Iraqi State Radio Replaced with U.S. PSYOP Broadcast (corrected)
By Nick Grace
March 19, 2003
with wire and BBCM reports
With the words "The facilities of the Iraqi regime have started to be hit... This is the day we have been waiting for... The attack on Iraq has begun," the United States jammed and then obliterated Baghdad Radio with its own psychological war programming, Reuters reports, in a remarkable move to control the airwaves over Iraq.
The sudden announcement occurred at approximately 0230 GMT. Contrary to early reports that Iraqi state radio was seized by U.S. troops, its signal appears to have been drowned out from broadcasts over the airborne Commando Solo EC-130E PSYOP fleet. Its signal, according to multiple wire reports, disappeared from the airwaves after the surgical airstrikes.
Iraqi television, meanwhile, remains on the air.
Radio Baghdad, Al-Shabab, and Sawt al-Jamahiriyah, Iranian radio reports, are responding to the psywar assault by shifting transmissions to new frequencies.
Sawt al-Jamahiriyah, which is run by Uday Hussein, broadcast martial music and, according to Reuters, announced "This is our day. Let us start the fight. We will be victorious. We will all die as faithful martyrs... Our brother martyrs will die defending our great Iraq. Today is our day. Rise up our brothers for the jihad. Hit the enemies and prove that we are sons of freedom and honor... Rise up like lions. Saddam is our beloved leader and God is our great Allah. Rise up, rise up and attack the foreigners. Victory with God's help is near...defeat the infidel enemy."
Information Radio, which is the only known program broadcast from Commando Solo, broadcast a mix of PSYOP messages and Arab music as anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies over Baghdad. Clandestine Radio Watch monitored the radio station on 9715.1 kHz between 0250 and 0345 GMT when its signal faded out. A station identification was heard at 0337 GMT over traditional flutes.
During President Bush's address to the American public at 0315 GMT Information Radio broadcast an announcement about al-Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein. A more complete analysis of the announcements will be forthcoming.
Audio of the monitored broadcast is available on ClandestineRadio.com.
Information Radio broadcasts 24 hours per day on 9715 kHz and between 1500 and 2000 GMT on 756, 693 kHz, 100.4 MHz. Its broadcasts, according to wire reports, are already responsible for Iraqi troop defections on the Iraq-Kuwait border.
In addition to Information Radio the United States broadcasts four covert radio stations, smothering Saddam Hussein's regime within a wall of psywar messages.
Voice of Iraqi Liberation *0630-0830* *1830-2030* 1206, 4025 kHz
Twin Rivers Radio 1600-1900 UTC on 1566 kHz
Radio Tikrit 1900-2100 on 1584 kHz
al-Mustaqbal 2100-2400 on 1575.3 kHz
Developing...
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