Friday, March 11, 2011

American Tax Dollars for Al-Jazeera-inspired Terrorism


An analysis of the propaganda campaign to get Al-Jazeera carried by more cable and satellite systems reveals an interesting fact. The terrorist TV channel is already available through something called MHz Networks. And it turns out that the MHz Networks is supported by the American taxpayers at the federal and state levels.


MHz Networks is a division of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting and receives over $2 million a year from federal and state governments. In this case, because Commonwealth is based in Virginia, the culprit is the state of Virginia. However, Governor Robert F. McDonnell has proposed eliminating state funding of public broadcasting by cutting $2 million in fiscal 2012 and $2 million in fiscal 2013. Even if state legislators go along with this proposal, that still leaves the federal subsidies for Commonwealth and MHz Networks.

According to figures supplied by Joseph H. Koch, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, $1.4 million of that $2 million came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which is funded by Congress. The CPB distributes taxpayer money to public broadcasting stations and entities.

Since Al-Jazeera is totally owned, run, and paid for by the Emir of Qatar, officially known as “His Highness,” this means that American tax dollars are paying for foreign propaganda in the U.S.

Not only that, but American taxpayers are being fleeced on behalf of an Arab dictator with billions of oil dollars. The Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, is number 8 on the Forbes list of the “richest royals,” with an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion. His channel has been labeled “the greatest Arab media organization” by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has spawned various terrorist organizations and is now poised to take power in Egypt and perhaps other countries.

MHz distributes Al-Jazeera, as well as the Moscow-funded Russia Today channel, under the rubric of “Programming for globally-minded people.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Al-Jazeera is gaining viewers because it offers “real news,” when the fact is that it has been a mouthpiece for terrorist groups ranging from al-Qaeda to Hamas to Hezbollah. Since Al-Jazeera has been inciting violence against U.S. allies in the region for years, its ability to be on the scene of riots and demonstrations in countries like Egypt and provide “real news” is hardly surprising. “And like it or hate it, it [Al- Jazeera] is really effective,” Clinton said, ignoring the issue of how and why it is effective and what must be done about it. Al-Jazeera is “effective” because it has a direct connection to the unrest by serving as a mouthpiece for those carrying out the violence.

Indeed, its close connection to the terrorist group Hezbollah during the war with Israel in 2006 has earned Al-Jazeera a lawsuit demanding $1.2 billion for those who were killed and injured. The suit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan alleges that Al-Jazeera “intentionally provided real-time coverage of the locations of missile strikes inside Israeli violation of Israeli security regulations, thereby enabling Hezbollah to aim its missiles more accurately.” The victims were American, Israeli and Canadian.

In terms of “real” or “hard news,” most of it is propaganda. Al-Jazeera has carried a story about disgruntled homosexual Army soldier Bradley Manning, who is charged with illegally disclosing classified information that threatens American lives. Al-Jazeera described him as a “whistleblower,” giving some legitimacy to what he did. The photograph with the story shows members of the Marxist ANSWER Coalition supporting Manning. “His supporters say his solitary confinement amounts to torture, and are calling on the UN to investigate,” the story concludes.

Or consider an interview the channel ran with Anwar al-Awlaki, described as the “Yemen-based religious scholar.” In fact, he inspired the Ft. Hood massacre through his contacts with Muslim Army soldier Nidal Hasan. Al-Awlaki was also linked to the Christmas Day attempted bombing in the U.S. by radical Muslim Umar Farouk.

Here’s an excerpt from the so-called interview:

“Al-Jazeera: The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have quoted CIA investigators as talking about the possibility of targeting you in a drone attack. Why do you think the Americans want to kill you?

“Awlaki: Because I am a Muslim and I promote Islam. The charge is ‘incitement,’ my relationships with Nidal Hasan, Umar Farouk and some 9/11 attackers, and now I am accused of being linked to 14 cases. All this comes as part of the attempt to liquidate the voices that call for defending the rights of the Umma [Muslim nation].”

Hence, this terrorist leader, who acknowledges his links to numerous terrorists, including the perpetrators of 9/11, is given an Al-Jazeera platform to further spout his anti-American drivel.

Nevertheless, blogger Jeff Jarvis claims it is somehow “un-American” for cable giants like Comcast to hesitate about putting the channel on the air. Perhaps he would have been a defender of airing the Japanese radio broadcaster known as “Tokyo Rose” on American television during World War II.

In addition to putting Al-Jazeera on the air, MHz Networks broadcasts a Sunday program titled, “Living Islam in America.” One episode discussed whether Sharia law should be implemented in the United States. Florida broadcaster Jerry Kenney, who uncovered the relationship of MHz Networks with 30 public TV stations around the country, responded, “Do you think that for one minute they would let Pat Robertson and CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network] have a show on public TV to talk about religion? They would all be crying ‘separation of church and state.’”

The host, Johari Abdul Malik, has been quoted as saying, “before Allah closes our eyes for the last time you will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America—that’s where we are now—to being the first religion in America.”

When Kenney started making inquiries about MHz Networks, he found that Al-Jazeera’s public relations company was handling the controversy, suggesting that taxpayer-financed public TV was working hand-in-glove with the Arab government-funded channel.

Kenney subsequently hired a lawyer to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the contracts between the public TV stations and Commonwealth violate federal rules. In effect, the public TV stations are being improperly used for the purpose of broadcasting foreign propaganda in the U.S. Violations of the rules can result in financial fines and revocation of broadcast licenses.

A constant complaint by conservatives has been the use of tax dollars to put liberal and far-left voices on public broadcasting. Now we find out that the tax dollars are being used to pay for access by Al-Jazeera to public TV stations.

Al-Jazeera has been called “Jihad TV” by Judea Pearl, father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl. We cannot forget the story of the kidnapping and brutal murder of Daniel Pearl by al-Qaeda. The terrorists even videotaped the crime. Judea Pearl devotes a lot of his time these days to furthering interfaith dialogue.

He is still warning about Al-Jazeera’s role as a recruiter of terrorists and tells me that he remains opposed to acceptance of the channel, Arabic or English.

“I have no doubt that, today, Al-Jazeera is the most powerful voice of the Muslim Brotherhood, upon whom they can rely for full collaboration,” he says in a statement provided to me.

Pearl also raises the specter of Al-Jazeera increasing the number of home-grown Jihadist incidents inside the U.S., saying, “this danger is not to be taken lightly.”

Al-Jazeera doesn’t even try to hide its role in the anti-Western Jihad anymore. In the “interview” with Anwar al-Awlaki, Al-Jazeera put this “question” to the terrorist leader:

“The Western media says that you are ‘inspiring’ Muslims in the US and the West. Is this an exaggeration?”

The response from Anwar al-Awlaki:

“I have said in an earlier interview with Al-Jazeera’s Yusri Fouda that the United States is a tyrant, and tyrants across history have all had terrible ends. I believe the West does not want to realize this universal fact. Muslims in Europe and America are watching what is happening to Muslims in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will take revenge for all Muslims across the globe.”

What these radical Muslims are “watching” is Al-Jazeera. It is not “real news,” as Clinton says, but incitement to violence, with Americans as terrorist targets. It is a sad commentary on our inability as a nation to face up to this threat that the Obama Administration and many in the media seem to be embracing this terrorist “news” channel,

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