0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) (02/11/91)
The sheer volume of almost real-time front-line video from war
in the Persian Gulf region has demonstrated to all how telecommunica-
tions technology has become so lightweight and portable it can reach
from any point on the globe to any other. The beginnings of
electronic journalism in WW II took herculean effort by comparison.
Now, there seems to be evidence that even telephone plant need
no longer be heavy, cumbersome, complex and expensive, either. An AP
news report datelined, Taif, Saudi Arabia appeared in Sunday papers,
indicating the Kuwaitis have probably smuggled Marisat portable satel-
lite telephones into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.
In a story that begins, "Iraqi troops occupying Kuwait have
stepped up executions and break into house to demand food, but
Kuwaitis have enough to eat and are cheered by Allied bombing, exiled
officials say," a series of statements about current conditions inside
occupied Kuwait follow.
But the fifth paragraph says, "The government's network of
satellite telephones, most smuggled in after the August 2 (Iraqi) in-
vasion, is the only means of information...."
...How surreal has war become now that an occupied nation
under naval attack and bombardment can simply dial a phone call out,
even after the public telephone exchange has been shut down or
destroyed?
Most likely these are Marisat phones, and if the Kuwaitis have
some, there's little doubt that Saddam Hussein has some, too.dnewman@mcc.com (David Newman) (02/13/91)
Today's paper reported that CNN's phone in Baghdad (Marisat, I think)
was being used by the Iraqi government to approve journalist visas.
Apparently the Iraqi government asked to use the phone for other
putposes as well, but CNN said no.
(That was somewhere in today's {Austin American Statesman}; I imagine
they got the news from UPI or AP, or perhaps from watching CNN.)
Dave