April 13, 2007:
Sri Lankan officials were shocked
to learn that the local rebels (the LTTE, representing separatist among the
Tamil minority) had hijacked two channels on a television satellite, and were
broadcasting anti-government (and pro-terrorist) programming to anyone in Sri
Lanka who had a small DTH (Direct to Home) satellite dish. At least that's what
the satellite operator, Intelsat Ltd, said when asked about why they were
carrying programming for an international terrorist organization (at least in
most countries). The LTTE had been sending their TV programming to Sri Lanka
(and most of the world) via the Intelsat 12 satellite since May, 2005. Intelsat
believes that the LTTE was able to pull this off by making an illegal deal with
someone in the PanAmSat company. Intelsat took over PanAmSat in July,
2006. There are 30,000 DTH customers in
Sri Lanka, and the investigation into the LTTE satellite hijacking scam is
continuing.