For several years, Javed Iqbal has operated a small company from a Brooklyn storefront and out of the garage at his Staten Island home that provides satellite programming for households, including sermons from Christian evangelists seeking worldwide exposure. Mr. Iqbal’s home, a modest two-story stone and brick house on Van Name Avenue in Mariners Harbor, stands out because among the children’s toys in the backyard were eight satellite dishes. But this week, the budding entrepreneur’s house and storefront were raided by federal agents, and Mr. Iqbal was charged with providing customers services that included satellite broadcasts of a television station controlled by Hezbollah — a violation of federal law. Yesterday, Mr. Iqbal was arraigned in Federal District Court in Manhattan and was ordered held in $250,000 bail. The Hezbollah station, Al Manar — or “the beacon” in Arabic — was designated a global terrorist entity by the United States Treasury Department in March of this year.
One wonders whether MEMRI, SITE, and LinkTV would be arrested for reposting selected segments from Al Manar. (Presumably not; the Wikipedia entry suggests MEMRI played a role in having the bans put in place.) I don't know if this link will work for you, but you can see where LinkTV has featured them in the past (though not within the last two years): Al Manar TV, Lebanon Israeli Aggressions Leave Palestinians Dead A new Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip area of Khan Yunis left five Palestinians dead and at least 15 injured. The Occupation army also demolished several houses. This came after PM Arial Sharon predicted that his planned withdrawal from Gaza would lead to new negotiations with Khan Yunis.
BTW, Al Manar is also banned in France, as has been covered by LinkTV: Al Manar to Remain Banned in France Al Manar TV chain will remain prohibited in France. This decision came after a request contesting an earlier decision taken in 2004 was rejected. The French state council, the highest administrative body in the country, declared yesterday that Al Manar’s editorial society had called for the annulment of the higher audio/visual in December of 2004 forbidding the transmission of al Manar in France. In its verdict, the state council considered that Al Manar did not have the right to request the annulment of the higher council's decision taken on December 17, 2004, which sanctioned the Lebanese station for transmitting "anti-Semitic messages." The Higher audio/vision council decision followed an order of the state council which on December 13, 2004, called for the society operating the satellite which diffused in France to stop transmitting the chain for 48 hours. However, the state council ordered the halt of the transmission after realizing that taken as a whole the programs were diffused in a militant perspective and carried anti-Semitic connotations.
New York Man Charged With Enabling Hezbollah Television Broadcasts |