Al-Jazeera to Launch English Language Network in U.S.

Jesse PetrillaThursday, June 15, 2006

Al-Jazeera International plans on launching an English language network aimed at the West, but some believe the American people should take action to stop it.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has referred to Al-Jazeera’s reporting as “vicious, inaccurate, and inexcusable,” while Dr. Walid Phares, professor of Middle East Studies at Florida Atlantic University refers to Al-Jazeera as “Jihad TV.” The Al-Jazeera network has blatantly violated the Geneva Conventions time and again by broadcasting images of dead coalition soldiers and prisoners of war, a violation of Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention that protects POWs against acts of intimidation, insults, and public curiosity. According to U.S. officials, Al-Jazeera is greatly putting American forces in Iraq at risk by broadcasting intentional lies on a continual basis, and also by broadcasting uncensored messages from terrorist leaders. Now the company wants to launch a new network, in American homes and in English called Al-Jazeera International.

Al-Jazeera International promises a full array of shows in addition to news and commentary, including children’s shows, according to the network’s sources. Some may wish for the network to successfully launch in America simply out of their curiosity to see the new station, but the fulfillment of one’s curiosity will come at a grave price. With an all-too-often unpublicized growing insurgency of Islamic militancy within our very own borders, having a network which promotes Islamist propaganda on our own soil is beyond dangerous, it is ludicrous. Would we have given Stalin a radio network in America during the Cold War? Or would we have allowed the National Socialists of Germany to broadcast their messages in the United States during World War II? Why then now should we the people allow this network to promote Islamofascist propaganda in the United States, an ideology that is a greater threat to global security then Nazism and Communism combined ever were?

Nazism could be contained. The Nazis wore uniforms, and we shot them. But today we face an enemy who worships the thought of death in battle against the infidels, with the reward being many virgins in heaven. This new enemy does not wear uniforms. They have sleeper cells in nearly every country of the world. The establishment of an outlet to send their message of jihad across America in the guise of a mainstream cable network would be a victory for the enemies of the free world, and a loss for America.

Al-Jazeera International, however, is not the first television station to raise concern in the United States over support for terror. On December 17, 2004, the U.S. Department of State added the Lebanese Hezballah television network, Al-Manar, to the Terrorist Exclusion List, ordering its Washington, D.C. office to be shut down for reasons of the network’s incitement of terrorist activity. In addition, in March of this year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Al-Manar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity. The original decision to add Al-Manar to the Terrorist Exclusion List greatly concerned Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera even reported the reasons of Al-Manar network’s closure in America as being the fault of the Jewish influence in the United States that pushed for the shutdown of the station. In reality it was because Al-Manar constantly promoted an Islamic extremist ideology inciting hatred and violence, which culminated in 51 senators signing a letter to President Bush requesting that Al-Manar be designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity.

Since Al-Jazeera is not directly associated with any terrorist organization as Al-Manar was, it makes it difficult for the United States government to take action against it. In such a case, it is not the duty of the government, but the duty of the people to stand up and stop the broadcast of the anti-U.S. and pro-terrorist Al-Jazeera’s new network, Al-Jazeera International. The United American Committee has gone so far as to organize protests outside of Al-Jazeera

International’s recently acquired Washington, D.C. studio, and the UAC is currently pushing a campaign to stop the broadcast of the new network in America through grassroots efforts. Pre-written sample letters for Americans to send to their local cable providers expressing reasons to deny carriage of Al-Jazeera International are available on the UAC’s website at www.UnitedAmericanCommittee.org. This is just one battle in the war on terror.
For a change, let’s make this one for the good guys, the American people, and the troops they support in the War on Terror.

About the Writer: Jesse Petrilla is founder and chairman of the United American Committee, a grassroots movement of concerned citizens dedicated to confronting Islamic extremism and other threats facing America.