Four-Wire Box and Audio Cable

  • Four-wire box circuit and cable used in Baghdad during the First Gulf War, 1991
  • Allowed CNN to broadcast live from Baghdad during the Allied bombing, when traditional communication methods shut down
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Description

The four-wire box circuit was initially set up in Baghdad to reduce extremely large phone bills being charged to the CNN workspace at the Al-Rasheed Hotel during the Gulf War in 1991. To reduce costs, Nic Robertson (a field engineer at the time) mentioned that technicians in the London Bureau used four-wire boxes for communications while up-linking portable satellite dishes. Each box could provide two channels of two-way communications for the cost of a single hookup. CNN would have a link, 24-hours-a-day, without the need of an operator. The signal would go between the CNN workspace at the hotel to the CNN bureau in Amman, Jordan. From there CNN had a satellite dish with 24-hour access to headquarters in Atlanta. It took months to get Iraqi approval, but permission was finally granted prior to the beginning of the conflict.

This setup would prove critical when the bombing started. As the war began, operators at the telephone exchange in downtown Baghdad left the building. They knew the structure would be a primary target of coalition bombers. Without operators the media outlets massed at the Al Rasheed Hotel were unable to access lines to broadcast the start of the war. (The government had not allowed any satellite phones or dishes into the country.) That left the four-wire line as the only link providing communications with the outside world. That is why CNN was the only network able to broadcast live during the opening hours of Desert Storm.

CNN continued to broadcast . . . until the connection was destroyed. The audio cable is the actual cable left in the room where the historic broadcast took place. CNN was kicked out of the suite after the war began. The gear in the room was removed, except for this cable, which was kept in place under a locked door between two rooms of the suite. On the one year anniversary of the war, I was allowed to return to the room, with John Holliman, to report on the anniversary. It was the first time anyone from CNN had been back to the room. I managed to retrieve the cable at that time.

 

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Al-Rasheed Hotel

 

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