Slashdot Mirror
NSA/U.S. Navy Working to Intercept Fiber Optic Cables
Jeff Robertson writes: "Fiber optic cables have advantage of being difficult to wiretap. As optical amplifiers replace electro-optical regenerators in undersea routes, it gets even harder. Lightwave Magazine has an article
quoting the Washington Post as claiming the
National Security Agency 'is known to be hard at work trying to gain access to fiber optic cables' and the U.S. Navy will spend '$1 billion to retrofit its premier spy submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter' to get access to deep-sea fiber routes.
They also assert that the U.S. government is bailing out Global Crossing to prevent its undersea routes falling into foreign hands."
Despite the prevalent opinion on Slashdot (and my own) the government does need the ability to monitor telecommunications. Given proper authority by warrants and what-not, the government should be given every possible tool and ability to protect the nation, within sensible limits, always.
--Kevin
Oh jeez, I had to read the article to make sure this wasn't some sort of Simpsons joke. I know, I know, Jimmy was a Nuke Engineer on a Sub before he drove the country into double digit inflation and created the misery index while wearing a sweater. But I was shocked that he already had a military ship named after him. Anyone know what the rules are for that? Is it a military thing or a Congressional?
I thought this was interesting:
They also assert that the U.S. government is bailing out Global Crossing to prevent its undersea routes falling into foreign hands.
The Global Crossing bankruptcy is as large as Enron but the Press hasn't hyped it as much. There have been many conspiracy theories as to why. This might be the real reason and not because the DNC Nation Chairman turned $100,000 into $18 million. The press might be protecting National Security because the Government has told them to shut up over the bankruptcy. Rumor was that the communist Chinese were itching to get their hands on it just like the Panama Canal. Anyone remember how communist Chinese got that? (Well at least both entry points).
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
This man's life is dedicated to peace, so they name a war machine after him. I know he was a nuke engineer and that is the reason for the dubbing.
Now that we are in a constant state of war, the USS Jimmy Carter will allow all messages of the enemy du jour to be intercepted [and modified] by the military industrial complex. Great
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
I believe I have seen the light.
In a business climate such as this, where the US will bail out Global Crossing just to ensure that the business won't "fall into foreign hands", I think we, the slashdotters who are out to make a buck or two, should sit up and take attention !
1. Go set up your own underwater fibre cable laying / operating company.
2. Go to the banks and take BILLIONS and BILLIONS of loans.
3. Either by some existing money loosing underwater fiber cable operation, or lay some more cable on the already saturated routes.
4. If your business loose one USD on the operation, cook the book so that it looks like it's making one USD, and so on.
5. In the meantime, make yourself rich by pocketing a portion of the "difference", between the actual accounting, and the one the "cooked book" is showing. The rest of the difference, you can always invite Dick Cheney or whoever is from the Bush adminstration, to join your "Board of Directors", and let them pocket the rest of the loot.
6. Sooner or later, the "cookery" will be exposed. By that time, you would have BILLIONS in reserve, and you will have Dick Cheney and/or others from the Bush adminstration working FOR you, and covering up all your criminal act.
7. Under the guise of "national security", with the reason that your company is "too important to fall into foreign hands", the Bush adminstration will BUY UP YOUR CRUMBLED COMPANY, and they will PAY YOU A HANDSOME PROFIT too !
8. When you done all that, please don't forget www.slashdot.org. Donate some of your loot here, so all of us can continue to enjoy
Thank you very much for your attention.
PS: The above is for educational purpose only. Neither Slashdot nor I will assume any liability on anything, if you are stupid enough to do what I've just written above.
PPS: But of course, if you become richer than God, then, please, share your loot with all of us, thank you!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
All right, let's suppose that the US is tapping these undersea cables. This story is appearing in a publically available source, and, given the feasability of the task, I have no reason to disbelieve it.
Now, what terrorist would possibly use these undersea cables for communications? You can be certain that the bad guys know about the US's capabilities. If I were organizing a multinational terror organization, I'd make sure that my communications didn't get routed via tappable cables. Or use some sort of code, encryption or steganography to hide the message. Easy enough.
So what's the point of monitoring these communications?
Your design to a real part online: Big Blue Saw
Not that I'm doubting you, but how does one TAP huge fiber pipes? I know how to do it with a few strands, but dwdm? Also, is this legal and thirdly, how will they store the incredible abount of data flying through the pipes?
--- RFC 1149 Compliant.
Despite the prevalent opinion on Slashdot (and my own) the government does need the ability to monitor telecommunications. Given proper authority by warrants and what-not, the government should be given every possible tool and ability to protect the nation, within sensible limits, always.
How about setting those sensible limits at your borders? Respect other country's privacy for once.
Stop being a bunch of international bullies/control freaks. The cold war is over.
Jimmy Carter was a wonderful President if your only criterion was to have ethical perfection to balance everyone's disappointment in Richard Nixon.
Unfortunately, despite all of that, his biggest fault was micromanaging. Tales were told of the 16 hour days Jimmy would put in, but spent his time resolving staff disputes by scheduling use of the White House tennis courts himself.
Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan just delegated everything out and worked many less hours and, by those measures was a much more effective manager. [For the record, I didn't think much of Ronald's appointees. And, GHB was right, it was voodoo economics.]
But the quote I remember, that Slashdot should remember, is that:
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Lest we forget that China built a fiber communication network in afghanistan. That, with the latest intelligence debacle, well
IMHO, if tapping any communication medium will assist in the thwarting of terrorist activity, well we need something.
Noone would have considered this applicable 3 years ago.
Usually, with that size of budget, there are definately some dark ops. No wonder we (as in the U.S.) are developing methods to
Xray people as they wander through airports.
Someone to ask about the plans and what the impact will be is Secretary of the Navy Gordon England.
Understandably, I am sure he would not delve into the detailed tie-in and the way the Govt. is using 9/11 to move projects like thas ahead.
Crossing's Creditors' Committee press releases show how critical it was for the Govt to bail them out. With clients like
K.B. toys to sell their pipe to, it is amazing that they are not rolling in cash.
Stratgetically, there is concern because"For a very low price, someone is going to acquire a set of undersea fiber routes that crisscross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and connect over 20 nations and perhaps resell or lease the network at a handsome profit to another party that could have its very own undersea communications network and training ground. The bankruptcy court had set April 23 as the deadline to receive proposals to take over the now-bankrupt GX.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
I fail to realize why a billion dollars has to be spent on tapping underwater cables when you can do it on land node on one end. Money being wasted again...what a shock!
-----
One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
Here is a link describing wht the Jimmy Carter is getting- basically a bigger SEAL delivery system, probably with the ability to drop a carried bathysphere or other goodies.
The Jimmy Carter is too high value a ship to just keep out on fiber patrol- independent of her spec-ops function she can pretty much conventionally destroy most navies by herself thanks to that 50-weapon loadout, being quieter running at speed then the Los Angeles subs at dock, and that wide-aperture sonar. So making her a $3 billion dollar satellite feed doesn't make sense.
Therefore they must be planning to hook into the fiber-optic network, and spool off their own fiber line to a discrete uplink several hundred miles away. The upgrade must be to allow for all that equipment.
________________________________________ History Must Not Fall Into The Wrong Hands ___________________________________
Dude, the NSA doesn't need warrants. It does whatever the hell it pleases.
Remember that this country was ruled by J Edgar Hoover for decades, since he as the head of the FBI could crush any US politician, including most Presidents, that didn't comply with his demands.
This is kind of a dumb debate. Mainly because people already have entrenched views and it boils down to "duz too!" and "duz not!".
For the record: Most countries spy. However, if a people sanction spying by their country on others and accept that their government has a right to do so (ie they as the people should not be stopping their government from doing it), they can scarcely take the moral high ground when it is done in return to them or when their allies (not enemies I say!) discover they are being spied on and become rather upset.
It's one thing to spy quietly and mostly innocuously and try very hard not to let anyone in your country or anywhere else know you are doing it. It is another thing to publicly make available the fact you are setting out to violate other countries' private communications. Especially when some of those countries are: military allies, political allies, and long standing trade partners.
I think the simple rule here is: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And if you happen to think the fact that America owns an extremely temporary (from a historical perspective) hegemony in technology and military force over most of the world and that somehow confers a right to use such power as a club to forward its own agenda and that this is morally correct behaviour, then you should be equally happy when someone one day returns the favour.
I don't really care what side of this fence anyone is on, but it does piss me off when they try to occupy both sides (spying while decrying same, invading and bombing other sovereign nations and supporting death squads and covert ops in other nations while decrying same).
Another phrase comes to mind: Sew the wind, reap the whirlwind.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."