Clandestine Radio Watch 182 Extra A
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CLANDESTINE RADIO WATCH 182 Extra [updated version]
May 16, 2005
CRW is the biweekly online magazine for ClandestineRadio.com, the Web's
only portal on clandestine broadcasting and subversive media.
http://www.ClandestineRadio.com
The full online issue can be read at:
http://www.ClandestineRadio.com/crw/crw.php?id=244
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Radio Tajdeed Reportedly Raided by British Authorities
By Nick Grace
May 16, 2005
Radio Tajdeed, a satellite program targeting Saudi Arabia and run by a
man with extensive al Qaeda ties, is claiming that British authorities
have raided its studios. In an exclusive report for Global Crisis Watch
(GCW), Egyptian signals monitor Marwan Soliman said on Sunday that the
station disappeared from the airwaves on May 6 but returned on May 11
with a repeated announcement of the raid. He also reported hearing audio
of the raid broadcast repeatedly on the station.
"The transmission... was offline for almost a couple of days. But
suddenly they are back with a station announcement saying that the
British police and the MI6 (British intelligence) dashed into their
studio while they were having a live program interviewing Dr Mohammad
al-Massari, who is the man behind the station. As a matter of fact, you
can hear the British police go into the studio, talking in English, and
they were trying to tell them 'We are live on the air so can you talk
about that later' and stuff like that. Then they say the British police
took all the PCs and asked them to stop transmitting so they can get a
copy of each and every thing (that was broadcast). That's why they were
offline for a couple of days."
Radio Tajdeed, he said, also announced that it would return to its normal
broadcast schedule on Sunday at 9 pm Mecca time. According to Soliman,
the station did return to the air as promised and broadcast a program
called "Tajdeed Forum." Al-Massari said during the program that they
would no longer discuss the raid but that British police suspect his
group's involvement with the kidnapping of Douglas Wood, an Australian
enigneer who was taken hostage in Iraq in late April. A video of Wood,
clearly beaten and bruised, was exclusively posted on the Tajdeed Web
site message board on May 1. Al-Massari denied involvement with the
kidnapping during Tajdeed Forum and instead said that it was a "joke"
being pushed by the Saudi government to get the U.K. to silence his
voice.
The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that al-Massari's home and
office had been raided by police. The report incorrectly stated that
Radio Tajdeed had been closed. It had, in fact, been broadcasting a
10-to-15 minute loop recording that aired audio of the raid and extremist
Islamist music.
When asked by GCW about the nature of Radio Tajdeed's programming,
Soliman said that the content is militant, sympathetic with al Qaeda and
"Sheik" Usama bin Laden and that its music clearly promotes violence
against kaffir (non-Muslims) and is clearly hate speech.
Freelance Jordanian journalist Tamara Aqrabawe, who also listened to the
broadcast, told Clandestine Radio Watch that one song in particular calls
for a global Jihad against the West and kaffir (non-Muslims). She said
that its lyrics call on Muslim youth to raise weapons and the Koran in
this violent struggle.
Radio Tajdeed broadcasts on Eutelsat's Hotbird satellite. Eutelsat, a
French company, also broadcast Radio Islah, whose sponsor, Saad al-Faqih
was designated by the U.S. and E.U. as a sponsor of terrorism last year,
and al-Manar TV, the Hezbollah mouthpiece that was pulled off the air
after global condemnation of its hate speech against Jews.
The report can be heard on this week's edition of Global Crisis Watch:
http://www.clandestineradio.com/gcw/050516.mp3
Global Crisis Watch, Clandestine Radio Watch and ClandestineRadio.com's
weekly current affairs podcast, brings listeners to the front line on the
War of Ideas and interviews people who are fighting tyranny and terrorism
with the pulse of freedom. It is hosted by Richard Lafayette in St. Paul,
Minnesota, and co-hosted by Nick Grace in Washington, DC.
------------xxxxxxxxxx Team CRW xxxxxxxxxx---------------------
Martin Schoech, Editor in Chief
Nick Grace, CRW Washington
Richard Lafayette, CRW Midwest
Marwan Soliman, CRW Egypt
Takuya Hirayama, CRW Japan
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