Terror TV
On any given night of the week, between 10 and 15 million Arabic speakers in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East tune into Al-Manar (the Beacon), the television channel produced in Beirut by the terrorist group Hezbollah.
The station’s purpose, an Al-Manar official told researcher Avi Jorisch of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is to “help people on the way to committing what you call in the West a suicide mission.”
Watch some of its programming (revealing clips can be seen at www.stopterroristmedia.org), and you’ll understand how well-suited the medium is to the message.
That’s why it’s good news that last month the U.S Treasury Department named Al-Mamar as a Special Designated Global Terrorist entity. The designation prohibits financial transactions with Al-Manar and its parent company, the Lebanese Media Group, and enables the government to level penalties against U.S. financial institutions (or foreign institutions that transact business in the U.S.) doing business with them.
This is no trivial blow: Hezbollah has used Al-Manar for fund-raising by televising bank account numbers to which viewers can wire contributions for jihad. Al-Manar has also sold several million dollars worth of advertising to Western companies. This, too, is now at an end.
Today, only Saudi Arabia’s Arabsat and Egypt’s Nilesat carry the station, and both governments have rebuffed U.S. entreaties to take it off the air. That may change if either company turns out to be liable to designated-terror penalties. The Bush Administration might also consider a wider range of sanctions, such as barring Arabsat and Nilesat executives from entering the U.S. until Al-Manar is taken off the air.
Al-Manar is hardly the only Arab channel that routinely broadcast murderous anti-Semitic or anti-American shows. Nor is it likely that simply putting Al-Manar out of business will end terrorist media: The Iranian chapter of Hezbollah has announced its intention to set up a new channel, Khaiber TV. But by taking action against Al-Manar, the Bush Administration has set the right precedent against the worst offender. Let’s hope it can enforce it.
This article appeared in the Friday – Sunday, April 7 – 9, 2006 addition of The Wall Street Journal – Asia, in the Editorial & Opinion column.
Property in Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa on http://www.hotpropertyincapetown.com
The station’s purpose, an Al-Manar official told researcher Avi Jorisch of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is to “help people on the way to committing what you call in the West a suicide mission.”
Watch some of its programming (revealing clips can be seen at www.stopterroristmedia.org), and you’ll understand how well-suited the medium is to the message.
That’s why it’s good news that last month the U.S Treasury Department named Al-Mamar as a Special Designated Global Terrorist entity. The designation prohibits financial transactions with Al-Manar and its parent company, the Lebanese Media Group, and enables the government to level penalties against U.S. financial institutions (or foreign institutions that transact business in the U.S.) doing business with them.
This is no trivial blow: Hezbollah has used Al-Manar for fund-raising by televising bank account numbers to which viewers can wire contributions for jihad. Al-Manar has also sold several million dollars worth of advertising to Western companies. This, too, is now at an end.
Today, only Saudi Arabia’s Arabsat and Egypt’s Nilesat carry the station, and both governments have rebuffed U.S. entreaties to take it off the air. That may change if either company turns out to be liable to designated-terror penalties. The Bush Administration might also consider a wider range of sanctions, such as barring Arabsat and Nilesat executives from entering the U.S. until Al-Manar is taken off the air.
Al-Manar is hardly the only Arab channel that routinely broadcast murderous anti-Semitic or anti-American shows. Nor is it likely that simply putting Al-Manar out of business will end terrorist media: The Iranian chapter of Hezbollah has announced its intention to set up a new channel, Khaiber TV. But by taking action against Al-Manar, the Bush Administration has set the right precedent against the worst offender. Let’s hope it can enforce it.
This article appeared in the Friday – Sunday, April 7 – 9, 2006 addition of The Wall Street Journal – Asia, in the Editorial & Opinion column.
Property in Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa on http://www.hotpropertyincapetown.com
posted by Werner Property Agents at 12:46 pm
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