New York man arrested over Hezbollah-funded TV broadcasts

For several years, Javed Iqbal has operated a small company from a Brooklyn storefront and out of the garage at his Staten Island home that provides satellite programming for households, including sermons from Christian evangelists seeking worldwide exposure. But this week, the budding entrepreneur's house and storefront were raided by federal agents, and Iqbal was charged with providing customers services that included satellite broadcasts of a television station controlled by Hezbollah, considered a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. On Aug. 23, Iqbal was arraigned in Federal District Court in Manhattan and was held on $250,000 bail. Prosecutors charged that it is a crime to conduct business with al-Manar television–or "the beacon" in Arabic–because, in March of this year, the US Treasury Department has designated Hezbollah a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" entity. Federal authorities have charged Iqbal with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He faces up to five years in jail if convicted. "The charge lurking in the background is material support for terrorism," Stephen A. Miller, an assistant United States attorney, told United States Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein. He said Iqbal, 42, was a flight risk because he has family in England and Pakistan. "We think there is a strong incentive for him to run," Miller said. Court papers filed by the government to obtain a warrant to search Iqbal's business and home suggested that the authorities learned that certain high-definition global transmission systems were providing access to al-Manar broadcasts in the United States. They got their information from Mark Dubowitz, who heads a Washington-based policy group that has monitored al-Manar–through a project called the Coalition Against Terrorist Media–and campaigned for its removal from worldwide broadcasting. Dubowitz said in a telephone interview that al-Manar's programming includes "very explicit calls for violence," including ones that promote suicide bombing against US troops in Iraq and "death to America." The investigation began after a tip from a confidential source in February, said papers filed in US District Court in Manhattan. A search warrant issued by a New York court says that Iqbal was interviewed at the city's Kennedy airport in May on returning from a trip to Lebanon and that an FBI agent entered his satellite television store some two weeks later. It was then and in ensuing conversations that Iqbal was alleged to have offered broadcasts of the channel. The New York Civil Liberties Union expressed serious concern about the prosecution of Iqbal for allegedly importing and distributing TV broadcasts from a source of which the government disapproves. "It appears that the statute under which Mr. Iqbal is being prosecuted includes a First Amendment exemption that prevents the government from punishing people for importing news communications," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Such an exemption is constitutionally necessary, and the fact that the government is proceeding with the prosecution in spite of it raises serious questions about how free our marketplace of idea is." Iqbal's lawyers say his arrest violates his right to free speech. "It's like the government of Iran saying we are going to ban the New York Times because we think of it as a terrorist outfit, or China saying we will ban CNN," a spokesman for the law firm representing him told the Reuters news agency. Iqbal's family members declined to comment. Neighbors said that the family had lived there for about five years. Melinda Edwards, who lives across the street, said Iqbal would use his snow blower to clear her driveway after winter storms. "He seemed nice," she said. "He seemed like everyone else." Like many others in the neighborhood, Edwards said she noticed the large number of satellite dishes–some of which can be seen from across the street–and asked him about them a while back. "I said, 'You got more satellite dishes than anyone I've ever seen,'" Edwards said. She said that Iqbal told her that the satellites were for his business.