Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : The Kosovo conflict 1999
Commando Solo provides NATO voice to Serbs By Lisa Hoffman 
'Commando Solo' provides NATO voice to Serbs By Lisa Hoffman, Scripps Howard News service WASHINGTON -- "Commando Solo" is cruising the Balkan skies, battling day and night for the hearts and minds of Yugoslav Serbs, conducting psychological warfare from 20,000 feet. The specially outfitted U.S. Air Force plane with the jaunty code name is attempting to penetrate the propaganda fortress that is government-controlled Serbian TV and radio. With most independent stations forced off the air or otherwise silenced, both military and civilian Serbians receive a daily diet of one-sided diatribes against the "neo-Nazi" NATO and "fascist" American air strikes. To counter that, and present a NATO-leaning, if not objective, account of the purpose and effects of the bombing campaign, the Air Force has dispatched the EC-130 Hercules heavyweights to serve as television and radio stations in the sky. Since early April, psychological operations personnel have been zapping Serbian airwaves to degrade them, then sliding their own broadcasts in their place. They are able to break into both UHF and VHF TV bands, as well as AM, FM, HF and military communications bands. Blocked by NATO's political leaders from bombing Yugoslav Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic's audio and video propaganda facilities off the air, Commando Solo is one of only a few ways NATO is attempting to open the Serbs' eyes and ears to the truth, at least as the alliance sees it. On one night, according to Western press reports, Belgrade TV viewers saw two maps and NATO's insignia, which were accompanied by a woman's voice speaking Serbian and describing the horrors befalling ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees as they were routed from their homes by Serb forces in the Serb province of Kosovo. "If only you knew what ethnic-cleansing campaign was going on down there, you would be stunned," the voice said. "Is this the behavior of a professional army?" The picture, although in color, apparently faded in and out and appeared fuzzy. With a crew of 11, Commando Solo hugs its top altitude of 20,000 feet to better saturate its signals, the Air Force says. The service won't say how many personnel -- who come from an airborne intelligence unit of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard based at Harrisburg -- were mobilized for Operation Allied Force. Built by Lockheed, the Air Force's six Commando Solo turboprops carry price tags of $70 million each. Called "Coronet Solo" until 1990, the flying broadcast stations have been some of the most heavily used planes in America's arsenal. Two are now operating from Ramstein Air Base in Germany for the Kosovo mission. The aircraft played a prominent role in the 1989-90 U.S. intervention in Panama to snatch Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, broadcasting continuously through Operation Just Cause. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the airwaves warrior broadcast news and sports to U.S. and allied troops. It also sent Arabic programs to Iraqi troops, telling them they were being betrayed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and encouraging them to surrender. Scores did and most said they had heard the Commando Solo broadcasts. In Haiti in 1994, the plane sent messages telling the populace that the Americans were coming to reinstate exiled Haitian President Bertrand Aristide, as well as statements from the beloved president himself. To ensure an audience in the dirt-poor nation, other Air Force personnel air-dropped thousands of radios that could operate only on the channel Commando Solo was broadcasting on. The high-tech planes' last Balkan appearance came in 1997, when three were dispatched to broadcast to Bosnia to counter inflammatory radio screeds by Bosnian Serb forces that NATO said were urging their countrymen to engage in violence against NATO peacekeepers during a tense round of elections. |