As recently as Monday, the Web site of Iran-backed Hizballah's Lebanon-based television propaganda arm, Al-Manar TV, sported prominent banner ads from the two companies. Microsoft's bCentral banner appears on each page of the English-language section of the site, while Amazon's banner appears atop the Arabic-language pages.

The Lebanon-based Web site refers to itself as the "Channel of Resistance and Liberation," and proclaims that it is "the first Arab establishment to stage an effective psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy."

The first English-language page of the Hizballah site contains an appeal from its secretary-general for donations "for the Sustenance of the Intifadah" and a request for "support and cooperation for the liberation and uprising of the nation."

Mixed Response

A U.S. State Department spokesperson who spoke to the NewsFactor Network on condition of anonymity confirmed that Hizballah is on the Department's list of terrorist organizations. She added that Dan Sreebny, the Middle East Public Affairs Officer, would have no comment until after checking with officials at Microsoft and Amazon on Tuesday.

Mark Thomas, Microsoft's international public relations manager, told the NewsFactor Network that the ad was "unauthorized."

"It looks like someone used our banner ad without our permission," said Thomas. "We're contacting the site and asking them to remove that immediately. This is not something we did. We don't support political activities."

However, the ad banner apparently originates from Microsoft bCentral's ClickTrade ad server . Similarly, the Amazon ad banner appears to originate from an Amazon ad server.

Calls to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos were not returned at press time. The Seattle, Washington-based company's public relations office was also contacted, but no reply was issued.

The U.S. Office of Counterterrorism, headed by Ambassador-at-Large Michael A. Sheehan, which coordinates U.S. counterterrorism efforts with foreign governments, was unavailable for comment.

Iran-Backed Radicals

The Hizballah site lists a Beirut street address, and gives the address of a Beirut bank and an account number for cash donations. A shopping link also appears on the site, although it is still under construction. (continued...)

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