MintPress News Desk

In With The Loan Sharks: The IRS Hires Private Debt Collectors

The IRS is attempting – for the third time – to use private debt collection companies to recover unpaid taxes from delinquent taxpayers. But experts warn that using such companies could lead to unfair treatment for borrowers and an increase in imposter tax scams.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- In 2009, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decided to end a three-year program that used private debt collectors to chase down delinquent taxpayers after an internal report found that it was actually losing the government money and that government employees were much more efficient at collecting debt than their private sector

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Israeli Extremists Taunt Hunger-Striking Palestinian Prisoners With BBQ

Palestinians who are being held in deplorable conditions in Israeli prisons recently announced a hunger strike in return for improved conditions. Right-wing Israeli extremists have decided to torture the strikers by barbecuing right in front of the prison where they are being held.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Settlers set up barbeques outside Ofer Prison while Palestinian prisoners held inside continue the fourth day of their hunger strike to demand their basic rights on 20 April 2017 (Joe Dyke/Twitter)

TEL AVIV-- After thousands of Palestinian inmates held in Israeli prisons announced a massive hunger strike earlier this week, some far-right Israeli extremists are using unusual means to express their disapproval of the prisoners’ demands for better conditions. According to reports, members of Israel’s right-wing National Union held barbecues in

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Investigators Claim U.S. Failed To Prevent Civilian Casualties In Airstrike On Syrian Mosque

Several organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Forensic Architecture and Bellingcat, have investigated the U.S.-coalition bombing of a mosque in Syria last month. All found that the U.S. failed to prevent civilian casualties and suggested the attack could constitute a war crime.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Volunteers dig through the rubble of a mosque following a reported airstrike on a mosque in the village of Al-Jineh in Aleppo province late on March 16, 2017.

DAMASCUS - On March 16, U.S. military aircraft bombed a location southwest of al-Jinah, a small village in Syria’s city of Aleppo. The U.S. military has maintained that it was targeting a meeting of al-Qaeda members in a partially-built community hall. But accounts from local residents and survivors, as well as separate investigations by three

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Federal Judge: Public Has No Right To Know About Dakota Pipeline Spill Risks

Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline’s developer, has argued that keeping information regarding spill risks from the public is essential, as it could be “useful to vandals and terrorists.” However, the move is looking more like a way to hide any potential negative impact on the environment.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
America Indians and their supporters protest outside of the White House, Friday, March 10, 2017, in Washington, to rally against the construction of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline. ( AP/Jose Luis Magana)

  MINNEAPOLIS-- While the fight to prevent the controversial construction of the Dakota Access pipeline has largely faded from the minds of most Americans, the pipeline’s parent company – Energy Transfer Partners – is still hard at work seeking to further undermine civilian and environmental protections to ensure the “smooth” operation of

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Venezuela Calls for Expanding Armed Civilian Militias To Counter U.S.-Backed Opposition

Venezuela is continuing to endure violent protests from U.S.-funded right-wing opposition groups that seek to destabilize the country and remove its socialist leadership from power. But now, the country’s president is calling for expanding armed civilian militias to combat the groups’ threat.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Demonstrators throw stones toward the Venezuelan National Guards during a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, April 10, 2017. (AP/Fernando Llano)

CHILE-- As Venezuela gears up to face a massive protest from U.S.-funded, right-wing opposition groups, embattled President Nicolás Maduro has called for the expansion of armed civilian militias as the threat of more violence on the streets of Caracas continues to grow. The militias, created by deceased former president Hugo Chávez to resist

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WaPo Gives Raytheon Lobbyist Free Range To Publish Pro-War Editorials

The Washington Post has given Ed Rogers, top lobbyist for Raytheon, an outlet for his blatantly pro-war editorials. The Post has failed to disclose Roger’s ties to the weapons manufacturer – whose missiles were used in last week’s strike against Syria – generating yet another conflict of interest for the CIA-funded and Bezos-owned paper.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Raytheon lobbyist and Washington Post contributor Ed Rogers appears on CBNC (screenshot).

MINNEAPOLIS - The Washington Post, the capital’s paper of record, is at again – pushing war propaganda and failing to disclose glaring conflict of interests within the paper, particularly regarding one of its contributors whose ties to the nation’s largest weapons manufacturers have been conveniently omitted from his WaPo editorials. As Media

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US Vets Exploited By Saudi Arabia Into Lobbying Against 9/11 Bill

New proof has emerged that Saudi Arabia paid at least one US lobbying group to bring military veterans to Washington to lobby for changes to JASTA.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir meet at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, March 23, 2017. (AP/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

WASHINGTON DC - While many consider the pro-Israel lobby to be the most powerful foreign influence bloc in U.S. politics, others have long argued that the lobbying power of Saudi Arabia is more powerful and the key driver of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond. However, those who have asserted the Saudis’ influence in Washington DC is

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