When
"Clear and Present Danger" was published in the May edition of
What
Satellite
Magazine no-one could have envisaged that just a few weeks later the story
would
make
worldwide headline news....least of all me .
I
had hoped that the publication of the article might spur GBS or
Eucom
into
action to encrypt the feed, which , due to miltary hardware
limitations
,
was going out free to air on Telstar 11.
But
that didnt happen
After
taking advice from a number of miltary sources , and further
research
,
I teamed up with I C I J member , Duncan Campbell.
BBC
Newsnight majored the story on the evening of June 12.This would
be
followed
the next morning by a front page article in the Guardian ,
penned
by
Duncan.
Even
before Newsnight went out , I was asked by BBC Breakfast News if
I
would
appear in the following mornings broadcast.....a sign of things
to
come.
It
was an early start the next day. Newsnight seemed to have gone down
quite
well
,and the BBC Outside Broadcast van arrived at 0630.
Our
slot was booked for 0740 ....plenty of time.
However
realising that they would probably want to access 21 east for
the
live
feed I had already checked if it was possible to "see" Eutelsat
2F3
from
the avenue here....big problem....the inclined bird was hidden
behind
a
line of trees.
"You
won't get a signal out from here I warned"...But they tried anyway
!
No
chance of getting into the satellite.... so up went the telescopic
mast
to
see if they could get into the terrestrial link on top of Winter Hill
.A
hop
of about 40 miles.
That
failed too !
The
minutes ticked away , we missed our slot.
As
Breakfasts' Jeremy Bowen quipped about being able to see military
signals
from
the Balkans , but not get a live link up with the Wirral , we
were
packing
up equipment and heading for the local coastline three miles
away
where
the van managed to access the terrestrial
link
, line of sight at 7ghz.
So
thirty minutes later than scheduled , the interview took place on
a
windswept
beach.....
Back
home for 0830 and the onslaught began.Landline and mobile phones
rang
incessantly
How
did they find me so quickly ?
"We
happened to be in the area" quipped one of the major national TV
crews
(They're
based in London , 250 miles away) --- why didn't I believe
them
?
Passing
the lounge door , phone pressed to my head ,
three
reporters
and a photographer were in there, sipping tea , waiting to talk
.I
disappeared
into the garden where a TV crew was setting up.
This
was to be the order of the day for the next twelve hours , non
stop.
Sky
News arrived . Could I fit them in ?
They
wanted to bring an SNG Van to the house.
"No
good " I said "you won't get a signal out ".
We've
been here before !
While
they discuss the problem with the newsroom , I take yet another
call.
Local
and National radio and the tabloids keep the phone occupied.My
son
puts
them on hold . As I finish one call , he hands me the
next.
"I've
said you'll do BBC local at 1130" he mouths ...... !
It
was about this time that the snappers started to arrive .They
wanted
photos
by the dish . I managed to squeeze a combined "shoot"
between
interviews.
It
was all good natured , and they snapped away. Tabloid photographers
have
a
reputation of being a rowdy lot , pushing and shoving for the best angle
,
but
there was none of that , in fact I was surprised by how well they
all
got
on together , exchanging lenses , swapping power packs....what
a
pleasant
lot they were
Midday
, they kept on coming.
Sky
were back , we arranged a live insert , I would be taken down to
the
river
front where a van was setting up.
Meanwhile
we talked their sat-ops onto 37 west so they could take
some
live
footage
from
the downlink to back up the interview.
Another
call , this for BBC Northern Ireland.
On
the dockside overlooking the Liverpool waterfront it was live into
Sky
News....Seemed
strange to be on the "sharp end" of a live satellite link.
The
uplink was arranged by a SiSLink van ......impressive piece of
kit.
Interview
finished.... I had to clear Sky , then straight to CBS News
who
were
using the same facility for an "as live".
Driving
back courtesy of the Sky crew , I began to wonder what awaited
me
..
No
surprises there...the house was full. More TV crews and
newspaper
reporters.
Out
in the garden , as the camera crews set up , yet more phone
interviews.
With
America waking up to the story , the major players started
calling......ABC
, NBC , CBC,
CNN
........
ABC
were sending a crew up from London , a long drive but they made it
late
afternoon
"Can
somebody turn those birds off ? " commented the BBC cameraman.
The
birds
sing loud and clear here .They don't stop for anyone , no even the
BBC
!
And
so it went on through the afternoon , by then I was on
autopilot.
ABC
arrived and set up.I still had a couple of reporters waiting , the
girl
from
the New York Post agreed to sit in on the ABC interview.
More
tea and biscuits....Was that , one sugar no milk ?
By
eight in the evening , things had started to ease off , just the odd
call now
from the States
.
But
then I was passed a list of all those I had yet to call back , and
both
message
services on landline and mobile were full up !
Friday
was an easier day , just a handful of interviews and the odd photo
.
I
manage to grab a few newspapers from a local agents. Discretely
folding
the
ones with my photo on the front page out of view....but it was
no
good.
"You're
in all of them" he commented....."saw you on the telly too
!"
The
highlight of the day was a satellite link up with "The Big Show" ,
Fox
News
New York.
It
was arranged via the Granada studios in Liverpool..the link was
initially cable
, then microwave across country , where it was sent into the
backbone
fibre
network to Goonhilly , from there across the pond via ? I never
did
find
out !
Saturday's
New York Times reported a Pentagon spokeswoman as saying
"The
Pentagon
would continue to use commercial satellite for its
surveillance
videos"
.She noted that none of the images were considered
restricted
information
or classified.She discounted concerns that the images could
help
forces
hostile to the United States or NATO by revealing what
American
intelligence
deems worthy of monitoring. "We belive there's no evidence
that
the video imagery has been used in a way that is harmful to
NATO
forces"
Taking
time to scan the internet a couple of days later revealed the
story
had
been carried from as far afield as Chile , China and
Australia.
That
hectic 48 hours had all been worth while , but very heavy
going.
On
July 1 Eucom changed the downlink to Conditional Access.
The
official line was that they had NOT encrypted , and that the
information
was
unclassified.
It
seems strange that Conditional Access should be applied to
an
unclassified
downlink.Perhaps they now plan to go "Pay Per View"