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Mathaba News Agency
Company typeNews agency
Founded1999; 25 years ago (1999)
Defunctc. 2011; 13 years ago (2011)
FateDefunct
Headquarters
Libya
ProductsNews stories
OwnerInternational Green Charter Movement

The Mathaba News Agency (MNA) was an independent alternative news agency founded in 1999. According to the site, MATHABA stood for Media Active To Help All Become Aware. The agency's tagline was, "News That Matters."[1][a]

The Mathaba News Agency provided hosting and news services for the International Green Charter Movement (IGCM),[3] based on Gaddafi's Green Book and given coverage to the political philosophy it espouses, known as the Third Universal Theory. The MNA also hosted a forum and a private microblogging service.[4] The MNA referred to itself as "the first stateless news organization in history," with the goal of offering readers "a better understanding of public issues and positive development".[1]

It has had limited comments and no new material for most of the period since the fall of the Qaddafi government in 2011.

Content

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At the time of a 2002 report in The New York Times, Mathaba represented the closest thing to an online outlet for foreigners to engage the Libyan government, even inviting visitors to send an SMS message purportedly to Gaddafi himself.[5]

During the 2011 war on Libya, the Mathaba News Agency provided extensive coverage of the news of the Libyan Jamahiriya.

Mathaba's content was a mixture of original and republished articles along with various blog posts and videos, as well as excerpts from speeches. The site's official disclaimer stated that the site's content "should be treated simply as a catalog of information of real significance" and that not all articles are necessarily endorsed by Mathaba itself.[6]

Accusations of antisemitism

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The commentary of controversial figures such as David Duke and Louis Farrakhan were among those selected for publication on the site.[7][8]

It accused Hillary Clinton of leading "banker jewish zionist-elite gangsters"[9] and called Google "a company owned by Zionist Jews".[10] The agency denied any accusations of anti-Semitism, saying, "we have regular Jewish contributors and analysts, we are not against ANY religion," but that it would report on statistical anomalies it deemed newsworthy such as "the fact that all five directors of the U.S. money supply (Federal Reserve Bank) are Jewish," and inviting readers to "draw their own conclusions".[11]

Conspiracy theories

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Conspiracy theories were a common fixture of Mathaba's content, including claims that Osama bin Laden had been dead for years before he was reported killed;[12] that the AIDS virus was created by the World Health Organization to reduce the populations of nonwhite African countries;[13] and that Zionists control the media and were behind the Assassination of John F. Kennedy,[14] the September 11 attacks,[15] and the wars in Iraq and Libya.[14]

Libyan civil war

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During the 2011 Libyan Civil War, Mathaba featured articles and republished blog posts[16] from a pro-Gaddafi perspective, including reporting on Hugo Chavez's support for the Gaddafi government,[17] while it also reported on Western opposition to the NATO 2011 military intervention in Libya, citing articles by Dennis Kucinich, among others.[18] Frontline reports were regularly published summarizing each day's events, with claims of many battlefield victories by Gaddafi loyalists.[9][19][20] On 16 August 2011, three months after rebels had defeated Gaddafi forces in Misrata, the news agency reported that "Misrata has been liberated by loyalist volunteers of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the Libyan Defence Forces."[21] It further reported, on 25 August 2011, that news reports showing Tripoli in the hands of the rebels were "fake footage from Qatar" made using a "replica of Tripoli in Qatar ... used to spread fake media reports on Jazeera, CNN and the BBC worldwide."[22][23] As late as 1 September 2011, with the opposition in control of most of the country, the agency claimed that Gaddafi still had "massive support among an estimated 95% of the population."[24]

On 13 October 2011, Mathaba reported that 80% of both Tripoli and Benghazi were controlled by Gaddafi loyalists, as well as 90-100% of the southern portion of the country.[25] When NATO declared after the announcement of death of Muammar Gaddafi on 20 October that it would soon cease its military operations in the country, Mathaba stated that NATO had "surrendered".[26] The agency also insisted that the video and images of Gaddafi's capture and body were faked and that he was "not captured and not killed" but "very much alive in more ways than one", and though he "does not need to speak... in the future if the time is right... he may choose to address us again". Readers were instructed to continue to spread the Green Charter in the meantime.[27]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ MNA is not to be confused with the World Mathaba Organization (Arabic: المثابة العالمية al-Mathāba al-'ālamiyya.) (al-Mathaba Aalamiya, meaning "The World Center"), founded by the Libyan state in 1982 to further world-revolutionary and anti-imperialist goals.[2] The World Mathaba Organization organized a number of conferences in Tripoli, attended by leftist and anti-Western leaders including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF, Daniel Ortega of the FSLN in Nicaragua, Raul Reyes of Colombia's FARC, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b "About Us". Mathaba News Agency. 14 January 2014. Archived from the original on June 28, 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Al Mathaba: Anti-Imperialism Center (AIC)". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved Feb 5, 2024.
  3. ^ "International Green Charter Movement". GreenCharter.com. Archived from the original on 2011-08-19.
  4. ^ "Mathaba Forum". Mathaba.org. Retrieved Feb 5, 2024.
  5. ^ David F. Gallagher (10 November 2002). "Word for Word/Cyberdiplomacy; Mr. Qaddafi, You've Got Mail: 'Hope 2cu Soon Again in the Desert'". New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  6. ^ "Disclaimer". Mathaba News Agency. Archived from the original on 2013-12-08.
  7. ^ David Duke (3 June 2009). ""Inauguration" ...Wake Up!". Mathaba News Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  8. ^ "Excerpt from Louis Farrakhan's speech dealing with the Israeli Lobby and the International Bankers". Mathaba News Agency. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  9. ^ a b "Update on the war against Libya and Africa - September 27, 2011". Mathaba News Agency. 28 September 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  10. ^ "Youtube removes VSMRK's "Truth in Libya" reporting account". Mathaba News Agency. 7 October 2011. Archived from the original on Sep 26, 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  11. ^ "Michael Jackson: 'The Jews Do It On Purpose'". Mathaba News Agency. 8 December 2009. Archived from the original on Mar 4, 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  12. ^ Martin Iqbal (21 September 2011). "9/11 Ten Years On:There are No Excuses For Buying the Myth". Mathaba News Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  13. ^ "The Truth About AIDS: The Start of the White War against Black Africa". Mathaba News Agency. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  14. ^ a b Jonathan Azaziah (10 October 2011). "PSYWAR: The Fake Fall of Tripoli and the Zionist Dragon's Butchery Across Palestine". Mathaba News Agency.
  15. ^ Martin Iqbal (22 September 2011). "September 11, 2011: Zionist Shock Therapy and the Birth of a Lie". Mathaba News Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  16. ^ "Morris Herman: Libya News Updates Round Up - October 15". Mathaba News Agency. 16 October 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
  17. ^ "Chavez: "We only recognize one Libyan government, the one led by Muammar Gaddafi!"". Mathaba News Agency. 24 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  18. ^ "U.S. Rep. Kucinich: NATO's Libya Generals Should Be Hauled To Court". Mathaba News Agency. 24 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  19. ^ "Latest Roundup From Libya - August 25 to 26". Mathaba News Agency. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  20. ^ "Update on the war against Libya and Africa - October 1-3, 2011". Mathaba News Agency. 3 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  21. ^ "Confirmed: Misrata is Liberated". Mathaba News Agency. 16 August 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  22. ^ "Tripoli: Battles Raging Against Invaders". Mathaba News Agency. 25 August 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  23. ^ "Tripoli City Center Not Under Rebel Control". Mathaba News Agency. 25 August 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
  24. ^ "Col. Muammar Qaddafi Addresses Libyan People". Mathaba News Agency. 1 September 2011. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  25. ^ Dennis South (13 October 2011). "The Green Flag of the People". Mathaba News Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  26. ^ Dennis South (21 October 2011). "NATO Surrenders: The Real Deal". Mathaba News Agency. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  27. ^ "Qaddafi Not Dead". Mathaba News Agency. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
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