.jpeg) |
| (Raza Samo, Facebook) |
The No. 1 question going into the weekend here at Legal Schnauzer was, "Who stabbed Ukraine in the back by limiting its ability to defend against Russian missile attacks?" Was it (A) Donald Trump; (B) Elon Musk; or (c) Both. Based on one of the best articles I've found that addresses our question, the answer is both. That is a sickening outcome, but it should not surprise anyone who is familiar with the public actions of Trump and Musk in recent years.
Our go-to source on this issue is Laura Rozen, a veteran foreign-policy journalist who has worked at AI-Monitor, Politico, Foreign Policy, and now writes the Diplomatic newletter at Substack. On the question at hand, Rozen nails it in the headline: "Report: Musk proposed & Trump agreed to throttle Ukraine satellite system." She adds the following informative subhead: "Billionaire Republican donor Elon Musk proposed and US President Donald Trump agreed to throttle a Musk-owned satellite system that Ukraine uses to defend civilians from Russian ballistic missiles and drone attacks this week, new reporting has revealed."
Rozen's piece is cross-posted at The Cosmopolitan Globalist, which includes a scathing op-ed piece on the Trump-Musk duo from founder-editor Claire Berlinski. We will feature that at the end of this post, and it is worth the wait.
First, we turn to Laura Rozen who writes:
The Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic editor, Joe Barnes, reported on Oct. 16:
Elon Musk approached Donald Trump with the idea of slowing down Starlink in Ukraine, the Telegraph can reveal.
[Musk] approached the US president with the proposal to introduce speed limits on the system, which hampered Ukraine’s drone defences, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.
One of the sources said Mr. Trump ‘agreed’ with Mr. Musk’s suggestion, paving the way for the Pentagon to executive the slowdown of the Starshield, the military-grade version of the satellite communications system. […]
However, after what was described as a ‘night of carnage’ in Kyiv because of the blackout, a senior source said Mr. Musk had been alarmed about the possibility of adverse consumer reaction in Europe.
That Musk, what a guy? Notice he isn't concerned about the people who were killed or injured; he's concerned about his bottom line. No wonder he is a conservative. Rozen continues:
Musk had previously tried to distance himself from the decision to impose limits on the speed and usage of the Starlink and Starshield, which are owned by SpaceX, in Ukraine this week. But his statement did not explicitly deny that he had played a role in proposing the idea to Trump.
“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government,” Musk wrote on Twitter (which he also owns) on Oct. 14. “Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”
Trump, asked today who gave the order for Starlink to go down in Ukraine, dodged, dissembled and prevaricated.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I am not sure that it ever came down.”
“It wasn’t us,” he added, disingenuously.
How is that for a profile in courage? Speaking of courage, Rozen turns to a leader who has a proven he has plenty of that rare commodity:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking with the media after meeting with European leaders in Brussels today, said the service was throttled this week, impeding the ability of Ukrainian drone operators from being able to intercept Russian ballistic missile and drone strikes on the country.
“Starlink wasn’t turned off—its speed was reduced,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. “And when the speed was reduced, we were unable to intercept a certain number of jet-powered ‘shaheds.’ We couldn’t use a tool that helps protect people. That’s very painful and frustrating.”
“Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is it being restored now? Yes,” his post continued.
The press was on top of the story late last week, Rozen notes:
Reuters’ Erin Banco reported on Thursday:
The order to limit a satellite system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter.
The officials said leaders at the Defense Department received a message that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed. […]
The White House said in a statement that no such request was made by the president, but did not answer questions about whether anyone else did.
Congress also is paying attention, and while I'm not aware of any member using the term "war crimes," a reasonable question might be this: Could the actions of Trump and Musk constitute war crimes, such as "crimes against humanity," as defined by, and perhaps investigated by, the International Criminal Court (ICC), upon which Trump has leveled sanctions, drawing a stern response from the court. Rozen writes:
A bipartisan group of nine Senators wrote the Pentagon Inspector General on Thursday requesting an investigation into what caused the disruptions to US-supported communications and intelligence sharing capabilities in Ukraine this past week. Notably, they said that the disrupted service had endangered American diplomatic and security personnel by preventing them from receiving alerts to reach bunkers ahead of Russian air raids.
“We understand that American personnel experienced serious difficulties reaching safety during Russia air raids,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Christopher Coons (D-Delaware) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wrote in a letter to Department of Defense Inspector General Platte Moring. “Given the potentially deadly consequences, these incidents require immediate investigation.”
“We also request that you ensure agencies and parties preserve communications, contractual records, technical directives, and correspondence concerning these incidents, including communications between the Department of Defense, SpaceX and other relevant agencies,” they also requested.
Here is the op-ed from Claire Berlinski, founder and editor of The Cosmopolitan Globalist:
Note that in addition to everything else, they casually put the lives of American diplomatic, military, and security personnel at risk. This too is illegal: Not just immoral, but illegal. If anyone imagines Trump would hesitate to kill you--be it because you're a US citizen or otherwise harmless--you're wrong. Trump (and Musk) are psychopaths. That's not just rhetoric. Because of their outsized power, they're a danger to everyone alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment