Hot Bird 8 may be Europe’s largest and most powerful television satellite, but it still has little chance when the Iranian regime decides to block its signals. When that happens, the Farsi services of the BBC and Voice of America instantly disappear from television screens — and not just in Iran, but also throughout the satellite’s entire coverage area.
Tehran has targeted the satellite in an effort to prevent critical foreign media coverage from reaching domestic viewers. Even though the United Nations has condemned it as an act of sabotage, the international community can do little to stop it.
The Arabic service of the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle was also affected by the attacks on Hot Bird 8. “We experienced disruptions in December and February,” Deutsche Welle spokesman Johannes Hoffmann told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “A total of over 30 hours of programming was affected.”
Hoffmann believes the attacks were a “targeted act to block news coverage” on Iran. For example, he noted , there were problems in February during celebrations marking the anniversary of the Iranian revolution.
No Accident
France-based satellite provider Eutelsat, which operates Hot Bird 8, also believes the jamming attempts are deliberate. “This is not happening by accident,” says Eutelsat spokeswoman Vanessa O’Connor. The latest attempt to block the satellite occurred on March 20, according to the BBC and Voice of America.
Indeed, it would seem that it is often surprisingly easy for the regime in Tehran to suppress information from abroad. Although Hot Bird 8 is in geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers (22,400 miles) above the Earth, it can be easy to sabotage, something which is also true for many other satellites. The Iranians only need to transmit a strong signal in the satellite’s direction using the same frequency with which programs are transmitted from the original ground transmission station.
In the case of Deutsche Welle, the so-called uplink is sent from a ground station in Usingen, in the German state of Hesse. “The satellite cannot, however, determine whether the signal is coming from Usingen or from Tehran,” says Deutsche Welle chief engineer Horst Scholz. If in doubt, he explains, the satellite chooses the stronger signal, which allows it to be deceived by the interference coming from Iran.
Signals from Tehran
That is apparently exactly what happened to Hot Bird 8. Eutelsat’s employees were easily able to detect the jamming signals — with their constant amplitude, constant frequency and high power — on their monitors, but they could not do anything about them. Using a special software package called SatID, they were also able to identify the source of the signals: Tehran.
The satellite operator then informed the French telecommunication regulator Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR) about the signals. The ANFR sent a four-page fax, which has been obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, to the Iranians regarding the issue. A copy of the complaint was also sent to the Radio Regulations Board of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The 12-member board meets regularly in Geneva. Its meetings typically focus on highly technical issues, with the experts discussing problems related to frequency interference. In fact, given the paucity of free frequences these days, incidents of interference are not uncommon. Still, targeted disruptions are rare, though there had already been complaints about Iran in the summer of 2009.
This time around, the UN experts were unusually outspoken, at least by their standards. In a statement issued last Friday, the board “urged” Tehran to “continue its effort in locating the source of interference (of the Eutelsat satellite) and to eliminate it as a matter of the highest priority.” The Iranians had previously protested their innocence, saying they knew nothing about any jamming attempts, and they assured the board that they would look into the matter as quickly as possible.
Appeal to Goodwill
The issue is also likely to play a role at the next meetings of the International Telecommunication Union. But, in practice, the UN can do little against the jammers. “In such cases, the ITU Radio Regulations Board appeals to the goodwill and mutual assistance of its member states to find a solution and prevent the occurrence of harmful interference of radio signals,” ITU spokesman Sanjay Acharya told SPIEGEL ONLINE. But it is doubtful whether Tehran is interested in cooperating.
Likewise, since the European Union lacks the political will to block Iranian TV broadcasts as a countermeasure, there is no speedy solution to the problem in sight. “These things take time,” says Eutelsat’s Vanessa O’Connor. “We have the patience to accept that.”
In the meantime, the satellite operator has changed how some of its services are distributed. The channels affected thusfar are now transmitted via other satellites that can broadcast to the entire Gulf region, but without being reachable by uplinks from Iran.
Not all the channels on Hot Bird 8 have been affected by the electronic sabotage, however. The state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting also transmits its Press TV foreign service from Hot Bird 8. So far, it has not experienced any problems.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopian Airlines officials are closely following a report that a captured terrorism suspect has told of a bomb aboard a plane that crashed off the coast of Lebanon in January. Investigators have not determined the cause more than two months after the crash.
A report on a U.S. Internet Web site says British intelligence agents have reopened their investigation into the mysterious crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet January 25. The Boeing 737 plunged into the Mediterranean Sea minutes after takeoff from Beirut airport, killing all 90 people aboard.
News reports initially quoted witnesses as saying the plane had broken up in the air and fallen into the sea in a ball of flames. But Lebanese officials immediately ruled out terrorism, and suggested pilot error was to blame.
The “G2 Bulletin” Web site, which calls itself an independent online intelligence newsletter reports an operative of the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula told interrogators the aircraft was destroyed by a suicide bomber trained in Yemen.
The operative is said to be among more than 100 terrorism suspects recently arrested in Saudi Arabia. He is reported to have told his captors the Beirut bomber trained in the same camp as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off a bomb in his underwear on a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day.
Ethiopian Airlines chief Girma Wake has been critical of what he called premature and misleading speculation about the cause of the Beirut crash. In a telephone interview, he cautioned that this latest report must be checked thoroughly. But he said it raises questions about why Lebanese politicians were so quick to rule out foul play and blame pilot error.
“The very fact the Lebanese authorities were saying the aircraft exploded in the air, or when they say there was a trace of fire as it was coming down. All this leads you to check it. I’m not saying that is the cause, but it leads you to check this,” said Girma.
Girma declined to say what he thinks the cause may have been. He said, ‘if you rush to conclusions, they will be the wrong conclusions.’
News reports from Saudi Arabia say the recently arrested terrorism suspects were part of a network of al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that included two suicide bombing cells.
Mahboub Maalim, head of the six-nation East African regional economic group known as IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), says al-Qaida-linked terror cells in the Arabian Peninsula are working with like-minded groups in the Horn of Africa.
“We’re almost certain in Somalia the group al-Shabab is not a Somali group any more, and we think a lot of other nationalities are there in the name of that cell, the al-Qaida cell, and definitely we feel there is also a link with the group in Yemen,” note Maalim.
A statement from the Saudi interior ministry last week said the recently arrested terrorism suspects were plotting attacks on oil and security installations. Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter.
There has been little speculation about any terrorism motive in connection with the Ethiopian Airlines crash. But experts have noted that the crash occurred almost exactly five years after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, after whom Beirut’s airport is named.
A Special Tribunal into the Hariri killing is reported nearing a conclusion that would bring the perpetrators to justice. An earlier United Nations backed probe said it had found evidence implicating senior officials of the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services.
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA (WPLF) — A suspect was arrested Saturday in connection with the stabbings of two women in South Beach.
Leigh-Ann Martinez, 21, was having a girls’ night out with Belkin Gutierrez, 20, and three other friends. The women finished dinner at TGI Friday’s at Fifth and Ocean just after 9 p.m. and headed for their car.
Martinez said a man followed them for five blocks until they reached First Street, where he attacked them.
An arrest report identified the man as 24-year-old Kidane Mengesha. The report said Mengesha grabbed Martinez and hit her in the face. Investigators said Martinez hit Mengesha back, and a fight broke out. Gutierrez tried to help her friend by hitting Mengesha, who then pulled out a knife, according to the arrest report.
Police said Mengesha stabbed Gutierrez five times, in the head, torso and arm, and stabbed Martinez once in the leg. According to the report, two men intervened, hitting Mengesha, and he ran away.
“It was a big cut — a really big cut. I freaked out and passed out on the sidewalk,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the cut was about 7 inches long. It took 25 stitches to sew up.
Gutierrez is still being treated at a hospital.
Police said they took Mengesha into custody shortly after the attack at South Pointe Park. He faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery. A judge set his bond at $50,000.
Martinez said she and her friends did nothing to provoke the attack and that Mengesha said nothing to them before he pulled the knife.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Reuters) — U.S. funded-broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) said on Monday that [the Woyanne regime in] Ethiopia may have blocked its website in a move which may lead to further U.S. criticism of its closest ally in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopia holds national elections on May 23 and international press freedom advocacy groups say the government is intimidating and harassing journalists ahead of the vote. The government Woyanne denies that.
“We have received reports that VOA’s website is unavailable inside Ethiopia, and we are investigating the causes,” VOA Director Danforth Austin said in a statement.
Government Woyanne spokesmen were not immediately available to comment.
Prime Minister Genocidal dictator Meles Zenawi this month accused VOA’s radio service in Ethiopia’s dominant Amharic language of broadcasting “destabilising propaganda” and said his government was testing its ability to jam it.
Meles compared VOA to Radio Mille Collines, whose broadcasts are blamed by many for sparking the 1994 Rwanda genocide. He said he would order the service jammed if testing succeeded.
Residents of the capital, Addis Ababa, told Reuters they had not been able to access the VOA website since early on Sunday.
Rights groups accuse [the Woyanne regime in] Ethiopia of routine Internet censorship.
VOA says listeners in Ethiopia have been unable to hear its Amharic-language broadcasts for more than four weeks.
Meles’ comments were sharply criticised from the U.S. State Department. Ethiopia — reliant on foreign aid — is the key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa.
VOA launched satellite broadcasts into Ethiopia a few days after Meles’ remarks and said it was exploring other methods of overcoming the jamming.
The broadcaster was set up during World War Two to counter anti-U.S. propaganda and operates in 45 languages.
Analysts expect the Meles government dictatorship to win steal the election. The opposition says that is because the government Woyanne scares people into voting for it. The government Woyanne says the opposition is divided and trying to discredit the poll.
At the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly meeting this week in Tenerife (Canary Island, Spain), MEP Ana Gomes (S&D, Portugal) questioned the European Commission on the credibility of the coming elections in Ethiopia if, apart from the lack of media freedom and other crucial conditions, the leader of the main opposition party could not run for the elections for having been thrown in jail, for life, by the regime of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Commissioner Piebalgs, responsible for Development, stated that the imprisonment of “popular” Ms. Birtukan Medeksa “can undermine the credibility of elections” and that that view had been conveyed by the EU Commission to the Ethiopian authorities. Nevertheless, he informed, High Representative Ashton had just made the decision to send a EU Election Observation Mission to Ethiopia.
For Ana Gomes this is “disturbing news”.
“I fear the EU will embark in legitimising a farse. As Head of the EU Election Observation Mission in 2005 I know that Meles Zenawi regime, despite all the rethoric on transition to democracy and development, only seeks international endorsement to continue its oppressive and repressive rule in Ethiopia”, Ana Gomes said.
Ana Gomes noted that Ms. Birtukan Medeksa, a 36 years old African woman politician and a young mother, was jailed for a pretext which cannot be a crime in any democratic country She was sentenced for life in 2008 for having publicly stated that she was forced to sign a pardon request, upon which in 2007 she was released from jail, where she had been since the massive opposition arrests in the aftermath of the 2005 elections.
MEP Gomes also alerted to reports that Ms. Birtukan Medeksa is now being denied medical assistance in Kaliti prison.
Key U.S. lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, have expressed concern for political conditions in Ethiopia, citing authoritarian tendencies by its government as well as human rights abuses such as the continued detention of a prominent opposition leader.
Leading off a March 24 hearing on U.S. policy toward Africa, Representative Donald Payne (Democrat, New Jersey), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, said of the ruling party, “I am deeply concerned and troubled about the deteriorating [political] conditions in Ethiopia. The EPRDF [Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front] is becoming increasingly totalitarian.”
The chairman said he was particularly bothered by the Ethiopian government’s recent jamming of Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts after the government unjustly compared the official U.S. broadcasting agency to the Rwandan hate radio station Milles Collines. Payne said the Rwandan station was “used by those who committed the Rwandan genocide” in 1994.
The panel’s highest-ranking Republican, Representative Chris Smith (New Jersey), added, “Unfortunately, Prime Minister Meles [Zenawi] shows deteriorating signs of human rights practices.”
Payne expressed special concern for Birtukan Mideksa, a former Ethiopian judge and opposition leader convicted in 2005 of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in prison. She was pardoned in 2007, but rearrested and her sentence reinstated in December 2008.
According to the recently released State Department 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Birtukan, who led the opposition UDJ (Unity for Democracy and Justice) party, was “held in solitary confinement until June, despite a court ruling that indicated it was a violation of her constitutional rights. She was also denied access to visitors except for a few close family members, despite a court order granting visitor access without restrictions.”
The report added, “There were credible reports that Birtukan’s mental health deteriorated significantly during the year.” While critical of the Ethiopian government’s treatment of dissidents and the conditions of their imprisonment, the State Department report acknowledged that “the government continued efforts to train police and army recruits in human rights.”
Asked to comment by Payne, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said: “Ethiopia’s human rights record could be far better than it is right now. There are a number of allegations made that have been documented in the State Department’s Human Rights Report that indicate shortcomings in the government’s treatment of individuals that come under arrest. We encourage the government to treat everyone in a humane fashion.”
On Birtukan, Carson told the panel, “We have asked the Ethiopian authorities why she was rearrested after having been paroled and whether, in fact, we can expect her release anytime soon.”
During an official visit to Ethiopia three weeks ago, Carson said, he met with Prime Minister Meles and raised the case of Birtukan as well as a number of other individuals who are being held by the Ethiopian authorities. “I encouraged the government to act in a responsible fashion in dealing with these cases and noted very clearly that the continued imprisonment of people like Ms. Birtukan undermined the credibility and image of the Ethiopian government.”
Carson said he also spent more than an hour going over a range of issues related to democracy and good governance and “the need to have free and fair elections” during his discussion with the prime minister.
“We are watching with great interest … and encouraging the government of Ethiopia, as well as the opposition parties, to act responsibly during the election campaign and during the [May] election itself,” Carson said. “We think it is incumbent on the [Ethiopian] government to do everything it possibly can to ensure that the playing field is level in the run-up to the election, that there are opportunities for the opposition parties to participate prior to the elections in their campaigns and that they be allowed to vote freely and fairly on election day.
“We do not want to see a repetition of the violence that followed the flawed election of 2005,” Carson told the lawmakers.
Earl Gast, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) senior deputy assistant administrator for Africa, also cited the importance of elections to the democratic process in Africa, telling the House panel, “We believe that leaders who manipulate elections are living on borrowed time.”
“As African societies and political systems continue to develop, the expectations of people toward their governments will continue to rise,” he said. Political processes that don’t meet these expectations can trigger instability and even violent conflict, which can set a country’s development progress back a generation.”
And with more than 20 elections scheduled for Africa in 2010, the official said USAID in 2008-2009 devoted about $89 million for political competition and consensus building in Africa — a third of the development agency’s budget for democracy and governance on the continent. “Our goal is to support the creation of fair and credible election systems, not to determine electoral winners,” he said.
