Thursday, July 10, 2003

My, my
Robert Windrem reports over at MSNBC that U.S. satellite feeds to Iran jammed:
U.S. government officials as well as Iranian Americans and communications satellite operators confirm that all U.S.-based satellite broadcasts to Iran are being jammed by an unknown group or individual, possibly Iranian agents operating out of Latin America.

Over the past several months, private Iranian-American groups have begun increasing their broadcasts into Iran using Telstar-12, a communications satellite over the eastern Atlantic. All are trying to encourage protests against the regime in Tehran.

Iranians, using small satellite dishes, have been able to receive the broadcast, whose mix of news, entertainment and exhortations to protest have gained a large audience, particularly in Tehran. Then on Sunday, the Voice of America began its Farsi-language broadcasts.

Not long afterward, the jamming intensified.

Over the past few days — as the fourth anniversary of the country’s most widespread protests approached — the broadcasts have been jammed, not in Iran but somewhere in the Americas, according to officials and investigators.
...
But he added, Loral has yet to find the source. “They can’t find the exact location. They say it is probably in the Caribbean or South America. They are reworking the numbers and may have something better in the morning.”
...
The investigator said Intelsat, a big satellite consortium that has a nearby “bird,” is telling people the jamming is coming from South America.
...
A representative of one of the Iranian-American broadcasters said he suspected the jamming came from Cuba, which has excellent relations with Iran, but offered no proof.
You know, it would really be awful if the US Navy conducted a missile test in the Atlantic and the missile was knocked off course by a pirate jammer. It might even land right on the jamming equipment!