The US Department of Justice has announced the seizure of two websites used by Kata’ib Hizballah, which was designated in July of 2009 by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control as a Specially Designated National , and by the US Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
According to the DOJ, the websites — Aletejahtv.com and Aletejahtv.org — functioned as the terrorist group’s media arm, were used to publish articles designed to further the organization’s agenda to destabilize Iraq and recruit members to join its cause, and served as a live online television broadcast channel for the group. The sites are owned and operated by a US company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Federal law prohibits designated entities from utilizing US goods or services, including websites and domain services, without first obtaining an OFAC license. Kata’ib Hizballah did not obtain a license prior to utilizing the domain names; therefore the websites were seized pursuant to a warrant on August 31, 2020.