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Iran is likely jamming Starlink

timesofisrael.com

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Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#261

Post by oldandboring »

feb012025 wrote: post #256
oldandboring wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The activists want the excessive death and suffering to end in Palestine, and they want to avoid death and suffering in Iran. And yet they are silent on the death and suffering in: Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Congo, Myanmar, Libya. Just to name current active conflicts where people are dying, to say nothing of all the others that have flared up and subsided in my decades on this earth as I've watched "a…

In none of those conflicts you mentioned does the US act as the main benefactor to the side causing excessive suffering. And in none of those conflicts do they lobby aggressively for the support of US politicians. Considering that reality, does it not make sense that Americans would be more vocal when it comes to this conflict, because we actually have agency to affect it? I genuinely want to know what your response…

> In none of those conflicts you mentioned does the US act as the main benefactor to the side causing excessive suffering.

The United States is far and away the Saudis' most important and pivotal ally. We almost single-handedly ensure their security and and diplomatic standing. Now, many believe the "side causing excessive suffering" in that conflict is actually the Houthis. I would be interested to know if you fall in that camp, while (it would seem) not feeling the same way about Hamas, as that would do a better job of making my point than I could ever do on my own.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#262

Post by scottyah »

ozlikethewizard wrote: post #45
ACCount37 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink isn't perfect, but at least it doesn't go for "it's so not our problem, we'll just make sure that every single VPN exit point Iranians use is GeoIP'd as Iran in our systems" like Google tends to, or "let's lick every authoritarian boot, we control the app distribution and our users will suck it up" like Apple does. Not even Starlink has the balls to oppose the likes of Russia and China directly - they aren't…

I'm unfortunately inclined to not look at their actions so favourably. They operate solely in jurisdictions where the US state supports open destabilization, and dont where the political ramifications would be too high for the US. Makes them little more than an extension of the US imperialist structure. And this makes sense for an organization thats so highly reliant on federal support, vs Apple and Google who only h…

> They operate solely in jurisdictions where the US state supports open destabilization

Could you expand on that? Are you saying that the US state wants destabilization in every place that Starlink is accessible? Like the UK, Australia, and USA itself? Which group are you considering the "US state" for that?

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#263

Post by scottyah »

woodruffw wrote: post #146
paganel wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I are private citizens, he’s former US Secretary of State, let’s quit the charade.

“Former” is operative. I don’t see any reason to believe that Pompeo has special insider knowledge here, and sharing it makes zero sense even if he did. The more parsimonious explanation is that he’s a sidelined grifter whose only way to stay relevant is to speculate on social media.

After reading Walter Isaacson's biography of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, I would be extremely surprised to find that a former Secretary of State was suddenly out of the loop on major events.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#264

Post by codezero »

bulbar wrote: post #33
epistasis wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever read an article using the term "US regime," as that usually refers to an undemocratic or authoritarian government. You might want to clean up your information diet if you're reading lots of articles over the years with that term... Yes it is a value judgement, but Iran's government is nothing if not oppressive and authoritarian. Until recently the US had taken pride in being nothing like a reg…

> Until recently the US had taken pride in being nothing like a regime, but that may change in the coming years. I tend to believe the US is already past that point. It's just people are not really realizing that yet. Might take the next election for them to realize. That will be to late however. I hope so much that this is wrong and the US turns out to be more resilient than it looks like from the outside though.

This is my belief as well. My friend fled Syria after her mother was shot in the stomach by the police at the police station for asking to see her brother (I’m sure more was involved) and I have always kept in mind to look out for red lines being crossed at faster rates than before.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#265

Post by scottyah »

nradov wrote: post #130
Noaidi wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This whole stalink for military use (Starshield) was a scam Elon sold the military from the beginning. Just like his dumb ass tunnels and his self driving cars. He is putting the military at risk.

Is there any actual evidence that Starshield doesn't work substantially as promised?

If you do find some, I encourage you to investigate the source thoroughly and with suspicion.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#266

Post by scottyah »

overfeed wrote: post #169
Geee wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starlink uses beamforming with directional antenna arrays, so it should be rather difficult to jam compared to omnidirectional antennas. It's basically a dish pointed at the satellite, so the jammer should be in between to work. Antenna arrays aren't perfect so it still picks up some energy omnidirectionally, but it should be possible to shield it with some metal plates in a way that only sky is visible. https://en.w…

> basically a dish pointed at the satellite, so the jammer should be in between to work. Which isn't hard to do if you have the budget of a government. Directional antennae, GPS and a helicopter/Cessna flying patterns over a metro. Beams from the terminal are constantly scanning the sky chasing the constellations. A higher hit rate option would be a fleet of low altitude drones taking high-res pictures of the ground,…

My starlink works fine under a ceramic tinted window that blocks 95% of UV and visible light, so you'd need a pretty fancy SAR camera for your fleet of drones.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#267

Post by kennykartman »

lee_ars wrote: post #248
kennykartman wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing a bit the devil's advocate here, but > This is why all of those "national great firewalls" shouldn't exist in the first place This is a kind of colonialist thinking that is, IMO, a problem in the western society. There are indeed drawbacks in a lack of freedom, but assuming that a government should not be able to filter the content diffused to the population is wrong in principle. You don't get to choose what…

> There are indeed drawbacks in a lack of freedom, but assuming that a government should not be able to filter the content diffused to the population is wrong in principle. Why?

It boils down to what one considers to be relevant for humans: I think that well being is more important than freedom. Historically, freedom was not a predominant part in human societies. On the contrary: slavery, kingdoms, empires, took part in human history more than freedom. Authoritarian government is not wrong per se, as long as people are well. In the same way, freedom of knowledge anything at any time is not necessary good. Actually, the ability to immediately access any content, beneficial or not, is something that humans acquired very recently in their history, and it's absolutely not clear that this is in fact something good in the long term. I think it is, but it's just speculation. Being conservative and NOT giving free communication is, I think, a more sensible default for a government. Also, there are cases where we already know that freedom doesn't help: CSAM, revenge porn, and other nasty stuff. ()

() edit: no, I was partly mistaken with these examples. I provided example of things that are known and widely accepted to be damaging of other liberties, while I meant to provide something more subtle, like fake news.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#268

Post by tim-tday »

falaki wrote: post #259

Some personal observations as I am in touch with a few folks inside Iran through Starlink. 1. The jamming/disruption is local to large cities most notably the capital, Tehran. 2. Even in Tehran it is not complete and my friends are able to send and receive messages. Uploading videos is harder. 3. The regime is now raiding homes that they suspect have Starlink terminals. I don't know how they identify them but I do wo…

If you have the ability to jam a signal you have the ability to triangulate the source of a signal.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#269

Post by kennykartman »

ushtaritk421 wrote: post #247
kennykartman wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing a bit the devil's advocate here, but > This is why all of those "national great firewalls" shouldn't exist in the first place This is a kind of colonialist thinking that is, IMO, a problem in the western society. There are indeed drawbacks in a lack of freedom, but assuming that a government should not be able to filter the content diffused to the population is wrong in principle. You don't get to choose what…

Yes, as an American I think that all forms of government that are not liberal democracy basically are illegitimate. We can have relationships of convenience with other governments, but it should be known by such governments somewhere in the back of their minds that we would prefer to see them replaced by a liberal democracy. The Iranian state has not shown itself to be one that is very convenient for us to temporaril…

The US democracy is quite weird, though, because it's IMHO quite far from the people: billionaires can influence the outcomes of elections by steering the votes where the most paying candidate (or the most knowledgeable, or someone else with other skills) desires. This is not something that people can influence easily, so I find hard to believe that a government is legitimate just by the label on the packaging.

I won't go down the path of "fair elections", since I don't think it applies to USA.

Re: Iran is likely jamming Starlink

#270

Post by kennykartman »

liamwire wrote: post #245
kennykartman wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing a bit the devil's advocate here, but > This is why all of those "national great firewalls" shouldn't exist in the first place This is a kind of colonialist thinking that is, IMO, a problem in the western society. There are indeed drawbacks in a lack of freedom, but assuming that a government should not be able to filter the content diffused to the population is wrong in principle. You don't get to choose what…

It takes an incredible stretch of the imagination to conflate colonialism with freedom, when the two couldn't be more at odds, definitionally.

I'm not conflating them.
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