“Promoting terrorism” was cited as a reason for the asset seizure. Also seized was “a Palestinian-directed broadcast and an Arabic-language religious and cultural channel….the web domain of Iran’s Al-Alam news network and that of Al-Masirah, a Yemeni TV station controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi insurgency.”
While Biden has been signaling weakness to Iran over the nuke deal, this development bears watching. Predictably, Iran accused the U.S. government of “working with Israel and Saudi Arabia to repress Iran’s freedom of expression.”
Iran has become increasingly aggressive and openly hostile to America, making overt demands about a nuclear deal which would involve the dropping of all sanctions. The hardline, murderous incoming Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has also “declared that Iran will not agree to restrictions on its ballistic missile development or its support for terrorism throughout the region as a condition to the resumption of the nuclear deal.”
“US takes down Iran-linked news sites, alleges disinformation,” by Isabel Debre and Eric Tuck, Washington Post,June 23, 2021:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — American authorities seized a range of Iran’s state-linked news website domains they accused of spreading disinformation, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday, a move that appeared to be a far-reaching crackdown on Iranian media amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
The Justice Department said 33 of the seized websites were used by the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union, which was singled out by the U.S. government last October for what officials described as efforts to spread disinformation and sow discord among American voters ahead of the 2020 presidential election. T
The U.S. says three other seized websites were operated by the Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group, Kata’ib Hizballah, which more than a decade ago was designated a foreign terrorist organization. The group is separate from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group whose news websites remained operational.
The website domains are owned by U.S. companies, but despite the sanctions, neither the IRTVU nor KH obtained the required licenses from the U.S. government before using the domain names, according to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department announcement came hours after the Iranian state-run news agency IRNA revealed the U.S. government seizures without providing further information….
Infidel says
I’m not getting something: if the people behind Biden are doing their best to lift sanctions on Iran, who in the government is doing this, and under what authority? Yeah, normally I’d welcome it, but here, it looks like a part of the bureaucracy going rogue
David says
Infidel, are you welcoming lifting of sanctions?
Infidel says
No. I’m just against the bureaucracy going rogue against the elected government. I hated it when they did it to Trump, and I’m not too thrilled here either, even though I hate Biden’s/Obama’s policies every bit as much as the next guy
gravenimage says
There is never a case where all aspects of the government and judiciary act in lockstep.
OLD GUY says
I think something good happened. But sanctions should remain in place.
gravenimage says
US takes down Iran-linked news sites for promoting terrorism and disinformation
……………
A small bit of good news.