E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Cuba accused of jamming US television programs to Iran
Well, now this is a suprise.
Cuba is deliberately jamming satellite television news programs beamed from the United States to Iran, according to the US government-affiliated Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).
The jamming, the source of which has been located near Havana, prevents Iranians with satellite TV from receiving US broadcasts about their country at a time of growing anti-regime protests, said the BBG. "Cuba’s jamming of satellite transmissions is illegal and ... represents a major threat to satellite communication and must be stopped," BBG chairman Kenneth Tomlinson said.
This is illegal under international law, for you international law junkies out there.
Calling the jamming "deliberate and malicious," the BBG urged the US Government to "lodge an appropriate formal protest" against Cuba.
Write it on the side of a JDAM.
The BBG has also asked the international community to "censure states that have caused the interference." The nine-member board, which oversees all US-funded non-military international broadcasting, also urged providers such as Intelsat and Eutelsat to stop giving service to countries that jam satellite transmissions to Iran.
The jamming was first detected on July 6, three days after the Voice of America (VOA) began broadcasting a daily 30-minute program called News and Views to Iran, it said. The BBG has allocated $US500,000 to the program which airs nightly between 9:30 and 10:00 pm Iran time. It is scheduled to run to at least September 30. Two other Persian-language VOA television programs, Next Chapter and Roundtable with You, are also being jammed, the BBG said. Television broadcasts to Iran from US-based Iranian dissidents have also been jammed by Cuba, according to Loral Skynet, the company that owns the Telstar 12 satellite beaming the broadcasts.
Note that this is not a broadcast being sent into Cuba, but being transmitted into Iran from the US.
"It just shows you how the Cuban government is working with the Islamic regime," said Kourosh Abbassi, spokesman for Azadi Television, one of several California-based stations broadcasting to Iran.
Very interesting, I wonder how much money and/or oil is being sent to Fidel for this service.
Posted by: Steve 2003-07-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=16579