IS CUBA ABOUT DIVORCING IRANIAN AYATOLLAHS FOR BUSH?
WASHINGTON 21 Aug. (IPS)
The Islamic Republic of Iran might lose one of his very few friends in the world, namely the Marxist regime of Cuba which, according to American officials, has officially informed them that Iranian embassy in Havana was the source of jamming programs by the US-based Iranian radio and television stations that are beamed to mainland Iran.
The jamming of Telstar-12, a commercial communications satellite orbiting at 15 degrees west, 22,000 miles above the Atlantic that carries programs from the American government and by Iranian radio and televisions based in the United States to mainland Iran began on 16 July, coinciding with the start of a new wave of pro-democracy protest movement led by Iranian students against the regime and its clerical leaders, resulting in the arrest of some ten thousand protesters, most of them released afterward.
At first, it was believed that the Cuban government, acting on demand from Iranian ayatollahs, was jamming the programs, mostly from Iranian radio and television stations beamed to Iran, as the stations, based mostly in Los Angeles, had attracted an impressive popularity in 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 from friendly Cuba, which could do it instead.
But on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the US State Department said Havana had informed them that the jamming was made by the Iranians in Cuba, using a compound in the suburb of the capital belonging to the Iranian Embassy.
According to the source, the Cubans have shut down the facilities and presented a protest note to the Iranian government in Tehran.
"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 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".
After denying that it was responsible for the jamming but pledging to investigate the US complaints in mid-July, Cuba told the United States that it had found the source and had acted to stop it, she said.
The news surprised many Iranian observers, doubting Fidel Castro’s “innocence” in the affair.
“Being a fully police state, it is difficult to believe that the Iranians had introduced the sophisticated jamming equipments into Cuba without the knowledge of the Cuban authorities”, Dr. Shahin Fatemi, a veteran Iranian political analyst told The Asia Times Online.
Noting that both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Marxist regime of Cuba shared the “same mutual hate” towards Washington, Mr. Fatemi, who teaches international economics at the American University of Paris added however that if the information is correct, then it must be welcomed by all Iranians opposed to the present theocracy.
In his view, the Cuban decision could also be viewed as a signal from the Lider Masimo towards the Bush Administration, which has labelled the Islamic Republic as an "evil State", alongside the Stalinist North Korea and the regime of the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hoseyn in Iraq.
According to Mr. Alireza Meybodi, a popular radio broadcaster at Radio Yaran in Los Angeles, the Iranians authorities jam foreign broadcasts locally with mobile equipments bought from Russia while using more sophisticated ones installed in Cuba.
“This is quite obvious when we announce some of our programs beforehand, like one very recently concerning an interview with Hojjatoleslam Hoseyn Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, which was filled with locally produced parasite”, he indicated, adding that most of the foreign-based radio and television stations could be seen normally outside the capital.
In a series of interviews with international press and Iranian media abroad, the young dissident cleric, who now lives in Iraq, has accused the Iranian ruling ayatollahs of corruption, abuse of power, nepotism, despotism, arbitrary detention and torture of political prisoners as well as total disregard for both Islam and the Islamic revolution.
About a dozen of Persian-language television and radios, run by Iranians opposed to the present Iranian regime are beamed towards Iran, where a majority of the 70 millions inhabitants is made of men and women under 30, thirsty of modern entertainment programs and news.
Though the regime has banned satellite dishes, it is estimated that more than 2 million households, using small and easily concealed equipments, receive the programs.
Iran said at the time that the US broadcasts into the country were interference in its internal affairs and accused the US-based Iranian opposition of inflaming the protests.
Though there was no official reaction from Iranian authorities to the Cuban charges, but “Jomhoori Eslami” (Islamic Republic), a hard line newspaper that belongs to Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’I, the lamed leader of the Islamic Republic quoted Thursday an unidentified source at the Foreign Affairs Ministry as having denied the story, claiming it was part of Americans smearing campaign against Iran. ENDS SATELLITE JAMMING 21803
http://www.iran-press-service.com/