ve published have been deleted by hackers presumably employed by the subjects of the article — the only individuals or entities with incentive to have the stories disappear.
Sometimes we discover the deletions months later when a reader informs us that a link to an article led to a page that only contained a headline and image but no article. Sometimes we discover it accidentally, when we want to use an old article as reference for a new one and the link to that article leads us to an empty page.
On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, one or some of these corrupt individuals and entities we write about went full out on a war path against Black Star News and deleted possibly tens of thousands of articles from our website — including stories unrelated to corruption — and also disabled our ability to post new stories on www.blackstarnews.com
Several links we post below will now lead you to pages where the text of the articles are missing.
The deletions of Black Star News articles dates back over a decade. Below are just some of the past incidents of deleted articles:
1. In September 2011, an Editorial critical of the US/NATO war on Libya and The New York Times’ support of the war — ignoring the massacre of Black Libyans in Tawergha — was deleted. We wrote a follow-up Editorial discussing this hacking and deletion and even that editorial is now deleted. I also mention the incident in my book “Manufacturing Hate How Africa Was Demonized in Western Media.” On that occasion our host, Network Solutions, even blocked our access to our own website for a few days. When we regained control the critical editorial we’d published, urging readers to call and complain to the New York Times, the State Department, the White House, the NAACP and Uban League, that the massacre of Black Libyans was being ignored, had been deleted.
2. Editorials critical of The New York Times’ coverage of the killings by police of Eric Garner case and Michael Brown.
3. Editorials and articles critical of Invisible Children’s and the US government’s KONY2012 propaganda video promoting military intervention in Uganda. I also discussed the KONY2012 propaganda campaign on “Democracy Now” with Amy Goodman in 2012. Business Insider did a story about our expose of KONY2012 — that the makers of the video spied for the Ugandan regime. Ironically, the article on Black Star News www.businessinsider.com linked to was deleted (that occurred shortly after we published it).
4. Editorials and articles about alleged egregious rulings in a case handled by Judge Margaret McGowan in NY State Supreme Court in Queens County (we reported this incident to the FBI via an online platform and wrote an editorial discussing the deletion). Judge McGowan was so biased that on one occasion she ruled against a defendant after she’d already recused herself from the case. She reversed herself after Black Star News reported the matter to then Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office.
Judge McGowan ultimately illegally blocked me from covering her cases in total violation of the First Amendment. NBC Television broadcast a segment about Black Star News’s coverage and interviewed me.
5. Editorials and articles about alleged corruption in cases handled by Judge William Viscovich in NY State Supreme Court in Queens County. Judge Viscovich, a friend of Judge McGowan, ultimately illegally blocked me from covering his cases in total violation of the First Amendment.
6. Editorials and articles about alleged egregious rulings and corruption in cases handled by Judge Jil Mazer-Marino in US Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of New York involving Ashmeen Modikhan.
The case is also in NY State Supreme Court in Queens County being handled by Judge Robert I. Caloras, over one of Modikhan’s properties, and Judge Phillip Hom, is presiding over a case related to her second property. Judge Maurice Muir is handling Modikhan’s $5 million personal injury lawsuit which is now tied to the bankruptcy case; and which her alleged “creditors” are trying to snatch from her.
In Modikhan’s case, in addition to the alleged “creditors” initiating alleged fraudulent foreclosures and filing fraudulent proofs of claim in both the State and District Courts, a lawyer named Frank Cassisi who previously represented Modikhan has filed a patently forged retainer agreement that remains on the docket in the Eastern District Court. The article we published on October 4, 2022 about Cassisi’s forged retainer agreement has also been deleted. Here’s the link to the original report
US Bankruptcy Judge Mazer-Marino refused Ms. Modikhan’s request that she report Cassisi’s filing of the forged retainer to the authorities for investigation. Black Star also reported the matter to Chief Judge Alan Trust in the Eastern District Court. Judge Mazer-Marino also made several other alleged egregious rulings on Modikhan case.
Modikhan has appealed Mazer-Marino’s rulings in the District Court and the appeal is being presided over by Justice Eric Komitee.
The alleged “creditors” in Modikhan’s case are represented by the law firm of Friedman Vartolo. Previously they were represented by Gross Polowy LLC. We also wrote on December 20, 2022 to NY Attorney General Letitia James about these deletions in Modikhan’s case and asked for an investigation.
We also discussed Modikhan’s case on “Black Star News Show” on WBAI 99.5 FM Radio months ago and I pointedly said I hope I wouldn’t wake up one day to find the severed head of a horse next to me in bed.
Hopefully there is a way to trace all these hackings and deletions to their source or sources.
We are disappointed with the criminal hackings and deletions of articles for disrupting our journalism.
On the other hand we are elated to know that we are producing journalism that some individuals or entities are scared of — individuals or entities that like operating in darkness.
Obviously these are criminal violations and we will report them to the New York State Attorney General once again, to the Bronx County District Attorney (my borough), and to the FBI.
We will not be intimidated by corrupt individuals or entities from Speaking Truth To Power.
We will be back — -stronger and even better! We have someone working on relaunching www.blackstarnews.com by May 20, 2022.
You can reach Milton Allimadi via mallimadi@gmail.com
Please spread the word about our journalism and also consider supporting our GoFundMe campaign to help us rebuild Black Star News.