EFL
The Islamic Republic of Iran might lose one of its very few friends in the world, Cuba, which, according to American officials, has officially informed them that the Iranian embassy in Havana was the source of jamming programs send out by US-based Iranian radio and television stations aimed at mainland Iran.
I wondered what happened to this story.
The jamming related to Telestar-12, a commercial communications satellite orbiting at 15 degrees west, 22,000 miles above the Atlantic, which carries programs by the American government as well as by Iranian radio and television stations based in the US aimed at mainland Iran. The interference began on July 16, coinciding with the start of a new wave of pro-democracy protests led by Iranian students in Tehran against the countryâs clerical leaders. At first, it was believed that the Cuban government, acting on demands from Iranâs ayatollahs, was jamming the US government and private Persian-language radio and TV broadcasts into Iran, as the stations, based mostly in Los Angeles, had attracted an impressive popularity within Iran. Satellite-broadcasting experts said at the time that since Tehran could not jam the Telstar-12, due to its stationary position, it made the request for friendly Cuba to do it instead.
And since Iran sends oil to Cuba, they have a lot of pull.
But on Wednesday a spokeswoman for the US State Department said that Havana had informed them that the jamming was made by the Iranians in Cuba, using a compound in a suburb of the capital belonging to the Iranian embassy. According to a source, the Cubans have now shut down the facility and presented a protest note to the Iranian government in Tehran, and the jamming stopped earlier this month. "Cuba informed us on August 3 that they had located the source of the interference and had taken action to stop it," Jo-Anne Prokopowicz of the State Department said. "The government of Cuba informed us that the interference was coming from an Iranian diplomatic facility," she said, adding, "We will be following this up with Iran."
She said with a straight face
The news surprised many Iranian observers, doubting Cuban leader Fidel Castroâs "innocence" in the affair. "Being a fully police state, it is difficult to believe that the Iranians had introduced the sophisticated jamming equipment into Cuba without the knowledge of the Cuban authorities," Dr Shahin Fatemi, a veteran Iranian political analyst, told The Asia Times Online.
Hereâs what I think happened. According to reports, the jamming from Cuba was strong enough to to knock out several transponders on the satellite, not just the Iranian broadcasts. The international satellite companies all have to work together, and they donât like it when one of their birds goes down. It costs them big money. I saw a press report that they were considering joint action against Cuba if the jamming did not stop. Iâll bet they told them, "Stop the jamming, or we cut all satellite service in and out of Cuba". It may have been an Iranian run jammer or a Cuban jammer, we may never know for sure. But I think Castro got the message and is now trying to put the best face possible on it. 
|
