Really Rocket Science

So this “action” in Libya has been going on for some time, so why did it take NATO so long to figure out satellite TV uplink sites should be taken out? Must be their consensus decision-making process.

Over the weekend, it was bombs away…

NATO warplanes bombed three Libyan state TV satellite transmitters in Tripoli overnight, targeting facilities that have been used to incite violence and threaten civilians, the military alliance said Saturday. A series of loud explosions echoed across the capital before dawn. There was no immediate comment from Libyan officials on what had been hit, but state TV was still on the air in Tripoli as of Saturday morning.

NATO said the airstrikes aimed to degrade Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s “use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them.” “Striking specifically these critical satellite dishes will reduce the regime’s ability to oppress civilians while (preserving) television broadcast infrastructure that will be needed after the conflict,” the alliance said in a statement posted on its website. It called Gaddafi’s TV broadcasts inflammatory and said they were intended to mobilize his supporters.

Check out this clip…

Ahrar TV launches today on Atlantic Bird 4A (7° West) at 16:30 GMT. Downlink details: 10930 H (tp 121). It’ll be part of the Jordan Media City MUX.

The report, via RIA Novosti…

The Libyan opposition is launching a satellite television channel, Ahrar TV, on Wednesday with the help of the Qatari government in counterbalance to state-controlled media.

Libyans have only been receiving information from media controlled by Muammar Gaddafi’s government and from foreign satellite television channels, which Tripoli has been jamming in the past few weeks.

The new TV channel will go on the air at 7:30 p.m. local time (17:30 GMT) using the French Atlantic Bird satellite.

The U.S.-based Foreign Policy journal said the Qatari government had provided technical equipment of their culture channel Al-Rayyan to a group of Libyan journalists led by Mahmud Shammam, who arrived in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

The Libyan opposition has already launched Radio Free Libya and Radio Free Tobruk on mid-range bandwidths.

Here’s a little love for QDaffy: a GBU-31 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) fitted with a BLU-109 penetrator warhead.

Photo credits: MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images