By Kenneth J. Theisen, 8/30/06
Last week, on August 23, 2006 Javed Iqbal of Staten Island, New
York was arrested and charged with conspiring to
violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). His crime?
He provided customers in the New
York area with access to al Manar, the television
station run by Hezbollah.
Iqbal operated a Brooklyn
company called HDTV Limited. He used
satellite dishes to distribute TV broadcasts to his customers. In addition to distributing broadcasts of al
Manar, he also distributed TV broadcasts of Christian evangelists. But he was not arrested for broadcasting the
hate mongering of Jerry Falwell or Pat Roberts.
How did the local “cable guy” become an “enabler
of terrorism”? In March of this
year, the U.S. Treasury Department designated al Manar as a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity.
By doing so, the Bush regime made it illegal for anyone to do business
with al Manar. According to papers filed
with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan,
the investigation of Javed Iqbal began in February after the government
allegedly received a confidential tip. The
FBI then set up a sting operation where a “wired” FBI informant
requested a “satellite dish package” which contained several channels
including al Manar. Iqbak then sold the
package to the informant. Ironically
when he installed the “package” the informant could not actually view
al Manar, as the Israelis had destroyed the transmission site in its attack on Lebanon.
Apparently the government is making the case that someone
who enables people to obtain SDGT news outlets with a satellite dish is
providing material support to terrorists. If the regime is successful in this
prosecution a very dangerous legal precedent will be set.
Shortly after 9/11, presidential spokesman, Ari Fleischer warned
the American public to, “Watch what they say, watch what they do”. Now we must add to this “watch list”
– “Watch what we watch”. If
this case is allowed to go forward it will be the first time that someone has
been prosecuted under the “terrorism laws” for merely providing the
means to watch a foreign news channel.
The government can not legally ban al Manar or any other channel
directly, but by prosecuting Iqbal they are taking a backdoor approach to doing
the same thing. Will the government go
after internet service providers that allow the viewing of al Manar or enable
someone to read the Hezbollah newspaper?
How long before it is a crime to read news from “terrorist
organizations”?
It is also hypocritical of the regime to criticize countries
like China
for cutting off internet access to various websites as an infringement of free
speech while in effect doing the same thing here. And for someone like Iqbal, who faces five
years in prison if he is convicted, the consequences are dire. But this case impacts all of us who do not
want the Bush regime deciding what news we view or read. While Bush may be content to not read
newspapers and listen only to his advisors summaries of the news, many of us
want to explore the world and make informed decisions based on a variety of
sources. If we want to maintain freedom
of speech or freedom of the press, we must drive out the Bush regime. Outrages such as the arrest of Iqbal are only
the beginning of restricting our freedoms and they will not stop while the Bush
regime remains in power.
Kenneth J. Theisen is an organizer
with THE WORLD Can’t WAIT! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME! He frequently writes about the crimes of the
regime.