110 HRES 1308 IH: Condemning the broadcasting of incitement
U.S. House of Representatives
2008-06-26
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EN
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Whereas the 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 the freedom of the press and the freedom of
expression comes the responsibility to repudiate purveyors of incitement to
violence;
Whereas for years, media outlets in the Middle East have
repeatedly published or broadcasted incitements to violence against the United
States and its citizens;
Whereas Hezbollah, a Foreign Terrorist Organization based
in Lebanon and sponsored by Iran and Syria, launched the television station
al-Manar in 1991, and has funded and operated it ever since as a station
of resistance
, intending to use it as a weapon to further its goals of
violently combating the United States and Israel;
Whereas al-Manar launched a satellite television channel
in 2000 and is estimated to be viewed by over 10,000,000 people worldwide every
day;
Whereas al-Manar has, at various times, been broadcast on
satellites viewable on every continent except Antarctica, and is reportedly
presently viewable on the satellite providers ArabSat, NileSat, and reportedly,
as of April 2008, Indonesia’s Palapa C2, which is owned by Indonesia Telkom, a
company controlled by the Government of Indonesia;
Whereas Hezbollah leader Hassan Hasrallah and other
Hezbollah officials frequently appear on al-Manar to call for Death to
America
;
Whereas al-Manar has broadcasted over 2 dozen video clips
of insurgent attacks against American and Coalition forces in Iraq in 2008 to
date;
Whereas, on March 1, 2008, al-Manar correspondent Ali
Shu’aytu compared the USS Cole’s deployment off the coast of Lebanon to the
1983 deployment of United States troops in Lebanon, stating at that
time, the [USS New Jersey] was safe off the Lebanese coast; however, it was
forced to retreat after [the] targeting [of] the United States Embassy as well
as the Marines’ headquarters in Beirut and [the] killing [of] hundreds of the
United States occupation soldiers
;
Whereas Rasim al-Marwani, an Iraqi supporter of the Shi’a
militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, stated on April 9, 2008, in an al-Manar
broadcast that he supported armed resistance
against United
States forces in Iraq, saying, it is our highest priority to build up
the resistance . . . we think that the armed resistance and military escalation
is some kind of resistance, while believing the resistance is
legal
;
Whereas the United States, France, the Netherlands, and
Spain have banned broadcasts of al-Manar, and the United States has designated
al-Manar as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global
Terrorist;
Whereas al-Aqsa TV, a television station that is run by
the Foreign Terrorist Organization Hamas, is based in the Gaza Strip, began
broadcasting in 2006 in Gaza, and began broadcasting internationally that same
year via the NileSat satellite provider;
Whereas, on March 30, 2008, al-Aqsa TV broadcast a puppet
show that depicted an Arab child stabbing the President of the United States to
death and turning the White House into a mosque;
Whereas the Government of Iran, through its state
corporation Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), controls over a dozen
land-based and satellite television channels, including Channel 1, Channel 2,
Channel 3, Channel 4, Tehran TV, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network,
Tehran TV, Press TV, and al-Alam;
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 incitements to violence against the United States and Americans,
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 broadcast 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 a presently non-operational Iraqi
satellite television channel that broadcast during 2006 and 2007 and was last
observed broadcasting in July of 2007;
Whereas al-Zawra is owned and operated by Mishan
al-Jaburi, a former Iraqi Member of Parliament who was expelled and fled to
Syria in February of 2006, and has been sentenced in absentia by an Iraqi court
to 15 years imprisonment for embezzling funds from the Government of
Iraq;
Whereas the Government of Iraq banned al-Zawra in November
of 2006 for inciting “violence and murder”;
Whereas, on January 9, 2008, the Department of the
Treasury prohibited all transactions between any United States person and
al-Zawra and al-Jaburi, under Executive Order 13438, “for threatening the peace
and stability of Iraq and the Government of Iraq”;
Whereas al-Zawra broadcast videos of violent attacks
against United States forces in Iraq that showed the destruction of United
States 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
nicknamed “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 multiple reports indicate that after being banned
in Iraq, al-Zawra broadcast via a satellite uplink based in Syria;
Whereas reports indicate that during its observed period
of operation, al-Zawra broadcast on satellite providers including ArabSat,
NileSat and EutelSat, and was available in the Middle East, North Africa, and
Europe;
Whereas al-Rafidayn, an Arabic language satellite
television channel based in Egypt, focuses 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 broadcast videos, poems, and songs that praise
those groups and their attacks on United States forces in Iraq;
Whereas al-Rafidayn has repeatedly broadcast claims of
responsibility for attacks on United States forces in Iraq by insurgent and
terrorist groups;
Whereas, on February 29, 2008, al-Rafidayn broadcast an
interview with Nizar al-Samarra’i, a writer and political analyst, in which he
called on all Muslims to engage in “jihad” in Iraq;
Whereas the ArabSat satellite provider was founded by the
Arab League and is governed by a General Assembly comprised of the
communications ministers, or their representatives, of Arab League member
countries;
Whereas the NileSat satellite provider is controlled by
the Government of Egypt;
Whereas television channels that broadcast incitement to
violence against Americans, the United States, 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-Manar, al-Aqsa,
al-Zawra, and others that broadcast incitement to violence against the United
States and Americans, aid Foreign Terrorist Organizations in the key functions
of recruitment, fundraising, and propaganda;
Whereas the broadcast of incitement to violence against
Americans and the United States on television channels and other media that are
accessible in the United States may increase the risk of radicalization and
recruitment of Americans into Foreign Terrorist Organizations that seek to
carry out acts of violence against American targets and on American
soil;
Whereas the use of media outlets by advocates of violence
against American forces pose a clear and present danger to the security of
United States service members and American civilians serving in the Middle
East; and
Whereas it is imperative for the United States to counter
the threat to American service and civilian personnel that results from the
control or use of media outlets by Specially Designated Global Terrorists and
other entities that intend harm to our Nation’s interests: Now, therefore, be
it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)condemns the
broadcast of incitement to violence against Americans and the United States by
media based in the Middle East;
(2)urges governments
throughout the Middle East, American allies, and other responsible nations to
officially and publically repudiate purveyors of incitement to violence against
Americans and the United States; and
(3)calls on the
President to—
(A)designate al-Aqsa
TV as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT);
(B)designate as SDGTs
satellite providers that knowingly and willingly contract with entities
designated as SDGTs to broadcast their channels for providing financial,
material, or technological support to terrorist entities; and
(C)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.