Most of the dozen or so domains seized on Thursday were registered in the U.S. and belonged to Al Manar TV which is affiliated with the Lebanese resistance group.
Hezbollah posters around the streets of Baalbek, Lebanon, 2009. (Will De Freitas, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The U.S. government seized over a dozen web domains belonging to the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah and others on Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Justice said that the web domains were operated by persons or groups who had been sanctioned by the U.S. government.
Most of these domains were registered in the U.S. and belonged to Al Manar TV which is affiliated with Hezbollah, such as almanarnews.org, manarnews.org and almanartv.org, among others.
Other prominent web domains include sites belonging to Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem and the website related to the Islamic Resistance Support Association, a charity in Lebanon.
Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, in Beirut in 2009. (Sebastian Baryli, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Visitors trying to access these websites can now see a message declaring that “this website has been seized by the United State government.” However, Al-Manar’s main Lebanese domain is still operating.
In a statement, the Justice Department said the domains were being used by “Specially Designated Nationals (SNDs), Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) and their members associated with Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah, which was founded in 1980 to resist the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and is now the largest political group in the country’s parliament, has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S, and its allies.
[Related: THE ANGRY ARAB: How the US Controls Lebanon]
The U.S. government has been selectively targeting media groups and websites critical of its policies in the last few years. It similarly seized the domain of Iranian news channel Press Tv in 2021. The sites of Yemeni Al-Masirah and Palestinian Palestine Today were also seized. All three news outlets have been critical of U.S, interventions in the region and the occupation of Palestine by its closest ally Israel.
Neither Al-Manar nor Hezbollah have issued any statements on the move so far. When Al-Masirah’s web domain was similarly seized in 2021 its statement then said, such moves expose “the falsehood of the slogans of freedom of expression and all other headlines promoted by the United States of America, including its ability to confront the truth.”
This article is from Peoples Dispatch.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Handled like a true tyrant, USA. Any country you oppose is not even entitled to explain themselves to the public. Stop pretending that you stand for “freedom” (or democracy).
I ma surprised that Hezbollah netizens were so naïve as to register their Web sites in the USA. Or are these merely mirrors of the contents of their Lebanese sites?
US, land of make believe. The rest of the world must marvel at our ability to delude ourselves into thinking we are increasing our grip on global power as it slips through our tightening fist.
The intensification of social and info control in theWest continues apace. …… If you’re not on board with US imperialism, you are the ENEMY, a Putin Puppet, a THREAT! to, er, our (ha ha) democracy……a sign of weakness and desperation from the empire!
…..is it any wonder why countries around the world are turning to China for leadership????
In the name of Freedom … we can’t let you see this.
I hope people do notice the important bit that was snuck in at the end of a paragraph. The non-US addresses are beyond the reach of the Yankees and thus still operate. So, the .com address now has the Big Sign of Freedom from the DOJ on it. But the .lb addresses of Al Manar still work.
This is only Banned in the Land of the Free. Only ‘the Free’ can not read Al Manar.
And only the free in europe cannot read “RT” and/or “Sputnik”. (But we are allowed “TASS”.)
Just another way that the US will find itself isolated.
Great comment and spot on! So-called “Land of the Free” where government censorship of any websites critical of them are shut down; where 27 GITMO prisoners are held for over 20 years without any charges; where university education leaves graduates with $25 to over $100,000 student debt; and where being homeless is criminalized to such a ridiculous degree that they’ve made sleeping in your car illegal, etc. USA SUCKS!
Another day of Imperial arrogance.