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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 5 - 2006
Cuba Says U.S. Spreading Technology Subversion, Anti-Castro Propaganda by Jim Burns 
Cuba Says U.S. Spreading Technology Subversion, Anti-Castro Propaganda by Jim Burns Posted Mar 13, 2006 The official Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma, a voice of the Castro government, accused the United States Wednesday of supporting and spreading what it called "anti-Cuban propaganda" by allowing "illegal entry of satellite receivers and magnetic cards into Cuba." Granma, in an editorial cited the case of Carlos Valdes Gonzalez, an American resident who was arrested at Havana Jose Marti International Airport on June 24, carrying 28 satellite receivers, magnetic cards, connection wires and remote control equipment and batteries. The paper said Valdes Gonzalez "has been charged with smuggling and bribery. He has paid over 120 visits to Cuba from Grand Cayman, Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas and the US." The paper citied a report by the "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which seeks to destroy the Cuban Revolution, suggests distributing computers, short wave equipment, satellite disks, faxes and photocopiers, among others. It provides pictures to nongovernmental bodies supporting Cuban counterrevolutionary gangs to increase the influx of information about so-called 'transitions' including TV and Radio Marti transmissions," the newspaper said. "To top it all," the Granma editorial continued, "it allots money to buy and repair an air platform to ensure the two subversive stations to transmit to Cuba all round the clock. The purchase of time to transmit 'democracy,' human rights and market economy programs from radio and television stations based in the Caribbean, whose signals can reach out to the Island, is also included in its anti-Cuban plans, which constitute a clear violation of international agreements on telecommunications and radio-electronics." Granma accused the Bush White House of using "an EC-130 warplane for transmissions against Cuba and its people." Last January, as I reported on Human Events Online, U.S. officials did say they were getting what they called a "new broadcasting airplane" but were not specific as to what kind and taking to the skies later this year in hopes of breaking the continued jamming of Radio and TV Marti broadcasts into Cuba by the Castro government. The aircraft would replace a Pennsylvania National Guard Commando Solo C-130 that has been transmitting to Cuba for four hours on weekends. The aircraft has also been used to broadcast to Iraq and Afghanistan. Radio/TV Marti usually broadcast from a blimp tethered in the lower Florida Keys, but it was knocked out by last year's hurricanes and has not been replaced. Cuba has been largely successful in jamming the signals since the radio opened in 1985 and the TV station followed in 1990. But the Castro government accused the United States of continuing to ignore what it called "reiterated requests" by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to stop interfering with Cuban television broadcasts. Just before Christmas, Castro government officials told Prensa Latina News Agency that the ITU congresses in 2004 and 2005 warned that U.S. military aircraft beaming the so-called TV Marti blocks Cuban TV signals. The officials, according to Prensa Latina, said Cuba "has the right to jam subversive broadcasts that go against state security, since they call for violence and openly promote the practice of terrorism." Castro government officials also accused the United States of committing what they call "aggressions" from as far back as the 1960s. The State Department, in a statement on its website, acknowledged that in 2004, "the United States successfully broadcast Radio and TV Marti to the Cuban people for several hours from an airborne broadcasting platform operated by the Air National Guard." "The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba recommended that such broadcasts be carried out on a regular basis to break the Castro regime's information blockade on the Cuban people," the State Department statement said. The State Department statement concluded: "Radio and TV Marti have transmitted their signals to Cuba for over a decade, and they are routinely jammed by authorities that are fearful of the truth and of their own people. These broadcasts will give the Cuban people uncensored information about their country and the world, and will help bring about a rapid and peaceful transition to democracy." The television station has broadcast on UHF channels from a blimp in Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys and on a VHF channel with Commando Solo, an aircraft that U.S. Air Force officials call "a specially modified four-engine Hercules transport," which "conducts information operations, psychological operations and civil affairs broadcasts in AM, FM, HF, TV and military communications bands. A typical mission consists of a single-ship orbit offset from the desired target audience -- either military or civilian personnel." Radio/TV Marti also use the HispaSat1 satellite. The radio station now broadcasts on shortwave AM and FM frequencies from transmitters in Marathon, Fla., and Summerland Key, as well as from North Carolina and California. The new broadcast aircraft will allow Radio Marti to transmit more effectively on the FM band, officials say, and TV Marti to spread its signal well outside Havana, so that Cubans in the provinces will be able to videotape its programs and pass them on. Pedro Roig, the head of Radio/TV Marti told the Miami Herald that Cuban jamming comes from four antennas on some of Havana's tallest buildings. Roig said the TV signal will also be added to the DirecTV satellite lineup. Although Castro government regulations make it almost impossible to have a private satellite reception dish, they are easily available on the black market. TV Marti is also preparing to add a second newscast in the evening. Radio Marti is changing its broadcasts to an all-news and information format. Last December, Congress allotted $10 million for the new aircraft, on top of $28 million to cover operating expenses for Radio/TV Marti. The damaged blimp will also be replaced at a cost of $1.7 million. Copyright © 2006 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved. |