Turning off a Beirut station may prove impossible

The International Herald Tribune: "As French media authorities seek to sanction or ban a Lebanese satellite channel because of its militant, anti-Semitic messages, any action they take will probably be rendered symbolic because of sophisticated satellite technology that effectively erodes national boundaries.

The Beirut-based station, Al Manar, can reach global viewers in France and other parts of the world through alternative satellites, two of which are owned by American firms with blue-chip credentials.

Experts, including critics of Al Manar, concede that satellite technology will enable Al Manar to elude any ban so that viewers from San Francisco to Paris can continue to watch its programming, which includes music videos glorifying suicide bombers as "blessed martyrs" and commentary blaming Jews for spreading AIDS.

Al Manar is relayed through Paris-based Eutelsat, but is also available in France through Nilesat, an Egyptian satellite company, and Arabsat, whose major shareholder is Saudi Arabia. Al Manar is also accessible on satellites operated by Washington-based Intelsat and New Skies Satellites, which is based in The Hague but owned by an American company.

New Skies Satellites was purchased for $956 million last June by The Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity firm based in New York. Blackstone's chairman and founder is Peter Peterson, who recently stepped down as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and its chief executive is Stephen Schwarzman, whose name had surfaced in Republican circles as a potential Treasury secretary.

Both American networks, New Skies and Intelsat, said they had only indirect roles in which channels are transmitted by their satellites.

Al Manar first started broadcasting by satellite to the world in 2000. It was founded in 1991 in a chaotic period of Lebanon's history when many television stations operated without licenses. Since then, it has evolved into a sprawling media conglomerate that includes local and international television channels, a radio station, magazine and a Web site.

Its programming has also matured into slickly produced 24-hour news shows and series. Intermixed between them are music videos that show young gun-carrying suicide bombers whose lives end in the rosy pink clouds and blue skies of the heavens.

In one news show early last month - taped and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute - the mothers of dead young men offered their views.

Al Manar also has drawn fire for airing a costly, Syrian-produced 26-part series called Al Shatat, or the Diaspora, which explored the development of the Jewish national movement. The 20th episode included scenes of a Jewish man who demanded the blood of a Christian child to bake Passover matzos.

Globally, the station is probably one of the most popular in the Arab world, according to Avi Jorisch, author of the newly published "Beacon of Hatred: Inside Hizballah's Al-Manar Television," who said station officials told him that the channel draws about 10 million daily viewers.

In his research, Jorisch, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, said top officials spoke openly about their role as the propaganda arm of the militant group Hezbollah. "