- Comment and Correction
-
- From Warren Brown
- warren.brown@iridium.com
-
- Dear Mr. Rense,
-
- It is critical to bring to your attention major errors
in an article you ran on August 13th, "Israel Gets Green Light From
US To Profit And Pry", written by Linda S. Heard.
-
- * There is no "Iridium Satellite Israel" and
Iridium has no ownership of any offices located in Israel. Iridium is,
and always has been, a U.S. based and owned company.
-
- * There is no "$5 million dollar public telephone
deal" that Iridium is involved with. Iridium sells its products and
services through a network of official Iridium global service providers,
including companies headquarted in many Arab nations. Iridium does not
sell direct to end users.
-
- * Iridium does not provide any type of "surveillance"
services as implied by the article. Iridium is subject to, and follows
all local regulations for security. Any contract awarded through one of
our official service providers, no matter what region, is held to those
same strict standards.
-
- This article is based on many inaccuracies extremely
damaging to the image and business of the company. I am surprised that
the reporter would not have conducted a proper fact check prior to publishing
such accusations. I would urge you to have the reporter contact me directly
to get the real facts on how the company operates or at least consider
a prompt retraction setting the facts straight on this false and damaging
article.
-
- Sincerely,
-
- Warren Brown
- Director of Marketing and
- Corporate Communications
- Iridium Satellite LLC
- 703-465-1015
- -------
Iridium Satellite Israel Is Easily Found On The Net
Commentary
From Pam Rotella
Why the supposed "correction"?
-
- I've noticed that a lot of GUILTY people have been throwing
the words "libel" and such around, as if they're going to sue
a radio show. (I even heard someone on "Democracy Now!" this
morning throwing such language around with an environmental advocacy group.)
However, they need to prove that the information is 1.) false, and 2.)
the author knew it was false at the time they wrote it, to succeed in a
libel case. Anyway, all you have to do is search on "Iridium Satellite
Israel" to find articles like this.
-
- Looks like the original author is CORRECT, as usual,
and this "Warren Brown" person (if such a person actually exists)
is sending you false information for his (or her) company's profitability
damage control...
-
- From: http://www.menareport.com/story/TheNews.php3?action=story&sid=255621&lang=e&dir=mena
- Notice in the following article the line "According
to CEO of Iridium Satellite Israel Ami Schneider..."
- So find this Mr. Schneider, and see if he's the CEO of
the CA company as well. Also whether he lives in Israel or California...
-
- "Israeli firm wins public telephone contract in
Iraq
-
-
- Iridium Satellite Israel is supplying Iraq with public
telephones worth four to five million dollars. The global satellite voice
and data communication provider was authorized last month by the office
of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to sell its mobile satellite
communications services, subscriber terminals, and related equipment in
Iraq.
-
- According to CEO of Iridium Satellite Israel Ami Schneider,
the order was placed by a Jordanian company, reported Globes. The company
also plans to market several thousands of mobile telephones in Iraq.
-
- Israel's Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu signed
a general permit late last month authorizing trade with Iraq. The new agreement
normalizes commercial and financial ties between the two countries, marking
the Jewish state's recognition of Iraq as a hostile-free nation.
-
- Israeli companies can now trade and invest in Iraq without
facing any sanctions from the government. A group of Israeli industrial
representatives reportedly made a trip to Baghdad this past June in order
to scope out business opportunities related to the reconstruction effort.
-
- Iridium Satellite Israel is a subsidiary of the privately
held corporation Iridium Satellite. The company acquired the assets of
the Iridium company in December of 2000. It is a provider of global satellite
voice and data solutions with complete coverage of the earth. Through a
constellation of 66 low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellites operated by the
Boeing Company, Iridium delivers communication services to and from remote
areas where no other form of communication is available.
-
- Iridium currently provides service to the US Department
of Defense under a multi-year contract. Iridium Satellite Israel is owned
by Iridium Satellite Solutions' regional operators in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus,
Eastern Europe, and East Africa, and a group of investors headed by Schneider.
÷ (menareport.com)
- "
-
- Note that the same article at http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030804/0348000538_1.html
is billed as "Dow Jones Business News".
-
- Also see this article (doesn't directly say Israel, but
look at the site it's on):
- http://www.imakenews.com/shalomequityfund/e_article000048786.cfm
-
-
- Just one more, and then I'll give it a rest:
- <http://noidrocca.tripod.com/whatsup/id6.html>http://noidrocca.tripod.com/whatsup/id6.html
-
- Will the American empire make Iridium glow in the dark?
-
- or, why that next call you make from a booth in downtown
Baghdad could be your last...
-
- Gary Zatzman comments on the news that a group of Israeli
businessmen, using a derelict global communnications satellite relay system,
plan to run public telephones in post-Saddam Iraq
-
- On August 3, 2003 the Israeli commercial news provider
Globes Online published a tale to the effect that a group of Israeli businessmen
propose to restore "public phone" service (pay phones etc) for
something like US$4-5 million.
-
- The sensational portion was a mention that the group
will use the global satellite telephone system that was set up by the US
electronics giant Motorola under the name of Iridium back in the 1990s
but which declared bankruptcy in 1998.
-
- Although the technology --- a linkable system of geostationary
communications satellites positioned in enough different orbits so that
their footprints cover the entire surface of the Earth --- was completed
and launched, the bankruptcy left the system as a whole un-linked and un-networked.
(1)
-
- The Iridium system represented a failed attempt to establish
the world's first privately-controlled global telephone network. At the
time of the bankruptcy, the impression was left that the project collapsed
because the world market demand for commercial use of such a network "wasn't
there yet".
-
- One important thing about communications satellites is
their bandwidth. Most are capable of accommodating an enormous number and
range of switching operations, generally more than would be used up by
ordinary commercial demand for its services. So if you have some spies
around the globe who have implanted transmitters in their territories,
tuned to and beaming into space on a frequency receivable by one of these
satellites, you can piggyback an entire espionage-gathering network onto
a network of such satellites.(2)
-
- Certainly the espionage-gathering capabilities were part
of the ambition of the U.S. military. It financed a great deal of the research
that Motorola used to perfect the Iridium system. But the Pentagon wanted
its own network of satellites dedicated exclusively to military use. That
would mean relying on the NASA shuttle program to launch such satellites.
The cost and unrealiabilities built into the shuttle program were deemed
unacceptable at a time ---the early to mid 1990s --- when such projects
seemed unnecessary for current or projected US military or espionage requirements.
-
- Motorola thereafter attempted to complete Iridium as
a private purely commercial project --- managing to launch all the satellites
in place. Indeed, in the attempt to accommodate the potential consequences
for how it would be doing business into such a future, Motorola turned
its entire system of internal management, accounting, etc. upside-down
and became case-study material at all the top business schools. But the
project failed to generate the required volume of business and Iridium
was placed in bankruptcy.
-
- The Israeli Zionists' interest to start picking up pieces
of this system looks like a way the U.S., in "partnership" with
a Zionist machine that cannot breathe for a nanosecond or do anything without
U.S. financial guarantees, economic subsidies and ongoing military support,
can now convert this network to the purposes it originally had in mind.
For the Pentagon of Donald Rumsfeld, this approach has the advantage of
shifting financial and political responsibility for maintaining the network
onto the "partner", while harvesting some considerable share
of the intelligence booty collected.
-
- The fact the Israelis will also have access is no cause
for immediate or particular alarm at the Pentagon, since / so long as there
is no cause or interest independent of the imperial interests of the U.S.
for the Zionists to serve. Almost two-thirds of the Israeli GDP --- 64
% as of the year 2000 --- originates outside Israel, from foreign sources
mainly U.S.-based.
-
- Based on information supplied in the latest OECD study,(3)
at this time the direct capital investments and government subsidies from
the U.S. (for purchasing US military equipment and civilian goods &
services, not to mention financing the Occupation and the expansion of
the settlements) account immediately for 20 per cent of the Israeli GDP.
This is far and away the single biggest chunk of the entity's GDP. Israel's
economy is foreign-dependent and its society and polity are a satellite
of and hostage to U.S. imperial policy.
- So, yes indeed: Iraq's prostration has become another
opportunity for the Zionists to "coin it". But this latest scheme
is also about a great deal more than a $4 or $5-million public-phone contract.
It has to do with some critically important aims and objectives of the
American empire in this period.
-
- Three years ago, the member-states of the EU (excepting
Britain) raised warnings against the so-called ECHELON system of electronic
spying which had been set up by the U.S. using its infrastructure of control
within other English-speaking countries, especially Britain, Canada and
Australia, and which was caught gathering information about French corporate
deal-making at the expense of various American companies in various sectors
of the global economy.(4)
-
- The response was widespread and immediate in quite a
number of countries, where Linux and open-source computer network management
software were widely substituted for Microsoft. Microsoft had become one
of the most way-beyond-the-call-of-duty faithful and fervent agencies of
the State Department and Pentagon --- even moreso as various antitrust
suits were mounted against it by numerous state governments in America
and Europe. The inter-imperialist edge underpinning this rivalry is seen
in the fact that most of the U.S.-based suits were settled between 2001
and early 2003, whereas the EU as recently as August 2003 was intensifying
its efforts to compel Microsoft to conform to its existing standards of
data privacy and data protection.
-
- To supplement ECHELON with electronic intelligence-gathering
by means of a globe-girdling system of communications satellites for which
the US government could not be held responsible or fingered for using against
other countries may seem like science fiction to some.
-
- Maybe. But it sure sounds like Donald Rumsfeld to the
rest of us.
-
- End Notes
-
- 1. That, for example, is why foreign correspondents cannot
just dial a central network switch from their videophone. Instead, they
must first coordinate with their network ahead of time as to when they
will be in contact, then wait for one of these satellites to pass within
range of the transmitting equipment and manually establish the uplink at
the prearranged time.
-
- 2. This is known as ELINT or "electronic intelligence-gathering".
Up to now, ELINT has been confined to passive collection, collation and-or
distribution of electronically-intercepted information. Certain technical
aspects of satellite transmission also have major implications for the
real-time conduct of actual military operations.
-
- Iridium Satellite Israel is a subsidiary of the privately
held corporation Iridium Satellite, owned by Iridium Satellite Solutions'
regional operators in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Eastern Europe, and East
Africa, and a group of investors headed by Ami Schneider. The company acquired
the assets of the Iridium company in December of 2000. It is a provider
of global satellite voice and data through a constellation of 66 low-earth
orbiting (LEO) satellites operated by Boeing, one of the top 5 military
contrractors weith the Pentagon. Iridium currently provides service to
the US Department of Defense under a multi-year contract. Benjamin Netanyahu,
wearing his "Minister of Fianance" hat, was reportedly instrumental
in arranging the deal. This rings lots of alarm bells as to the likelihood
that far deeper and broader U.S.-Israeli strategic objectives are to be
served by this project.
-
- Radio signals that are not loaded by electronic noise
or degraded by the amount of switching that would take place over a conventional
analog or digital telephone network would at least theoretically make excellent
triggers for detonating explosives. State terrorism buffs take note: it
is speculative but not beyond reason that devices hooked to Iridium's network
could be used to detonate explosives anywhere on the planet.
-
- 3. OECD. Reviews of foreign direct investment: Israel
(June 2002. Data current to March 2002)
-
- 4. The exposure began late in 1999. As of August 2003,
googling "Echelon" and "BBC" still brought up a series
of stories covering these developments.
- ----
-
- Further Clarification
-
- From Warren Brown
warren.brown@iridium.com
8-27-3
-
- Pam,
-
- I assure you I am a real person and I do work for Iridium
Satellite LLC, based and operated in the US. The false report started with
The Globe in the Middle East when a reporter claimed that Gaya Com (a company
in Israel that only has a reseller's agreement with Iridium Satellite)
was "Iridium Israel" and that their president, Ami Schnieder,
was "CEO of Iridium Israel". Iridium Satellite only has one CEO
and that is Gino Picasso, located in our corporate offices in Arlington,
VA (you can verify this on our website at www.iridium.com). The reporter
also claimed that "Iridium Israel" had won a "$4-5 million
dollar public telephone contract in Iraq". Neither Iridium Satellite
nor any of its official global service providers have been awarded or are
involved in such a contract and I am unaware of anyone else being awarded
or being involved with such a contract.
-
- I have submitted response letters to the majority of
the publications that have picked up on this original story but unfortunately
all it takes is one reporter/publication to put something into print without
a proper fact-check and many other reporters will simply pick up the story
assuming it was factual - kind of a bad snowball effect. That is why you
are seeing other stories pop up when you search under "Iridium Israel"
- they are merely the same articles being picked up from the original false
article carrying the same basic false premise. I have yet to get a response
from the reporter or editor who originally made the false claims. I never
made claims of "libel" and I am only stating the facts that the
reporter did not accurately check. I can prove through public record that
there is no "Iridium Israel", that we only have one CEO in our
corporate office in Virginia and that we have no contract for "$4-5
million in public telephones in Iraq". However, it should not be our
responsibilty to be "guilty" until proven innocent. It is however,
the responsibility of the reporter to report accurately which did not happen
in this case.
-
- It is unfortunate when a publication or reporter does
not properly do their job and check all the facts as it degrades the entire
media industry and also does severe damage to the reputations of companies.
Iridium Satellite LLC holds itself to high standards of quality, integrity
and ethics and it hurts the many employees of the company on both a professional
and personal level who work so hard to make this an upstanding and successful
company.
-
- Thanks for your interest and for the opportunity to explain
the facts to you in this unfortunate situation.
-
- Best regards,
Warren
-
- Warren Brown
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications
Iridium Satellite LLC
-
-
- ------
-
- Original Article
-
- In one of her recent articles, American National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice seemingly lauds the highly disputable premise
that the Iraqi people have reclaimed their country, adding that America
is working to provide them with "greater security and greater opportunity".
-
- Swap the word "Iraqi" for "Israeli"
and "their country" with "Iraq" and Rice's overly optimistic
statement holds a ring of truth.
-
- As though the Bush administration's cronyism when it
came to handing out Iraqi reconstruction contracts wasn't contemptible
enough, we are now being told that an Israeli firm - yes, your eyes don't
deceive you - an Israeli firm, Iridium Satellite Israel, is set to supply
Iraq with five million dollars worth of public telephones and to market
mobile phones with the blessing of the Coalition Provisional Authority.
-
- Of course, I could be wrong but I'm prepared to bet that
if the Iraqis have truly "reclaimed their country" as the piano-playing
politician would like to orchestrate in our minds, then an Israeli company
wouldn't even make it to the starting line, at least not as long as the
Israeli government continues playing charades in an attempt to dupe the
Palestinians and the world.
-
- Naturally, in an unprecedented spirit of "kiss and
make up", Israel's Finance Minister and most hawkish, anti-Arab Member
of Parliament Benjamin Netanyahu "graciously" signed a permit
authorising trade with Iraq, marking Israel's recognition of Iraq as a
friendly nation.
-
- In a similarly conciliatory vein, with a covetous eye
on the bottom line, Netanyahu earlier told a group of British investors
that oil from Iraq's northern oilfields would flow, via Jordan, to the
port city of Haifa. The existing pipeline was shut down in 1948 after the
creation of the Jewish state.
-
- The U.S. reportedly backs the export of Iraqi oil to
Israel, which would not only transform the Israeli economy but also fulfil
America's obligations under a 1975 Memorandum of Understanding when the
U.S. guaranteed Israel's oil requirements in the event of a crisis.
-
- Oil diversion
-
- This commitment extends to the U.S. having to divert
oil to Israel from its domestic market even during periods of worldwide
shortfalls.
-
- To add insult to injury, Bahrain's Batelco was forced
to close down its Iraq mobile phone network shortly after beginning Baghdad
operations, while Kuwait's MTC-Vodaphone roaming service suffered a similar
fate at the hands of Iraq's American rulers.
-
- Indeed, almost all Arab cell-phone networks and some
European ones are excluded from bidding for lucrative cell-phone network
licenses, since the Coalition has stipulated that no company, which is
more than 10 per cent government-owned will be allowed to participate in
tenders.
-
- Darrell Trent, a senior adviser at Iraq's Ministry of
Transportation and Communication, told Reuters that the 10 per cent clause
wasn't meant to give U.S. firms the upper hand over Arab companies, a statement
which no doubt rings hollow to the Bahraini and Kuwaiti bidders.
-
- Batelco, however, seeks to circumvent the restriction
by joining a consortium in which it will retain a mere 27 per cent stake.
-
- "I think the whole world will be watching to see
how we open this new market," said Trent. Indeed! It must surely raise
eyebrows that while an Israeli company is welcomed into Iraq with open
arms, firms from Iraq's Arab neighbours are effectively being deterred,
if not barred, from entering the communications race.
-
- Apart from an affront to the political sensibilities
of Iraqis amid questions concerning the legality of an occupying nation
awarding major long-term contracts, opening Iraqi communications to an
Israeli firm is surely a threat to Iraq's security, that same security
which Rice insists America is sworn to protect.
-
- Iridium Satellite Israel is a subsidiary of Iridium Satellite,
a provider of global satellite voice and data solutions, which is sub-contracted
to the U.S. Defence Department. It's hard to imagine that the company's
interest in the Iraqi market is merely one of profit margins.
-
- Israel already has a plan to place surveillance satellites
in near-to-earth orbit so as to spy on countries such as Syria, Iran and
Libya, which it deems hostile to its interests. Such a programme would
mean that for the first time Israel would be independent of the U.S. when
it comes to early warning systems.
-
- It is hardly surprising, therefore, that some Iraqis
feel the only way to take back their country is in the same way it was
taken from them - by force. As much as the Pentagon likes to portray attacks
on its service personnel as the work of Saddam supporters or terrorist
groups, reports out of Baghdad indicate that Iraqis who previously celebrated
the downfall of the former regime are incensed that one dictatorship has
been replaced by another. It's only natural that they would be disgruntled.
-
- Reconciliation
-
- I'm all for peace and reconciliation, but such a Utopian
condition has to evolve on its own, spurred by mutual goodwill in a spirit
of compromise, and cannot be imposed by self-interested third parties.
-
- Rice says in her commentary that the U.S. wants "greater
freedom and opportunity for the people of the region". Fine words
but where is the substance? Free Iraqis would not be awarding contracts
to Israelis and neither would they allow their oil to lubricate a nation
which oppresses their fellow Arabs. As things stand, opportunity is knocking
for the U.S. and Israel with Britain and Australia hoping to catch the
crumbs.
-
- "The people of the region" can only stand,
stare and wonder at this new topsy-turvy reality and just how much further
America's waning credibility can be stretched before it snaps.
-
- The writer is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs
-
- http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/opinion.asp?ArticleID=94943
-
-
- Comment
- From Morgan DeWales
- 8-31-3
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- Further to the controversy on your site regarding Iridium,
please find article below found on a respected Israeli business website
which clearly states that Iridium Israel - Gaya.com is about to sell phones
to Iraq. Someone's telling deliberate lies here.
-
- Regards,
- Morgan
-
- Iridium To Supply Iraq With $4-5 Million In Public Phones
- Iridium Satellite (Israel) Will Also Market Thousands
Of Cell Phones
-
- By Efi Landau
- 3 Aug 03
-
- Iridium Satellite (Israel) - Gaya Com is delivering hundreds
of public telephones worth $4-5 million, to be installed in Iraq.
-
- Iridium Satellite (Israel) CEO Ami Schneider told "Globes"
that the order came through a Jordanian company. Iridium Satellite (Israel)
will also market several thousand Iridium mobile telephones in Iraq. <http://www.iridium.com/>Iridium
Satellite Solutions developed its public telephones in Israel.
-
- Iridium Satellite Solutions revived Iridium Satellite
(Israel) after redesigning its satellite network for civilian use. Iridium
Satellite (Israel)'s owners include Iridium Satellite Solutions' regional
operators in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Eastern Europe, and East Africa, and
a group of investors headed by Schneider.
-
- Iridium Satellite (Israel) recently won a Kenya government
tender to provide mobile satellite communications, and was the main communications
provider for Kenya's 2002 elections and the November 2002 terrorist attacks
in Mombasa. Schneider told "Globes" that the company was negotiating
with five African governments to provide satellite communications.
-
- Iridium Satellite Solutions provides a satellite communications
network and telephones for voice and data communications, SMS, Internet,
and e-mail between any locations in the world. The network comprises 66
satellites launched in 1997-98 to 780 km in low-earth orbit.
-
- Iridium filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in
the US in 1998. A group of investors bought the company a year later for
a low sum and rehabilitated it.
-
- Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Communications granted
Iridium an operating license, and its telephones can now be bought and
operated throughout Israel. Iridium Satellite (Israel) is the 131st company
to receive an Iridium operating license in the world.
-
- Published by Globes [online] - <http://www.globes.co.il/>www.globes.co.il
- on August 3, 2003
-
- http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview_archive.asp?did=711705
|
