Middle East Focus: Jordanians Sabotaged Aljazeera FIFA World Cup, Oh the Humor………….

Arabia Deserta

Jordanians Sabotaged Aljazeera FIFA World Cup, Oh the Humor………….

Walking on water

“Mysterious jamming of TV broadcasts of the summer's World Cup by the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera has been traced to Jordan, which appears to have retaliated angrily after the collapse of a deal that would have allowed football fans there free access to the matches. Millions of al-Jazeera Sports subscribers across the Middle East and North Africa cried foul on 12 June when the opening game between South Africa and Mexico was hit by interference which produced blank screens, pixelated images and commentary in the wrong languages. It occurred seven more times during the tournament's biggest games. Al-Jazeera protested that the jamming of the Nilesat and Arabsat satellites was an act of "sabotage". There was speculation that Egypt or Saudi Arabia, both hostile to the channel, were involved, though the network has never named any suspects or gone public with the results of its own investigation. But secret documents seen exclusively by the Guardian trace five episodes of jamming definitively to a location near as-Salt in Jordan, north-east of the capital, Amman, confirmed by technical teams using geolocation technology. Experts say the jamming was unlikely to have been done without the knowledge of the Jordanian authorities. "It was a very sophisticated case," said one……” The Guardian (UK)

A case of cutting your Jordanian nose to spite your Jordanian face. They could not do it without Jordanian “authorities” knowing. Nothing, almost nothing, is done in most Middle East states without the authoritarians knowing it. Apparently, being humorless as usual, Jordanian authorities took it upon themselves to punish Aljazeera and in the process punish World Cup fans.
This makes my task about searching for a sense of humor over there that much harder. But I’m not giving up, I can be dogged
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com