06 April 2003

Iraqis continue media defiance The Iraq Satellite Channel is not only on the air this morning, it looks more professional than ever. The studio location seems to have been switched again, as the audio seems to have a "tinny" quality. But the newsreader was sitting in front of a backdrop showing two Iraqi guns and the bright lights of anti-aircraft fire in the background. BBC Monitoring continue to hear Iraqi state radio on 909 kHz, believed to be from a transmitter near Baghdad. It seems likely that other transmitters are still operating on FM or low power mediumwave. An intriguing logging appeared in Glenn Hauser's DX Listening Digest: Veteran DXers Dr John Santosuosso in Florida heard Radio Iraq International *in English* briefly on 2 April at 2235 UTC on 11787 kHz. Dr Santosuosso observed "Not sure if this was the end of an English program or  just a brief English segment. Back into Arabic around 2237. So far has only been off the air one night."  I wonder if this was some sort of attempt at psyops by the Iraqis? I seem to recall them doing something like that in 1991. 12:18:11 PM     comment on this entry []

John Simpson wounded in US friendly fire attack BBC news correspondent John Simpson, travelling with a convoy of US special forces and Kurds in northern Iraq, received shrapnel wounds when a US aircraft dropped a bomb on the convoy. A number of US soldiers and Kurds were killed in the incident. An emotional Simpson, reporting live to the BBC before receiving medical treatment, described the incident as a "massive own goal" for the Americans. Simpson believes that at least one senior Kurdish politican was amongst those killed.     12:08:26 PM     comment on this entry []

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