1115.org

The first paragraph of Ken Tomlinson’s Wikipedia entry packs quite a punch:

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson (born March 8, 1944) is an American government official. He currently serves as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which manages Voice of America radio. According to The New York Times, there is an ongoing inquiry concerning possible criminal misuse of federal money by Tomlinson. Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said on 15 November 2005 “that they had uncovered evidence that its former chairman had repeatedly broken federal law and the organization’s own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.” According to the New York Times, State Department investigators determined in 2006 that he had “used his office to run a ‘horse racing operation’,” that he “improperly put a friend on the payroll,” that he “repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands,” and that he “billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit.”

If the Bush administration did not embrace cronyism and the protection of disgraced cronies, he would also be rotting in a jail cell somewhere, having been arrested under the Patriot Act. Because “Al Hurra television, the U.S. government’s $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East,” is run by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and here’s what they have been caught doing on Tomlinson’s watch. Or maybe I should give you the headline first; it’s pretty good stuff as headlines go: U.S. Government Gave Airtime to Terrorists, Official Admits.

Al Hurra television … is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program.

That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces.
[...]
“How does it happen that the terrorists take over?” asked Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, D-N.Y., at a hearing last Wednesday of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee he chairs. “Is there no adult supervision?”

(Broadcasting Board of Governors member Joaquin Blaya) conceded that the top officials in the network’s chain of command could not understand what was being said on al Hurra broadcasts.
[...]
The station’s gaffes have included broadcasting in December 2006 a 68-minute call to arms against Israelis by a senior figure of the terrorist group Hezbollah…

If you or I donated money to al Qaeda or Hezbollah, would the goons of Alberto Gonzales and Michael Chertoff allow us to get away with “I had no bloody idea what I was doing, okay”?

This man Tomlinson has presided over acts of overt aid to terrorist organizations. Why should he be treated any differently? When it comes to things done by Broadcasting Board of Governors and its foster children, the buck has to stop at the office of the boss. In this case, that’s one Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman.

We passed laws to protect ourselves. Let’s use them.