U.S. steps up radio-electronic aggression against Cuba
• In September a total of 2,267 hours and 10 minutes of broadcasting per week transmitted over radio and the ill-named Television Martí • A military aircraft (EC-130J), used in military actions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, employed to transmit these signals that interfere with frequencies and channels used by the island

By LILLIAM RIERA —Granma International staff writer—

IN flagrant violation of International Telecommunications Union (ITU) regulations and other international conventions, the United States has not only continued but has stepped up its emission of subversive information to Cuba via radio and television, which is interfering with frequencies and channels used by the island for its own broadcasts, affirmed Carlos Martínez Albuerne, general director of the Control and Supervision Agency attached to the Ministry of Informatics and Communications (MIC).

Albuerne said that last September a total of 2,267 hours and 10 minutes per week were broadcast over short- and medium-wave frequencies, FM, and Television Martí.

He warned that this "aggression" is part of U.S. policy to destroy the Cuban Revolution, kept up by many administrations – Democrat and Republican – to have passed through the White House.

He recalled that this policy originated in the initial years of the triumph of the revolution when Radio Swan (May 1960 – September 1961) was used to support the mercenary Bay of Pigs invasion on April 1961, defeated by the Cubans in under 72 hours. In his book Psywar on Cuba…) Jon Elliston acknowledged that this radio station subjected the Cuban people to psychological warfare.

However, the director did not hesitate to qualify the current Republican administration of George W. Bush as "the most aggressive," in the sense that it has had no qualms over using a U.S. Armed Forces aircraft (EC-130J) to broadcast anti-Cuban radio and television signals from an altitude of 6,000- 7,000 meters and to utilize a powerful 10 kilogram transmitter.

It is also significant that the EC-130J, which belongs to the Psychological Warfare Command Unit based in Pennsylvania, made its first transmission on May 20, 2003, coinciding with the 101st anniversary of the birth of the neocolonial republic under Washington’s aegis.

In his July 26 speech this year in Havana, President Fidel Castro referred to these broadcasts that are interfering with Cuban transmissions and warned of the danger of provocation presented by the military nature of the use of this aircraft, deployed in military actions against Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Fidel stated then that Congressional representatives who support the Bush government policy are to present a bill before Congress this year allocating $37.93 million for the 2006 fiscal year and $29.93 million for that of 2007 to these broadcasts. According to its text, the bill covers the purchase, lease, construction and improvement of radio and television reception and transmission installations, and the purchase, leasing and installation of necessary equipment, airplanes included, for the reception and transmission of radio and television.

He said that there has even been talk of acquiring Boeing aircraft equipped with technology similar to that of the EC-130J for future anti-Cuba transmissions, and financial resources for purchasing broadcast timeslots on radio stations in neighboring countries. Cuba has denounced these radio-electronic aggressions publicly and at the UN.

Last October 14, Rodrigo Malmierca, the Cuban representative to the UN, declared that the objective of these transmissions is "to encourage illegal emigration, incite civil disobedience and distort Cuban realities in an ill-intentioned and crude way."

Albuerne stated that the Cuban charges have also been submitted to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2003, and every EC-130J flight has been reported to its Radio Communications office.

The MIC director explained that the island’s complaint is based on regulations contained in the ITU Constitution. Article 23, No. 23.3 states that radio broadcasts should not be directed toward another country but should guarantee a good quality national service within the borders of the country in question.

Invoking the jurisdiction of the ITU, the issue of radio-electronic aggression against Cuba has been discussed by the Radio Communications Regulations Committee in conferences 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 of 2004 and 2005.

In the most recent of these conferences, the Committee informed the U.S. administration that it must resolve the interference prejudicial to the Cuban services caused by the EC-130J flights.

Nevertheless, the United States has ignored the ITU agreement and has resorted to lies.

According to Albuerne, the U.S. is claiming that it was unaware of the interference that it was provoking (even though it has been notified about it both by Cuba and the ITU Committee) and that Cuban stations are not in service at the times that the transmitter and airplane are being operated, which is false.