Clandestine Radio Watch 180 Extra
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CLANDESTINE RADIO WATCH 180 Extra
April 26, 2005
CRW is the biweekly online magazine for ClandestineRadio.com, the Web's
only portal on clandestine broadcasting and subversive media.
http://www.ClandestineRadio.com
The full online issue can be read at:
http://www.ClandestineRadio.com/crw/crw.php?id=242
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Target: Gambia
Afghanistan: Taleban Radio
Cuba: Nocturnal Dissident Leaflets Havana Yards
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Target: Gambia
By Nick Grace April 26, 2005
The Gambia joins the growing list of tyrannies targeted by opposition
radio broadcasts this week with the launch of a weekly fifteen-minute
news program produced by Web savvy exiles in the United States.
The program, which had not been named at press time, is the latest effort
coordinated by Save the Gambia Democracy Project (STGDP) to promote press
freedoms, democratic liberties, respect for human rights, the rule of law
and good governance inside the West African nation.
Test broadcasts, Clandestine Radio Watch (CRW) has learned, will be
conducted on April 27, 28 and 29 between 2000 and 2015 GMT on 9430 kHz.
The test broadcasts will contain excerpts of interviews in the Wollof,
English and local languages for the purpose of testing reception inside
Gambia and will not contain a station identification. Formal broadcasts
will begin soon thereafter from an undisclosed transmitter location.
STGDP is a relatively new movement that was formed on the Gambian
Independence Day, February 18, in 2004 after months of intense online
chatter among exiles throughout North America. It was formally launched
on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta - Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
alma mater, an irony not lost on its members.
The group has sought to make a direct impact on the country's political
scene and successfully brought the fragmented opposition together under
the National Alliance for Democracy and Development (NADD). Its efforts,
including the new radio program, are meant to send a signal to the regime
of former Sergeant Yahya Jemmah that the upcoming elections in October
2006 will be no cakewalk.
Since taking power in 1994, Jemmah's consolidation of power has proceeded
against the winds of democratic change sweeping across the world - and
inside Gambia. Attempts to pass severe restrictions on the press in 2002
led to mass outrage and, ultimately, a repeal of the legislation. More
recent attempts to muzzle the press, however, have been more successful
and even deadly. What began with arson attacks, intimidation and threats
finally culminated in the murder of Deyda Hydara, editor and co-owner of
a private weekly and stringer for Agence-France-Presse and Reporters San
Frontieres.
The U.S. State Department considers such developments as "shortcomings,"
however, and in 2002 "determined a democratically elected government had
assumed office" in Banjul and lifted sanctions, according to its 2005
human rights report. While engagement is touted as official policy, none
of the U.S.-funded NGOs run democratization projects or maintain a
presence in Gambia.
The Gambian diaspora finds itself going alone.
The radio program, sources within STGDP tell CRW, is a grassroots effort
dependent upon the generosity of its supporters and should be considered
a wake-up call to those in the regime that whether through print, radio
or the Internet the pulse of freedom cannot be silenced.
"We are going to be a force to open the people's eyes," STGDP Spokeswoman
Sigga Jagne told CRW. "We are not bound by the same sanctions our
domestic journalists face. Through our programs we will send a message
of hope to our people inside the Gambia that those of us outside do care
and are willing to do what it takes to bring change."
Save the Gambian Democracy Project can be reached through its Web site at
www.sunugambia.com.
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Nocturnal Dissident Leaflets Havana Yards
U.S. tries new tactic in propaganda war against Castro regime
By Gary Marx
Chicago Tribune
April 21, 2005
Article originally posted at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0504210192apr21,1,2707
616.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
HAVANA -- When Minerva Alvarez gazed out of her window as dawn broke two
weeks ago, she spotted something colorful lying on the bare concrete
patio in her front yard.
Stepping out of her low-slung house, Alvarez walked a few steps, leaned
over and picked up two small pamphlets. She recoiled when she saw a
photograph of President Bush on one of them.
"I took it straight to my husband," she said. "I didn't want to read it."
What Alvarez and scores of residents of her impoverished Havana
neighborhood found at their doorstep was a pocket-size reprint of Bush's
Jan. 20 inaugural address in which he vowed to free the world of tyranny.
The speech and a second pamphlet containing the UN Universal Declaration
of Human Rights arrived anonymously in the dead of night and are part of
an escalating U.S. government program to spur political change in this
one-party state.
For decades, the U.S. government's attempt to penetrate Cuba with
information has had limited success. Cuban authorities routinely jam
Radio and TV Marti, the anti-Castro broadcasts produced in Miami, and
Internet access on the island is limited.
The clandestine, door-to-door leafleting is the latest in the Bush
administration's stepped up effort to reach citizens who have little
access to public information outside Cuba's government-controlled media.
In Zamora, a neighborhood of concrete homes and wood shacks packed
tightly together, the pamphlets were met with dread, suspicion and
curiosity. Although rumors about anything out of the ordinary usually
spread like wildfire in Cuba, residents here have largely kept quiet
about the mysterious pamphlets.
Mitchel Hernandez, a 31-year-old gardener, found the pamphlets in a
walkway leading to his home and tossed them out.
"I'm not interested in them," he said, leaning against the side of a
building. "These pamphlets don't solve anything."
But Emilio Roja said he put the pamphlets aside to read later. Shown
copies of the two booklets, Roja flashed a nervous smile.
"I don't want to talk about it," the 40-year-old said. "Here everyone is
afraid. If you have this, you can be put in prison."
Danilo Barrero Perez, a 52-year-old construction worker, sidled up on his
bicycle. He eavesdropped on the conversation, then moved closer.
"The idea is good that everyone can express themselves," Barrero said.
"But who will talk to Fidel? We have had more than 40 years of the same
thing.
"Fidel is like a horse with blinders on," he added. "I read the
human-rights declaration, and I signed the Varela Project. I am not
afraid to say so, but nothing happens."
Headed by opposition activist Oswaldo Paya, the Varela Project collected
thousands of signatures in recent years to petition for democratic
reforms. Cuban authorities ignored it.
Hope for the future
"There are a lot of things that are not going well," said Roja, who said
he was a political prisoner in the 1980s. "Things have to change. I don't
have hope for myself but maybe for future generations."
Halfway down the block, a man in his 20s said he spotted the fliers in
the early-morning darkness and thought they were children's books. He
brought them inside, turned on the light and saw the photograph of Bush.
"What is this?" he recalled thinking. He opened his front door and peered
outside.
"The rumor is that Cuban state security are giving them out to see who is
allied with the opposition," he said.
The resident said he read Bush's speech but was unmoved because he
opposes the Iraq war and dislikes the president.
"If it was another person, it would have inspired me," he said.
Across the street, Juan Dominguez, a 49-year-old seaman, said the
pamphlets were just another tool for the U.S. government to impose its
will on Cuba.
"I'm against these pamphlets," Dominguez said as he repaired an old
Russian motorcycle. "There is no reason for the United States to be
involved in our affairs. We are a free country. We don't go to the United
States and hand out information."
Several doors down, Lazaro Gonzalez, a 58-year-old ice cream vendor, said
he backed Castro and called the U.S. hypocritical for distributing fliers
about democracy and human rights.
"How many crimes have been committed by the Americans at the Guantanamo
base?" Gonzalez asked, referring to the U.S. naval base in Cuba where
terrorism suspects are detained. "How many Iraqis have been killed? This
is what Bush should be concerned about."
Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American
Dialogue, a Washington policy group, said the leaflets are designed more
to irritate Castro than to cause change on the island.
Erikson said Cubans have become extremely "risk adverse" because they
live in a police state. Cuban authorities have made clear that anyone
associated with the U.S. government-financed program is a traitor who
could be jailed.
"Cubans do not see it to be in their own interest to be accepting or
reading these flyers," Erikson said. "It's not that people are not
interested in democracy. But the U.S. is not the best messenger."
Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, said exiles in Miami
have periodically airdropped leaflets over Cuba since the 1959
revolution. He said the current effort apparently is the first of its
kind involving Cuba and the U.S. government.
"Giving out copies of Bush's speech and thinking it will change people's
minds is really stupid," said Smith, a frequent critic of U.S. policy.
But the Zamora resident who handed out the fliers said he did it because
he hates Castro and communism and doesn't care if he ends up in prison.
`Fighting for freedom'
"I'm fighting for freedom," said Raduel Martinez Gomez, 25, who got a
boxload of pamphlets, books and other materials from the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana, the country's diplomatic seat absent full relations.
Sitting only two short blocks from Gonzalez's home, Martinez described
how he grabbed two fistfuls of fliers and walked the bumpy, potholed
streets of Zamora for six hours distributing them.
When the police passed, he tucked them under his armpits or into his back
pockets and waistband and continued.
Sometimes he hands the fliers directly to people. Some residents call him
a gusano, worm, or escoria, scum. Others thank him and ask for more.
He said the pamphlets probably won't bring an end to Castro's government,
but it makes him feel good to distribute them.
"If they throw them out or don't read them, what can I do?" he asked. "I
do it because I feel like I have to do it."
(Chicago Tribune Apr 21 via Grace-USA)
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Taleban Radio
Voice of America editorial
April 22, 2005
Article originally posted at:
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2005-04-22-voa2.cfm
Remnants of the ousted Taleban regime in Afghanistan are launching a
radio station to broadcast their extremist propaganda. According to news
reports, the Voice of Shariat will be heard in Dari and Pashto, the main
Afghan languages. But it has stiff competition.
When the Taleban seized power in 1996, they prohibited the broadcasting
of music. News and information were tightly controlled. After the regime
was overthrown by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001, independent Afghan
media were revived. Habibullah Rafie is an Afghan journalist. He says,
"In December 2001, after the fall of the Taleban, we started from
absolute zero. Since then," says Mr. Rafie, "media development has been
unparalleled in our history."
Today in Afghanistan there are more than forty independent radio stations
and eight private television channels. Arman FM is a pop music station
that says it is listened to by up to eighty-percent of the population of
Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. Saad Mohsini, the station's director, says
the aim "was to target the younger generation." And, he says "we have
been extremely successful." Arman FM is expanding its broadcasts to five
other Afghan cities.
There is still much for Afghans to do in the way of developing free
media. Siamak Herawi works in the communications office of Hamid Karzai,
Afghanistan's president. Mr. Herawi says that while the Afghan media are
free, "sometimes there is self-censorship because of problems that arise
from Afghanistan's current conditions. For example," says Mr. Herawi, "a
number of journalists fear that if they tell the truth, they will
possibly be threatened." Vincent Brossel of the Reporters Without Borders
monitoring group says the enemies in Afghanistan are those "who do not
tolerate the assertion of pluralistic news and information."
While independent media are being established, "Afghanistan still faces
many challenges," says U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
"We believe that the future of a new democratic Afghanistan that is no
longer a haven for terrorists is absolutely essential to American
security."
Referring to the Afghan people, Secretary of State Rice says, "sometimes
we just have to step back and give people credit for how much they have
already achieved."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States
government.
(VOA News Apr 22 via Grace-USA)
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Afghanistan
Afghan Government Not Concerned with Taleban Radio
By VOA News
April 21, 2005
Article originally posted at:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-04-21-voa51.cfm
The Afghan government says it is not concerned about the recently
launched clandestine Taleban radio station that is broadcasting anti-U.S.
and anti-government propaganda.
A presidential spokesman says since the Afghan people suffered enough
under the ousted Taleban regime, the propaganda is not expected to have
an impact.
He also said he does not believe the Taleban remnants can continue such
activities for long because the government intends to bring them to
justice sooner rather than later.
A U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul says it is up to the Afghan
government how it wants to deal with the broadcasts. But she said the
area targeted by the broadcasts will definitely be under U.S. military
surveillance.
(VOA News Apr 21 via Grace-USA)
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Afghanistan
Taleban Launches Clandestine Pirate Radio Station In Afghanistan
Voice of America
April 18, 2005
Afghanistan's Taleban regime, which was driven from power by U.S.-led
forces, has launched a clandestine radio station that is being heard in
that country's southern provinces.
The pirate radio station, called Shariat Shagh or Voice of Shariat,
operates from a mobile transmitter and broadcasts anti-U.S. and
anti-government propaganda and Islamic hymns. It can be heard in regions
of the country which were once the strongholds of the fundamentalist
movement.
The Voice of Shariat comes as a bloody insurgency still rages in parts of
Afghanistan, particularly in the south. A Taleban spokesman said the
radio station will tell listeners about the Taleban's thoughts and
objectives.
U.S.-led forces toppled the Taleban government after it refused to hand
over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11,
2001, attacks against the U.S.
(VOA Apr 18 via Grace-USA)
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Afghanistan
Taleban Militia Launch Clandestine Radio Station
Al Jazeera
April 19, 2005
Article originally posted at:
http://www.aljazeerah.info/April%202005%20News/19%20n/Taleban%20Militia%2
0Launch%20Clandestine%20Radio%20Station.htm
KANDAHAR, 19 April 2005 - Afghanistan's Taleban launched a clandestine
radio station yesterday, broadcasting anti-government commentaries from a
mobile transmitter.
Called "Shariat Shagh", or Voice of Shariat, after the station the
Taleban ran while in power, the broadcast can be heard in five southern
provinces, including the former regime's old power base of Kandahar.
"We launched the broadcast today through a mobile facility," said Taleban
spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi.
"It goes on the air between six and seven o'clock in the mornings and
same time in the evenings," he said by telephone from an undisclosed
location.
Hakimi said the Taleban, resisting in the south and east of the country
since they were driven from power in late 2001, needed their own voice
because the world's media were pro-American.
Many Afghans listen to the BBC and Voice of America which broadcast in
the country's two main languages, Pashto and Dari. In addition to
government-run radio, numerous small, private stations have sprung up,
many funded by aid donors.
The Taleban station criticized US and other foreign troops operating in
Afghanistan since the Taleban were ousted.
Asked what the Taleban would do if US forces detected and destroyed their
transmitter, Hakimi said they would set up another.
Meanwhile, US troops have detained 24 suspected Taleban members in the
southeastern province of Khost, bordering Pakistan.
The men were picked up during a Sunday night raid by US troops backed by
helicopters in Khost’s remote Ali Sher district, Khost Governor
Mirajuddin Patan told Reuters.
He did not know if any prominent Taleban members were among those
arrested, but said local officials had urged US forces to coordinate such
raids with provincial authorities.
(Al Jazeera Apr 19 via Grace-USA)
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Afghanistan
Taliban Clandestine Radio Hard to Track
United Press International
April 23, 2005
A clandestine anti-U.S. radio run by the Taliban doesn't worry the Afghan
government, but U.S. forces are keeping the area under surveillance.
Using the former name given to Radio Afghanistan during the Taliban
regime -- Shariah Zhagh (Voice of the Sharia) -- the radio began limited
broadcasts of anti-U.S. and anti-government propaganda in the Kandahar
area on April 18.
Afghan media said Friday the government is not concerned about the radio
because the Afghan people suffered enough under the ousted Islamic
fundamentalist regime, and will not believe its propaganda.
A U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul was quoted as saying the area
targeted by the broadcasts will definitely be under U.S. military
surveillance.
But Taliban spokesman Hakimi said the Americans will not be able to
locate the broadcast station. Shariah Zhagh is a mobile station. It
broadcasts programs at dawn and sunset. No one can detect the station's
frequencies during these times, Hakimi added.
(UPI Apr 23 via Grace-USA)
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Afghanistan
Taliban Radio Back on Air
By Mirwais Afghan
Reuters
April 18, 2005
Article originally posted at:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15009085-23109,00.html
Kandahar - Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas launched a clandestine radio
station today, broadcasting anti-government commentaries and Islamic
hymns from a mobile transmitter.
Called "Shariat Shagh", or Voice of Shariat, after the station the
Taliban ran while in power, the broadcast can be heard in five southern
provinces, including the former regime's old power base of Kandahar.
"We launched the broadcast today through a mobile facility," said Taliban
spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi.
"It goes on the air between six and seven o'clock in the mornings and
same time in the evenings," he said by telephone from an undisclosed
location.
Hakimi said the Taliban, fighting an insurgency in the south and east of
the country since they were driven from power in late 2001, needed their
own voice because the world's media were pro-American.
Many Afghans listen to the BBC and Voice of America which broadcast in
the country's two main languages, Pashto and Dari. In addition to
government-run radio, numerous small, private stations have sprung up,
many funded by aid donors.
As well as Islamic hymns and anti-government commentaries, the Taliban
station also criticised US and other foreign troops operating in
Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted.
Asked what the Taliban would do if US forces detected and destroyed their
transmitter, Hakimi said they would set up another.
Taliban attacks have picked up following a northern winter lull after the
guerrillas failed in a vow to disrupt an October presidential elections
won by President Hamid Karzai.
But their activity is down on past years, fuelling speculation the
movement may be struggling to find recruits and resources.
Karzai has said his government is in contact with Taliban members to try
to persuade them to lay down their arms and abandon a bloody insurgency
that has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the past two years.
The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General David
Barno, said at the weekend the Taliban were desperate but still
dangerous.
US-led forces toppled the Taliban government after it refused to hand
over al-Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11
terrorist attacks on US cities.
(Reuters Apr 18 via Grace-USA)
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Afghanistan
U.S. State Dept Briefing Excerpt on Taliban Radio
April 18, 2005
U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing Index
Monday, April 18, 2005
12:40 p.m. EST
Briefer: Richard Boucher, Spokesman
...
QUESTION: Richard, some media questions. First, the Taliban have put
together a clandestine radio network to incite terrorism and violence and
that just went on air today in Afghanistan. And secondly, fortunately, I
guess, the Iranians have closed down Al Jazeera television in Iran,
saying it's stirring up violence and have arrested 200 persons. And I
guess you've seen this front page series of articles in The Washington
Post front page, both yesterday and today and they're saying there are no
Muslims in this media operation --
MR. BOUCHER: That was on the second page, but anyway. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: And also that --
MR. BOUCHER: All right. Let's -- let me -- hold it, don't do any more
before I forget them all. Closing down Al Jazeera in Iran -- saw the
report, sorry I don't have anything on it. No, I can only do two at once.
What was the first thing?
QUESTION: Taliban.
MR. BOUCHER: Oh, the Taliban radio.
QUESTION: Right.
MR. BOUCHER: Clandestine radio. That's an interesting concept, nobody can
hear it. It has to be secret. (Laughter.)
No, I don't -- I hadn't heard about it. I'll have to check on it. I know
what you -- I do know what you mean, nobody's supposed to know where the
transmitter is. I'll see if we have anything on that.
(State Dept Press Briefing Apr 18 via Grace-USA)
------------xxxxxxxxxx Team CRW xxxxxxxxxx---------------------
Martin Schoech, Editor in Chief
Achraf Chaabane, CRW North Africa
Nick Grace, CRW Washington
Takuya Hirayama, CRW Japan
Robert Petraitis, CRW Baltics
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