[Marxism] Deflated blimps limit broadcasts to Cuba

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, the tides of history are running against Washington, but now even 
the weather is tripping it up. The propaganda war against Cuba has now 
suffered yet another blow at the hands of the rainmaker. I'm reminded of 
James P. Cannon's wonderfully apt expression, "Fortune favors the godly. 
If you live right and conduct yourself properly, you get a lucky break 
now and then."

I've said it before and I'll say it again. God is a strong Black woman. 
She supports and looks out for the Cuban Revolution. She encouraged the 
doves to land on Fidel's shoulder back in 1959 and she's still with him.
Check  this Juventud Rebelde column, "God is With Cuba and With Fidel":
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs025.html 


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann
====================================================================

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Sat, Aug. 20, 2005    

U.S. & CUBA
Deflated blimps limit broadcasts to Cuba
The blimps that carry the TV Martí signal to Havana ruptured last month. 
The result: less programming than usual.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12430124.htm 

The ''Fat Albert'' blimps that broadcast TV Martí to Cuba and scanned
the Florida Straits for drug smugglers are skinny now, ruptured by
the unforgiving winds of hurricane season.

The $3 million blimps that hovered over the lower Florida Keys were
torn apart July 9 in 46 mph winds during Hurricane Dennis, U.S.
government officials confirmed.

That means TV Martí's 31 ½ hours of weekly programming have been
slashed to fewer than 10 hours broadcast by satellite and the U.S.
military's flying radio stations known as Commando Solo C-130s.

SIGNALS JAMMED

Few people watch the U.S.-government station's programs because Cuba
jams the signal. And critics say that the fact it took the U.S. media
more than five weeks to notice the blimps were missing proves the
station has no impact.

''If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it make a
sound?'' said Joe García, a member of the board of directors of the
Cuban-American National Foundation. ``Well if a TV Martí balloon blew
up but nobody watched it, does it really matter?''

The two blimps stationed at Cudjoe Key -- dubbed ''Fat Albert'' after
the Bill Cosby character -- are more formally known as tethered
aerostat systems. Twice the size of Goodyear blimps, they are
enormous fabric balloons filled with helium.

Anchored by cables, they carry radars used to spot drug-smuggling
airplanes and boats and the equipment that broadcast programs to
Cuba, where the government controls virtually all the news media.

OUT OF TIME

When there is time, the Air Force, which operates the blimps,
deflates the aerostats before a big storm. But it takes at least
three days and low winds to accomplish that, and Dennis didn't offer
either.

The storm passed through the Keys in the early hours of July 9,
dumping six inches of rain and killing one person. The Air Force
removed the equipment and docked the twin Alberts to their mooring
towers to let them ride it out, said Air Force spokesman Maj. Vic
Hines.

''My sense is that they were torn up,'' Hines said.

The last time a storm destroyed one of the blimps was in 1998, when
Hurricane Georges ripped through the Keys. Another blimp broke free
in 1981 and was shot down by a fighter jet.

Air Force officials said the drug surveillance knocked out by Dennis
was picked up by other radars, and a replacement aerostat is almost
online. But there is no timetable for the one for TV Martí, an $11.2
million-a-year program that offers a broad range of news and other
programming with an anti-Castro twist.

STILL BROADCASTING

A spokesman for the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, the U.S. government
entity that runs TV and Radio Martí, said the television station is
still broadcasting about eight hours a week: four hours by satellite,
which requires a special dish for reception not widely available in
Cuba, and another four broadcast Saturday evenings by the C130
airplane.

Radio Martí has not been affected because its signal is broadcast
from other locations.

The loss of the blimp ''is regrettable, because it's one of the ways
the TV signal gets to Cuba,'' said Office of Cuba Broadcasting
spokesman Joe O'Connell. ``But on the other hand, it's the one the
Cubans jam.''

Herald calls to the station's Miami office were not returned.

The communist government has long jammed the TV and radio signals
fairly successfully, particularly in Havana, which holds 2.2 million
of Cuba's 11 million people.

''You can't really see the shows during the week,'' Angel Pablo
Polanco, an independent journalist in Havana, said in a telephone
interview. ``The signal we're getting is the one that comes on
Saturdays with the C-130. We're getting that signal better than
ever.''

Polanco said Cubans enjoy the Saturday shows because they offer a
sharply different view of the news. ''People love it,'' Polanco said.

WASTE OF MONEY?

Since Radio Martí went on the air 20 years ago, the U.S. government
has spent about $100 million on the program, which has been blasted
by people such as the Foundation's García as a patronage mill and a
waste of taxpayers' money.

The Senate is considering a proposal to set aside $37.6 million in
funding for the broadcasts to Cuba, including $10 million for the
purchase of a C-130 dedicated exclusively to Cuba broadcasts.

The current C-130 is operated by the U.S. military. The planes'
signals are difficult to jam because of its constantly shifting
locations.



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