Sean Nevins

Sean Nevins is a Washington DC based staff writer for MintPress focusing on foreign affairs, and the intersection of politics and policy. His work has appeared on Link TV, Inter Press Service, and The Real News Network. He has lived and reported from all over the world and holds a Master’s in Asian Studies (focus: Pakistan) from Lund University in Sweden.

Richard Silverstein On Israel’s Gag Orders And ‘The Middle East’s Only Democracy’

“Security, as the government defines it, trumps everything,” says Richard Silverstein, a veteran journalist who’s made a name for himself by exposing stories Israel’s domestic media are forbidden from touching.

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins
Israeli journalists are seen during a press conference near a military defense missile system near Tel Aviv, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012.

WASHINGTON --- Though it describes itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” the Israeli government and military regularly impose gag orders to stop domestic media from reporting on sensitive information, including the detention of Israeli citizens by Hamas in Gaza, meetings between the Israeli Defense Forces and al-Qaida fighters, and the

Read Full Article

‘Come Back When You’re Dangerous’: How Police Are Failing The Mentally Ill

Rather than providing the mentally ill with an opportunity to see a mental health professional, one expert says, “We say, ‘Come back when you’re in a crisis. Come back when you’re dangerous.’”

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins
Capt. Shawn Welch sprays pepper spray into the face of Maine Correctional Center inmate Paul Schlosser, who is bound in a restraint chair, Schlosser was restrained for trying to induce self-harm.

WASHINGTON --- Natasha McKenna was killed in February by a Special Emergency Response Team officer at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center in Virginia. She had been shot four times with a taser while her hands were cuffed behind her back, her legs shackled, and a mask secured to her face to prevent her from spitting. The Washington Post

Read Full Article

2016’s Horse Race: The Need For A Third Party And Greater Systemic Change

“I think there’s a mistaken pessimism and defeatism among activists thinking that the mass of money stacked against us means there’s no point,” an advocate for third-party contenders tells MintPress.

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins

2016 presidential election is shaping up to be more boring than ever, with the Bush and Clinton dynasties poised to take the reins of America’s corporate capitalist system, likely to deliver unsubstantive debate and the illusion of choice in a duopoly that offers very little in terms of real meaningful change. “We need a good strong challenge,

Read Full Article

‘Beyond Centrifuges’: How The Pathology Of The American Right Is Stalling Engagement With Iran

It’s “common sense” for the U.S. to openly engage with Iran on many issues, including the greatest threat to the region today: ISIS.

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington

WASHINGTON --- The United States is on the verge of signing an agreement with Iran that will mark the most significant geopolitical trend since President Richard Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China in 1972, which opened a pathway toward rapprochement, rather than confrontation, with the communist East Asian nation. Likewise, the Iranian

Read Full Article

Radical Visions: Failed Jobs Training Programs Inspire A ‘Black Worker Center’ In DC

A failed jobs training program, paid for with taxpayer dollars, gives rise to a movement in D.C. that’s not just calling for accountability from those leading the program — they’re taking labor training and empowerment into their own hands.

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins
ONE DC organizers assisting DC residents in applying for the Marriott Marquis Jobs Training Program

WASHINGTON --- A Washington, D.C., community organizing group held a press conference last week to call out the District government for a lack of transparency and enforcement mechanisms to protect workers and put the city’s residents, who are often victims of displacement and gentrification, to work. “We always hear this rhetoric about

Read Full Article

US Government Tested Mustard Gas On Troops Based on Race

“It felt like you were on fire,” a black U.S. Army veteran tells NPR of being a test subject for the effects of mustard gas in a once-secret government program to determine the effects of chemical weapons on different races.

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins
Segregated troops practice movement in protective gear at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland in the early 1940s.

WASHINGTON --- The U.S. Army had a secret program to test mustard gas and other chemical agents on U.S. troops during World War II. The program was declassified in 1993, and it was revealed in 2008 that the experiments had been race-based. On Monday, NPR reporter Caitlin Dickerson released an investigative report with interviews of some of the

Read Full Article

Gentrification Targets DC’s Public Schools, Extracts Resources From The Poor

“The lens that we operate under is that we view this as structural racism,” a community organizer tells MintPress. “While we have a mayor and a chancellor that are black, they’re kind of operating under this system that values white folks in a better light.”

Sean Nevins
By Sean Nevins
A teacher uses flash cards to teach kindergarten students including Nailiah Harping, 6, seated at left of the front row, and Jason Moncure, also 6, next to her her during Spanish class at the charter school Oakhurst Elementary in Decatur, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

WASHINGTON -- Earlier this month, the National Academy of Sciences released an assessment of the Washington, D.C., public school system from 2009 to 2013 -- the period shortly after then-Mayor Adrian Fenty took control of the system in 2007 under the Public Education Reform Amendment Act, or PERAA. The controversial law drew national attention

Read Full Article