U.S. Designates Hizballah-Controlled TV, Radio as Terror Entities

Obtained from State Department Website

U.S. Designates Hizballah-Controlled TV, Radio as Terrorist EntitiesTreasury action freezes U.S.-held assets, bars contact with U.S. entities

Washington -- The Treasury Department has designated two Hizballah-controlled broadcasting outlets as global terrorist entities.

In a March 23 announcement, Treasury named al-Manar, a satellite television operation either owned or controlled by Hizballah, as a media outlet funded by a terrorist organization and supported by the Iranian regime -- itself a state sponsor of terrorism. The Lebanese Media Group and its radio and TV subsidiaries were singled out as global terrorist entities for promoting Hizballah activities.

"Any entity maintained by a terrorist group … is as culpable as the terrorist group itself," said Stuart Levey, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. According to the statement, these media outlets have facilitated Hizballah’s activities, including:

• Al-Manar has employed several Hizballah members, one of which used his employment as cover for surveillance to carry out a Hizballah operation.
• Both al-Manar and al-Nour have supported Hizballah fund-raising and recruitment efforts.
• Al-Manar also has supported other designated terrorist organizations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Palestinian al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

As a result of the designation, transactions between U.S. persons and the designated entities are prohibited. Further, any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction now are frozen.

The full text of the Treasury announcement is available on the department Web site.
Al Manar was added to the State Department's Terrorism Exclusion List (TEL) in December 2004. (See related article.)

For more information about U.S. policy, see Response to Terrorism.

Technorati tags: Terrorism, Insurgency, State Department, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, War, Hizballah, Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Terrorist, Asymmetric warfare, Iranian, Islamic militants, joint operations, Lebanese, Al-Manar, al-Nour, Isreal