HELP BLACK STAR NEWS—VICTIM OF CYBER ATTACKS

Hi, I'm Milton Allimadi, publisher of Black Star News.

Today is May 19, 2023 and I'm updating this campaign that we first launched last year--way before the current challenge and disruption we're facing.

At that time, we discussed several articles that we'd published in Black Star News, covering alleged egregious rulings by two judges in New York State Supreme Court in Queens County, Judge Margaret McGowan and Judge William Viscovich, her friend. We also discussed how the New York Commission on Judicial Misconduct was completely useless, rubber-stamping the judges' egregious misconduct by always finding "no wrongdoing" after supposedly "investigating" complaints against them.

Our expose of these judges was featured on Channel 4 Television by the renowned investigative reporter Sarah Wallace. You can follow this link to see the story.

Since those stories we've also been covering alleged corruption by lawyers and alleged egregiously biased rulings by judges in foreclosures and bankruptcy cases in NY State Supreme Court in Queens County and in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District.

Part of the cost of exposing wrongs is that you're subjected to attacks--whether in the form of losing advertising revenue or in the form of cyberattacks. We're paying the price.

On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, Black Star News was a victim of a cyberattack that resulted in: (1) Deletion of 25,768 articles we've published on www.blackstarnews.com over several years and (2) Our ability to post new articles was disabled.

Background: Over the years we've covered many stories that ruffled feathers --be they about alleged egregious misconduct by judges in the New York courts system or by the corrupt U.S.-backed military regime in Uganda, to name just a few subjects.

Sometimes the articles we've written about have been deleted by hackers, presumably employed by the subjects of the article--the only individuals or entities who'd have incentive to have the stories disappear. Sometimes we discover the deletions months later when a reader informs us that a link they'd clicked to an article led to a page that only contained a headline and image but no story. Sometimes we discover them accidentally, when we want to reference an old article in a new one, only to find a blank page. 

On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, one or some of these corrupt individuals or entities declared full-scale war against Black Star News and deleted 25,768 stories from our website--including articles unrelated to corruption--and also disabled our ability to post new ones on www.blackstarnews.com

Several links we post below will now lead you to pages where the text of the articles are missing. You'll find only headlines.

The deletions of Black Star News articles dates back over a decade. Below are just some of the past incidents of delete articles. The attacks have intensified since we started focusing on corruption in the courts system:

1. In September 2011, an Editorial critical of the US/NATO war on Libya in 2011 and the New York Times' support of the war and ignoring the massacre of Black Libyans in Tawergha. On September 7, 2011 we wrote a follow-up Editorial under the headline "The Libya Editorial Someone Doesn't Want You To Read" discussing the hacking and deletion and I also mention it in my book "Manufacturing Hate How Africa Was Demonized in Western Media." The follow-up editorial is also now deleted by the massive cyberattack.

On that occasion our host Network Solutions also blocked our access to our own website for a few days. When we regained control this critical editorial urging readers to call and complain to the New York Times, the State Department, the White House, the NAACP and Uban League had been deleted.

2. Editorials critical of The New York Times coverage of the killings by police of Eric Garner case and Michael Brown were deleted. The Brown one, published October 18, 2014, was headlined "New York Times' Vile Spin-Job For Darren Wilson, Killer of Michael Brown."

3. Editorials and articles critical of Invisible Children's and the US government's KONY2012 propaganda video promoting military intervention in Uganda were deleted. I also discussed the Invisible Children and US propaganda campaign on “Democracy Now” with Amy Goodman in 2012.

On April 10, 2012 the publication www.Businessinsider.com did a story about our expose of KONY2012 under the headline "WikiLeaks: Makers of KONY2012 Spied for Ugandan Regime." Ironically our article www.businessinsider.com linked to was deleted (that occurred shortly after we published it)

4. Editorials and articles about alleged corruption in a case handled byJudge Margaret McGowan in New York 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 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 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. Cassisi now works for the trustee in the bankruptcy case.

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 News 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. (Judge Komitee denied Modikhan's appeal without addressing the issue of the forged documents reported on by Black Star News).

The alleged "creditors" in Modikhan's case are represented by the law firm of Friedman Vartolo. Previously they were represented by Gross Polowy LLC. Black Star News also wrote to New York Attorney General Letitia James about these deletions in Modikhan's case, on December 20, 2022, 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. 

Of course we are disappointed with the criminal hackings and deletions of articles because they disrupt our journalism. Yet, we are elated to know that we are producing journalism that some individuals or entities are so scared of that they resort to such criminal conduct.

We are reporting these crimes once again to the NYPD, the New York State Attorney General, 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, 2023 (As of May 22, 2023 the developer is still working on a new version of the website).

Please support independent media and spread the word about our journalism and this GoFundMe campaign!