(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The tangled web of Starlink - Starshield - Russia - NLRB and FCC Brendan Carr [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-16
Last evening, Rachel Maddow had on Daniel Berulis, an IT employee at the NLRB, and his lawyer, Andrew Bakaj. Berulis laid out the incredible scenario that took place when DOGE took over the NLRB computer network and what he observed and recorded.
He made several startling claims. One was that minutes after DOGE disabled network security and created new login accounts, there were repeated attempts to log into the system with an IP address from Russia, but was thwarted by the block still in place that prevented logins from outside the U.S. The hacker or bot had a valid login and password. Only the country block stopped him.
10GB spike - NPR
Then Berulis watched network traffic and saw a 10GB spike that he said were almost all text files being transmitted out of the network. The NLRB system has very sensitive information such as unions pursuing actions against employers, personal information on employees, company information, and more. It's a secure network for that reason. DOGE turned off all that security while they were accessing data and someone, or something, transmitted that data somewhere, whose path was obscured, even to Berulis.
During the interview, Berulis asserted that DOGE infrastructure was "connected to Starlink," allowing a data path to anywhere Elon Musk directed it. For that reason, Berulis said the U.S. Dept. of Defense stopped using Starlink.
The military version is called Starshield. These are classified satellites that also provide target tracking, optical and radio reconnaissance, and early missile warning. There isn't really much known about Starshield, but SpaceX is still heavily involved. Does SpaceX know what data is going through these satellites and control them? Nobody knows. It's all classified.
So when Daniel Berulis said the military stopped using Starlink, did he mean just Starlink, or Starlink and Starshield? If the military can't trust Starlink, can they trust Starshield? We have to leave that open because the only one we can talk to right now about it is Daniel Berulis. How would he know about the Defense Department was no longer using Starlink? NLRB isn't that kind of agency. Only if the Defense Dept. sent out a memo to that effect, like they did about not using Signal. But that would have been to so many agencies and personnel that we would have heard about it long ago. And it might have put Starlink out of business.
Daniel Berulis made his complaint to Congress some time ago. When he tried to bring attention to higher-ups at the NLRB, one day he found a note taped to his door, an apartment he'd only had for two months, and had told few people about. The threatening note had personal details and pictures from overhead of him walking his dog, obviously taken by a drone.
NPR has an article a mile long that has more information than you can digest. It was the basis for Rachel Maddow's segment giving an overview before interviewing Berulis and his lawyer.
"The whistleblower's account is corroborated by internal documentation and was reviewed by 11 technical experts across government agencies and the private sector."
This was Carr's avatar on his X account. He's changed it, finally.
It really happened. Now that you've all that background, why bring up Brendan Carr?
Brendan Carr is the Chaiman of the Federal Communications Commission. He wrote the FCC section of Project 2025. He's currently investigating Disney and ABC, CBS, YouTube TV, starting with DEI civil rights discrimination, and YouTube TV not carrying a small religious broadcaster. He's following through on Donald Trump's news media enemies list.
NBC and MSNBC couldn't confirm what Berulis said about the Defense Dept. dropping Starlink, but let's just say he's reliable and he wouldn't have said it if he wasn't sure. No reason to just make it up.
What the story here is that Starlink could be already compromised by the Russians. Starlink can now make your cell phone a satellite phone. Starlink has requested to be able to use a more powerful signal to boost this and the internet operation. Who controls that? The FCC.
Carr has warned EU members that if they are hesitant about using Elon Musk's Starlink, then they will have to choose between the U.S. and Chinese technology. That isn't quite true because Amazon is ready to start putting satellites up for it's own internet system, called Project Kuiper.
​Carr has said, "Allied western democracies" need to "focus on the real long-term bogey: the rise of the Chinese Communist Party."
Quite rightly, the EU wonders if Starlink is reliable after the Trump Administration threatened to turn off Ukraine's access to Starlink. There was already the one incident where Musk turned off Starlink over the Black Sea so Ukrainian water drones couldn't attack Russian ships. Musk said he did it to prevent the war from escalating, but that doesn't wash with reality.
Musk also had personal phone calls with Putin. Just like Trump did before he became president. What goes on in these calls I wonder?
Carr said, "If you're concerned about Starlink, just wait for the CCP's version, then you'll really be worried."
U.K. telecom companies BT and Vigin Media 02 have been testing Starlink for mobile and internet, but there's no deal yet.
The relationship between Elon Musk and Brendan Carr goes back a ways. During the first Trump term, the FCC tried to direct a billion dollars to Musk to deliver Starlink access to traffic medians and airport parking lots. The Biden FCC clawed those back. Biden was going for fiber optic in rural areas to bring them into the internet world. Trump has canceled that in favor of, guess who, Starlink.
Trump, Carr and Musk are buddies.
There is a European based alternative called Eutelsat's OneWeb. They just need to get additional launch capabilities to get theirs in orbit. Ukraine is already looking to them as an alternative to Starlink.
Carr isn't making any friends when he accuses the Europeans of protectionism and an anti-American attitude. He forgets Trump's tariffs are pure protectionism.
The whistleblower's claim makes it sound like Starlink has been compromised by Russia and is a data hose for information. The other possibility is that Musk is feeding the Russians deliberately. Either way, Russia is getting American data and sifting through it. Carr is acting like a used car(r) salesman drumming up business for Musk and SpaceX's Starlink.
If this is all true about Starlink, what about Starshield? Supposedly, Musk doesn't have the security clearance to know about the classified payloads SpaceX rockets put into orbit. But that was before Trump took office. It's a totally different world today.
If Biden were still President, action based on the whistleblower would be taken immediately. A Defense Dept. with Pete Hegseth in charge, this could just be ignored until a Congressional investigation occurs.
So I thought I'd look up if anyone had scheduled one and found still another NPR article only minutes old. DOGE has informed the NLRB that two DOGE employees have been assigned to the NLRB by the GSA and will work remotely. The raises all kinds of red flags just prior to a real investigation starting. The White House claims this is old news and everybody had been informed that two DOGE's would be assigned to each agency. That's actually true. But the timing is so suspicious.
After the first NPR story Rep. Gerry Connolly called for an investigation. He said DOGE "may be engaged in technological malfeasance and illegal activity." He asks Inspectors General to answer a number of questions regarding how DOGE may have violated federal law. NPR lists two journalist Signal accounts for anyone with info at the end of the new article.
Trump, Musk, Carr, Starlink, Starshield, NLRB, and the Russians. It's too crazy to make out the truth, except for Daniel Berulis. Can Connolly and Congress put a halt to the two DOGE's getting access again? If they're working remotely, from where? As long as there is the country block, it won't be from Russia.
That's not very reassuring.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/16/2316846/-The-tangled-web-of-Starlink-Starshield-Russia-NLRB-and-FCC-Brendan-Carr?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
