ehopper@attmail.com (01/21/91)
I spoke to a friend who works for CNN in Atlanta (he's been on 13 hour days since the outbreak of war). A couple of points: 1. The four-wire circuit was from Baghdad to Amman. This was definitely the method Shaw/Holliman/Arnett used to talk to the rest of the world. CNN had a fly-away in Amman, they did not have a fly-away in Baghdad. (A fly-away is a video-capable satellite earth station small enough to be shipped as luggage. Lots of luggage, but luggage on an airliner. 2. They may have had a MARISAT phone with them, but he does not believe they used it. A MARISAT phone is a radiotelephone with a VSAT type antenna for satellite communications. Also, there was some statements in Digest #51 that implied that the technology CNN had in Baghdad was how the Iraqi government was receiving CNN and by that method information on what is going on in Washington. In fact, CNN is a world wide network. Anyone with a TVRO anywhere in the world can pick up CNN. I don't know, but I doubt that CNN is scrambled in that part of the world. CNN is available in most first class hotels around the world. It is also monitored by most foreign (or to use Ted Turner's euphemism - international) ministries. Saddam Hussein, King Hussein, King Fahd and many others have been loyal CNN viewers for years. While this is straying farther and farther from the purpose of this forum, there was an "aiding the enemy" tone to one item that required correction. Ed Hopper