On January 9, the Department of Treasury designated Syrian television station Al-Zawraa under Executive Order 13438. That executive order targets parties that threaten Iraqi stabilization, including insurgent and militia groups and their support. Among the reasons cited for sanctioning Al-Zawraa were its broadcast of insurgent videos showing attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.

According to a State Department authored article disseminated by the Voice of America:

Administration officials concede Wednesday’s order will likely have little practical impact. But Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism Stuart Levey said the move brings to light “the lethal actions” of the sanction targets, and he urged the international community to join the United States in isolating them from the global economy.

One reason that this order “will likely have little practical impact” is that Al-Zawraa has been off the air since July 2007 and no longer appears to exist.

This is also the first time, at least that I am aware of, that Treasury has based a designation, at least in part, on the content of a broadcast or a publication. There is no reason to doubt Treasury’s claim that the station, while it was in existence, broadcast videos of insurgent attacks on U.S. troops. But so did major U.S. networks, including CNN.

The Treasury release also stated as a ground for the designation of Al-Zawraa that the station agreed “to broadcast open-coded messages through patriotic songs to [a] Sunni terrorist group.” Of course, coded messages are quite a different story from broadcast of insurgent videos and should have been sufficient, in and of itself, to designate that station. At least assuming that there is any point in blocking the assets of defunct entities.

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