It's tough, being a jihadist mouthpiece these days. First, the U.S. Treasury blacklists the brain behind Iraq's pro-insurgent satellite channel. Now, Hezbollah's al-Manar station has been booted off of the air, after a brief run on a Thai-owned satellite covering Asia, Australia, Africa, and Central Europe.
In 2006, the American government declared al-Manar a terrorist organization, for raising funds and conducting surveillance for the jihadists of Hezbollah. And even before that, Al-Manar has been chased off of one satellite after another, the Counterterrorism Blog notes. "AsiaSat ceased broadcasting al-Manar in
2005, and the Spanish government ordered the banning of Hezbollah TV
broadcasts to Latin America via Hispasat."
About a year ago, Hezbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told Al-Manar*, *"The American occupation in Iraq poses a danger to the Iraqi people and to the region. Since day one, our statements were clear. We support the option of a comprehensive Iraqi resistance, with all its aspects, especially the military aspect. We believe that the solution in Iraq begins with adopting the option of armed resistance - Jihad against the occupation forces... I say that the resistance is the way to save Iraq." (MEMRI has over 100 clips from the channel.)
A spokesman for the Thai satellite service tells the Bangkok Post that the whole broadcasting-Hezbollah-propaganda-thing was a mix-up.
He said the company monitored such channels only on the quality of image and sound, and especially to guard against pornography. It did not focus on contents because of a language barrier. "Our staff could not understand," the spokesman said.
(High five: PJB)
