August 30, 2005 | Press Release

CATM Removes Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Website From Service Provider

Washington, D.C. (August 30, 2005)The Coalition Against Terrorist Media said that the website of Hezbollah's al-Manar television (www.manartv.com.lb) was taken down over the weekend and forced to move to a new address, www.almanar.com.lb, on a server in India.

“Every day that al-Manar is allowed to spread its message of hatred and terrorism, someone somewhere will answer its call to violent Jihad,” said CATM Executive Director Avi Jorisch.  “And every time we succeed in this game of cat and mouse, Hezbollah is put on the defensive and is limited in its ability to recruit suicide bombers and incite terrorist attacks.”

Aaron Weisburd, CATM's Internet partner and Director of the Society for Internet Research (www.sofir.org), first discussed the issue of the terrorist-owned website with Layered  Technologies, a Dallas-based datacenter, on Wednesday, August 24.   After reviewing al-Manar's history and contents, Layered Technologies gave the company hosting al-Manar 24 hours to remove it.  That company, www.donyahost.com, of Isfahan, Iran, complied.

Layered Technologies also removed a website of the terrorist group Hamas, aqsavoice.net, the site of its radio station Sout al-Aqsa.

On Monday, al-Manar reappeared on a server in India, now hosted by www.brainpulse.com, which had hosted an earlier version of the site for Hezbollah.

“Legitimate Internet companies should have no interest in facilitating al-Manar and its terrorist mission,” said Jorisch.  “Layered Technologies deserves praise for taking action against al-Manar.  We will encourage Hezbollah's new business partners to do the same.”

CATM has been instrumental in removing al-Manar from seven satellite companies.  As a result, it is no longer broadcast to North America, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and much of Africa.  Al-Manar is still broadcast to the Middle East, Europe and North Africa by ARABSAT, a Saudi-owned company, and Nilesat, whose largest shareholder is the government of Egypt.

CATM is a project of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.  For more information on CATM and al-Manar, including recent action by the U.S. Congress and the European Union, please visit www.stopterroristmedia.org.

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