Wednesday, July 16, 2003

It's our old pal Fidel
You may remember an item from last Thursday about the mysterious jamming of US satellite feeds to Iran. There was some suspicion that the jamming was coming from the Caribbean, but that it would take some time to pinpoint it. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise - Castro regime jamming U.S. broadcasts into Iran:
The Cuban government has been jamming all U.S. broadcasts into Iran since the Voice of America began beaming new Farsi-language programming into that country earlier this month, according to U.S. officials and electronics experts outside the government.
...
"Cuba is obviously doing this at the behest of the mullahs in Iran," said Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the VOA Board of Governors. For technological reasons, he said, "Iran needed someone in this hemisphere to do its dirty work."

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Florida Republican, suggested Cuba was doing the jamming in exchange for a favorable deal on Iranian oil, on which Cuba is becoming increasingly dependent.

"There is an intimate relationship between Iran and Cuba," he said. "It is clear the relationship is becoming deeper and more pronounced."
...
Joe Garcia, spokesman for the the Cuban American National Foundation, said, "Cuba is a rogue state, involved in narcoterrorism, narcotrafficking, kidnapping, foreign incursions around the world, arms sales and harboring criminals. Jamming a television signal is normal. They are doing it for Iranian oil."
Hey, the Axis of Evil team is short a player these days. How about bringing Fidel up from the minors?