Musk Secretly Used Starlink to Foil Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Ships

Yet he’s taking DoD money for Starlink in Ukraine. At what point do his antics turn from the craziness of a billionaire to espionage and being deemed a Russian asset?

The spin at the end is just fluffy bullshit. Starlink, from the get go, has had bandwidth reserved for military operations albeit US military operation but military operations nonetheless. The real question here is how and why did he know that operation was happening and what other operations has he known about/thwarted/or knowingly or unknowingly passed along information about.

“How am I in this war?” Musk asks Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

Musk, transparent as ever, makes sure to tell his biographer that it's about peace, man, and has nothing to do with his love of authoritarian regimes.

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Musk was reportedly motivated to foil the attack out of concern that a strike on Crimea would constitute a “mini-Pearl Harbor” and lead to Russia retaliating with nuclear weapons

So glad the blue-checks get to dictate our foreign policy now.

What was all that DoD money for? A suggestion box?

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Isn't it illegal to screw with the military actions of the U.S. ... and its allies?!!?

Why are enemies of the United States allowed to own national security infrastructure?

This fucking carbuncle.

Arrest this treasonous scumbag. Slava Ukraini!

this is starting to give comic book villan

Took longer than I thought it would for Musk to do this. Been waiting for it since he threw his little fit about starlink in Ukraine was costing him money.

Then he said he’s talked to Putin directly.

Seriously someone reign this dude in, somehow, before he really fucks shit up.

Arrest when?

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As if I needed another reason to hate this piece of shit.

If I was Ukrainian, I would say that makes Elon a combatant.

Traitor to Democracy, at it's worst. I see he wants to join Lex Luthor at Amazon. What's the closest villian comparison for someone like Elmo?

Espionage act?

here you have a better link https://web.archive.org/web/20230907125906/https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html

OP linked to a site that regosted half of the original article, so here's the full one:

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html

Seriously the US needs to take Starlink away from Musk. Its a national security issue at this point.

Fuuuuuuck Elon Musk

ETA: he said he did it to avoid a nuclear attack. Everybody with two brain cells to rub together knows this is an empty threat from Putin, so either Elon is an idiot or he’s lying.

Likely both.

Mr. Free Speech wants to decide what we can and can’t use our ISP’s for eh?

Man the old geezers really think they still have absolute control over everything and don't realize the ultra wealthy they have enabled are getting and have been operating far beyond the control of the western governments.

God the fucking narcissism of those in charge to think that they still rule with perfect wisdom. I'm waiting for when these companies that the US built leave and take up residence with new hot authoritarian countries and leave misery poverty in their wake.

Singular rich people should not have this much say.

Not that I expect a single damn thing to happen, but isn't this the definition of treason?

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Holy shit! I'm guessing fighting (even in an EW capacity) for a US adversary is actually a criminal offence, or something similar.

Thanks for the original source, OP. It's hard to trust just a headline these days.

Sure would be a shame if Starlink got nationalized.

As an oligarch, he stands with the other Russian oligarch who need and benefit from this war. If the rouble is at an historical low, the ones who have money in other currencies have an historical purchasing power in Russia...

Defense production act takeover when?

“How am I in this war?” Musk asked Isaacson. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.”

Hopefully some skepticism can finally be focused on the concept of giving a single billionaire unfettered control over who is allowed to access the internet, and what they are allowed to do with it.

The whole endeavor to “arm” Ukraine with Starlink has always been a shameless attempt to dodge any future criticism of the company, by claiming to be a “military asset”

If you own a new Tesla purchased since he took over Twitter, I suspect you may start having some increased tire and paint bills. I could see it becoming a trend; feels like the kind of thing kids could get into.

I just wonder how much it cost Kremlin to stop the sinking of their fleet?

I always knew Elon was a Russian bitch but this proves it

I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked!

All these (I'm guessing) stock photos of Elmo are amazing! He looks like an idiot in all of them!

“Secretly.”

So secretly that we know about it.

God he is such a shitheel

That utter swine!

I'm not sure if that is "on brand" for TESLA.

Global terrorist

I have no doubt if Ukraine was sufficiently aggrieved they would seek retribution directly against him.

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The traffic going to and from these drones isn't encrypted?

With the comms down, the Ukrainian submarine drones packed with explosives “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes, according to CNN.

Wait, does this means the military drone is equipped with starlink antenna? In that case, I think it make sense for a company to not want their product to be used in a military weapon. IIRC many tech companies and even open source projects have extra clauses in their license to forbid use in military weapon. Musk should have warn Ukraine first before they launch it in the field though.

At no point did I say do nothing.

I mean, it's his company, nothing secret about it.

Other than that - a loitering munition requiring internet connectivity on approach to target sounds awfully stupid.

And, of course, he provided that connectivity by his own initiative with his own idea as to how it should be used in the first place.

Being given a certain kind of gift many times doesn't mean you become entitled to it.

Musk considers Russian presence in most of Ukraine aggression he wants to help foil, but a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive something he doesn't want to help. If you accept his choice in the former, you should accept it in the latter.

Or maybe not steal fucking billions of funding intended exactly for that counteroffensive to not rely on one billionaire's ideas of cool. Maybe Ukraine should do something about that pervasive corruption first, then blame Musk. With that amount of funding they should have been able to simply overwhelm Russia FFS.

He is Iron Man. Leave him be.

I need more proof than one guy whose trying to sell copies of his book.

Please don't use thedailybeast as a source...