US Wary of Allowing Russian Electronic Monitoring Stations Inside US 232
cold fjord writes "The New York Times reports, '... the next potential threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or secrets gleaned from Snowden. Instead, this menace may come in the form of a ... dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States. ... the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing ... the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen ... monitor stations, on United States soil ... These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow's version of the Global Positioning System ... The Russian effort is part of a larger global race by several countries ... to perfect their own global positioning systems and challenge the dominance of the American GPS. For the State Department, permitting Russia to build the stations would help mend the Obama administration's relationship with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin ... But the C.I.A. and other American spy agencies, as well as the Pentagon, suspect that the monitor stations would give the Russians a foothold on American territory that would sharpen the accuracy of Moscow's satellite-steered weapons. The stations, they believe, could also give the Russians an opening to snoop on the United States within its borders. ... administration officials have delayed a final decision until the Russians provide more information and until the American agencies sort out their differences.'"
Easily dealt with. (Score:5, Insightful)
"But the C.I.A. and other American spy agencies, as well as the Pentagon, suspect that the monitor stations would give the Russians a foothold on American territory that would sharpen the accuracy of Moscow's satellite-steered weapons"
Begging the question "aren't current nukes sufficiently accurate"?
The smart countermeasure would be to monitor the monitoring stations and be ready to destroy them at no notice. Have both HERF/jamming and explosive capability available.
Re:If we're not doing anything wrong... (Score:5, Insightful)
"we -aren't- planning on attacking the Russians, are we?"
Of course we are. Just like we have plans for 100's of military moves. Whether or not we implement those plans is another question.
"The days of Red Baiting should be over"
Putin is doing his best to bring it back. His moves really seem to be to bring back a single power* and muscle his way around. He's entrenching a theocracy, arresting minor dissenter, and undoing all the democratic gain over the last 30 years. His moving to control certain oil interests
errr. I didn't' want to imply it was the same single power, just a centralized power.
Something new from cold fjord (Score:4, Insightful)
Something new from cold fjord - a story/concern that most Slashdotters agree with. Cold (if I may presume to use your first name), I think this demonstrates that most Slashdotters are not naive fools who think we live in a completely friendly world. Rather, if I may speak for most others, we think many of the tactics used in fighting terrorism are overly intrusive (and sometimes downright un-Constitutional), dangerous to our freedom, and either marginally or completely ineffective. For example, 9/11 could have been prevented with old-fashioned police work. For example, FBI headquarters listening to a report from a field office, which in turn they were given by an astute flight instructor, of some gentlemen who wanted to learn to fly but didn't care about takeoffs and landings (at least not of the preferred variety).
Re:Doomsday device! (Score:5, Insightful)
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Now here is the scary part: Dr Strangelove is still as relevant as it was when it was made. You would think by now it would just be funny, and not scarily funny.
Re:Slashdot Summaries, by William Shatner (Score:5, Insightful)
This is more conventionally done with [...] rather than ... alone, which has the more usual meaning of a pause.
Re:Doomsday device! (Score:5, Insightful)
WTF is in charge of the US with respect to these things?
Are we allowed to put these same type of things on Russian soil too?
Re:Doomsday device! (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't believe this is being seriously considred..?!?!
WTF is in charge of the US with respect to these things?
Are we allowed to put these same type of things on Russian soil too?
The US has the same types of facilities [wikipedia.org] in lots of different places, but not in Russia.
The flight paths of the satellites are tracked by dedicated U.S. Air Force monitoring stations in Hawaii, Kwajalein Atoll, Ascension Island, Diego Garcia, Colorado Springs, Colorado and Cape Canaveral, along with shared NGA monitor stations operated in England, Argentina, Ecuador, Bahrain, Australia and Washington DC
These stations provide correction to the satellites, (internal clocks and ephemeris data) as each passes overhead, and thereby improves the accuracy.
Having them on US Soil isn't as bad as you might think. It subjects them to US control, Monitoring, and even taking them down should the situation warrant. It also makes GLONASS more useful/accurate in the US. (Many mobile phones can use GLONASS today). No way would the Russian's be allowed to put up a black-box installation. We would insist on knowing everything about what is going on in there).
If you have a cold war outlook on Russia, just remember the old adage of keeping your Friends close and your Enemies closer.
It seems unnecessary if you ask me. But then Russia doesn't have that many friends or wide spread bases for this type of installation in the western hemisphere these days. Cuba, and maybe one or two central american countries might be willing.
It also seems odd, that the CIA would let Obama would hand this to the Russians just to prop up his image. They probably have enough goods on him to prevent it. I doubt the American people would stand for it anyway, and Obama would be forced to tuck tail and run away from it.