Al-Jazeera Should Be Required to Register as a Foreign Agent

It is high time to fight foreign interference in our elections and political debates.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) is pushing an effort to force Al-Jazeera, Qatar’s government-run broadcaster, to register as a state-backed foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Gottheimer’s proposal should be a no-brainer that enjoys broad bipartisan support. As Congress is currently considering a Department of Defense appropriations bill, which will fund the military, an amendment compelling Al-Jazeera to register makes perfect sense.

Still, some see it as an affront to free-speech protections. It is not. Al-Jazeera is not the BBC, or any ordinary foreign news outlet. Al-Jazeera, in both its English and Arabic-language channels, seeks to normalize extremist points of view by presenting alongside established experts.

By putting an Islamist imam or Muslim Brotherhood leader alongside government officials, respected journalists and noted academics, it communicates the notion that these radical viewpoints are part of a civilized continuum.

The spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood has been a frequent guest, where he has used his airtime to call for death to Israelis and praised suicide bombers. And, of course, Al-Jazeera was the network al-Qaida used to distribute its videotapes and showcase “exclusive” interviews with its leaders.

Related: More Jihadi, Muslim Extremists Are Popping Up in Parts of the U.S.

Qatar itself, while nominally a U.S. ally and home to a U.S. air base, has openly funded Hamas, which has been officially designated as a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the U.S., and the European Union.

Hamas has publicly pledged $1 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas leaders have sought shelter in Qatar, where they operate freely, holding press conferences in pricey hotels and, of course, appearing on Al-Jazeera.

Qatar has also funded the Al Nusra Front, an al-Qaida offshoot in Syria, where it is suspected of numerous human-rights outrages against unarmed civilians, according to U.N. and U.S. State Department reports.

Let’s also not forget that Qatar is suspected of hacking prominent U.S. citizens, including former Republican National Committee finance chairman Elliott Broidy. In a recent lawsuit, Broidy alleged that Qatar, and its agents, hacked his emails and distributed them to the media, which provoked numerous negative stories.

Qatar itself, while nominally a U.S. ally and home to a U.S. air base, has openly funded Hamas, which has been officially designated as a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the U.S., and the European Union.

Broidy’s lawsuit was dismissed last week on the grounds that U.S. citizens cannot sue sovereign states in our courts, except in special circumstances. The federal judge, in an unusual move, essentially called for congressional action to update the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act to allow victims of cyberattacks to seek justice in court.

And Qatar is also believed to be behind efforts to spy on Americans working for pro-Israel organizations. Under the guise of producing an Al-Jazeera documentary, Qatari journalists and their American employees infiltrated and secretly recorded leaders of the Israel Project and other nonprofit groups, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Rep. Josh Gottheimer cited this spy operation in a recent letter to his fellow lawmakers.

Other foreign broadcasters that act as agents of foreign powers have previously been required to register. Russia Today, the Moscow-backed channel, was recently forced to register.

Being registered under FARA does not impair Russia Today from presenting its point of view to Americans. It just provided a little “truth in advertising.” The same would be true for Al-Jazeera.

Niger Innis is chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), one of the nation’s premier civil-rights organizations.

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