[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1069 Engrossed in House (EH)]


                In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

                                                     September 9, 2008.
Whereas freedom of the press and freedom of expression are the foundations of 
        free and prosperous societies worldwide and are among America's most 
        cherished values;
Whereas with freedom of the press and freedom of expression comes the 
        responsibility to refrain from incitement to violence and to repudiate 
        purveyors of such incitement;
Whereas for years, media outlets in the Middle East have repeatedly published or 
        broadcasted incitement to violence against the United States and its 
        citizens;
Whereas Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by both the United 
        States and the European Union;
Whereas Hamas owns and operates al-Aqsa TV;
Whereas Hamas uses al-Aqsa TV to promote the organization's extremist and 
        violent ideas by, inter alia, airing children's shows such as 
        ``Tomorrow's Pioneers'' and ``Those who Excel'', the primary goal of 
        which is to breed new anti-Israeli and anti-Western terrorists;
Whereas in April 2008 Hamas gruesomely depicted the murder of the President of 
        the United States through the use of puppets on a children's show;
Whereas al-Aqsa TV has used popular cartoon figures to indoctrinate children and 
        incite them toward hatred and violence, in one instance depicting a Bugs 
        Bunny-like character declaring that he ``will finish off the Jews and 
        eat them'';
Whereas al-Aqsa TV is currently being transmitted by satellites owned by the 
        France-based, privately owned Eutelsat and by the Saudi Arabia-based, 
        Arab League-owned Arabsat;
Whereas Hamas' al-Aqsa TV follows the model of Lebanese Hezbollah's al-Manar TV, 
        which also promotes terrorism and incitement to violence against the 
        United States and its citizens and is widely telecast throughout the 
        Arab world via Arabsat and the Egypt-based, state-owned Nilesat;
Whereas Hezbollah launched the television station al-Manar in 1991 and has since 
        funded and operated it as a ``station of resistance'', intending to use 
        it as a weapon to further its goals of promoting violence against the 
        United States and Israel;
Whereas in 2000, al-Manar launched a satellite television channel that now has 
        an estimated daily viewership of 10,000,000 people worldwide;
Whereas al-Manar regularly broadcasts video clips that glorify insurgent attacks 
        against American and Coalition forces in Iraq;
Whereas the United States designated al-Manar TV a Specially Designated Global 
        Terrorist (SDGT) entity in 2006;
Whereas Press TV, Iran's English-language satellite television network, is 
        transmitted via the satellite providers ArabSat, NileSat, AsiaSat, 
        HotBird, HispaSat, IntelSat, and Galaxy, and is viewable in North 
        America, South America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa;
Whereas al-Alam TV, Iran's Arabic-language satellite television network, is 
        transmitted via the satellite providers ArabSat, NileSat, AsiaSat, 
        HotBird, TelStar, and Galaxy, and is viewable in North America, the 
        Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa;
Whereas many Iranian state-controlled television channels have broadcast 
        incitement to violence against United States citizens, including 
        coverage of rallies and speeches at which Iranian leaders, clerics, 
        children, and mass audiences have declared ``Death to America!'';
Whereas on March 6, 2008, al-Alam broadcasted a warning from an Iraqi insurgent 
        that if the USS Cole was not withdrawn from off the coast of Lebanon, 
        his group would be ``targeting all the United States interests, 
        especially the warships [docked] in Umm Qasr beaches in southern Iraq'';
Whereas al-Zawra is presently a nonoperational Iraqi satellite television 
        channel that broadcasted during 2006 and 2007;
Whereas the Government of Iraq banned al-Zawra in November of 2006 for inciting 
        ``violence and murder'';
Whereas multiple reports indicate that after being banned in Iraq, al-Zawra 
        broadcast via a satellite uplink based in Syria until transmissions 
        apparently ceased in July 2007;
Whereas al-Zawra broadcasted videos of violent attacks against American forces 
        in Iraq depicting the destruction of humvees and armored vehicles, 
        recruitment videos for the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq al-Salafi Battalion of al-
        Qaeda in Iraq, and videos that feature prominently ``Juba'', a sniper 
        that allegedly targeted Coalition forces and called for viewers to 
        engage in violence against Coalition forces in Iraq;
Whereas in 2007, al-Zawra aired a program widely known as ``Hidden Camera 
        Jihad'', a compilation of attacks filmed and executed by insurgents 
        against Coalition forces in Iraq and accompanied by sound effects, 
        scornful English language captions, and a ``laugh track'';
Whereas al-Rafidayn, an Arabic-language satellite television channel based in 
        Egypt with a focus on Iraq, is broadcast via NileSat to the Middle East 
        and North Africa, and is affiliated with the Association of Muslim 
        Scholars, an anti-American Islamist group based in Iraq;
Whereas al-Rafidayn has repeatedly broadcast video clips produced by Sunni 
        insurgent and terrorist groups in Iraq, and the channel's news 
        broadcasts have frequently broadcasted videos, poems, and songs that 
        praise those groups and their attacks on American forces in Iraq;
Whereas television channels that broadcast incitement to violence against United 
        States citizens and others have demonstrated the ability to shift their 
        operations to different countries and their transmissions to different 
        satellite providers in order to continue broadcasting and to evade 
        accountability;
Whereas television channels such as al-Aqsa, al-Manar, and al-Zawra broadcast 
        incitement to violence against Americans and Israelis, purvey hatred 
        against the West, and aid Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 
        recruitment, fundraising, and propaganda;
Whereas the use of media outlets by advocates of violence against Americans 
        poses a clear and present danger to the security of United States 
        service members and American civilians serving throughout the Middle 
        East; and
Whereas it is imperative for the United States to use all possible legal and 
        diplomatic tools to counter the threats to American service and civilian 
        personnel that result from the control or use of media outlets by SDGTs 
        and other entities that intend to inflict violence on Americans: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the broadcast of incitement to violence and hatred 
        against Americans, Israelis, and the West by media based in the Middle 
        East;
            (2) urges governments throughout the Middle East, American allies, 
        and other responsible Nations to officially and publicly repudiate 
        purveyors of hatred and incitement to violence against Americans, 
        Israelis, and others;
            (3) calls on the President to designate al-Aqsa TV a Specially 
        Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity;
            (4) condemns Hamas for using children's television programming to 
        incite hatred, violence, and anti-Semitism;
            (5) demands Hamas recognize the State of Israel's right to exist, 
        renounce the use of violence and terrorism as political goals, and 
        accept all past peace agreements with the State of Israel;
            (6) calls on Saudi Arabia, the primary shareholder in Arabsat, and 
        on all other Arab States that own shares in Arabsat, to cease 
        immediately the transmission of telecasts by al-Aqsa TV and al-Manar TV;
            (7) calls on Egypt, which owns Nilesat, to cease immediately the 
        transmission of telecasts by al-Rafidayn TV and al-Manar TV;
            (8) calls on the owners of Eutelsat and the Government of France, 
        which legislates what may be broadcast on satellites based in France, to 
        cease immediately the transmission of telecasts by al-Aqsa TV;
            (9) urges the President to consider designating as SDGTs satellite 
        providers that knowingly and willingly contract with entities designated 
        as SDGTs to broadcast their channels, or to consider implementing other 
        punitive measures against satellite providers that transmit al-Aqsa TV, 
        al-Manar TV, al-Rafidayn TV, or any other terrorist-owned and operated 
        station;
            (10) calls on the President to take into consideration state 
        sponsorship of anti-American incitement to violence when determining the 
        level of assistance to, and frequency and nature of relations with, 
        regional States; and
            (11) urges all governments and private investors who own shares in 
        satellite companies or otherwise influence decisions about satellite 
        transmissions to oppose transmissions of telecasts by al-Aqsa TV, al-
        Manar TV, al-Rafidayn TV, or any other terrorist-owned and -operated 
        stations that similarly purvey insidiously anti-American, anti-Western, 
        anti-Israeli, and anti-Semitic messages and openly incite their 
        audiences to commit acts of terrorism.
            Attest:

                                                                          Clerk.