Bush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 20:56:06 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote in
GDmwd.582233$D%.446179@attbi_s51::

This is news?

The President has always had broad powers in times of national emergency,
and can disable (or enable) some or all parts of the national airspace --
including GPS, ILS, VOR, and NDB.

If you had read the news provided at the link in the original article,
you'd know:

The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security
Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this
month.

I'm sure they've got some contingencies to shut down access to the internet, for that matter.

You haven't a clue how the Internet operates. There is no Internet
central authority.

The President has always had broad powers in times of national emergency,
and can disable (or enable) some or all parts of the national airspace --
including GPS, ILS, VOR, and NDB.

If you had read the news provided at the link in the original article,
you'd know:

The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security
Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this
month.

I did read the article, and these directives are nothing new. What's new is
the media -- and you -- noticing them.

I'm sure they've got some contingencies to shut down access to the
internet, for that matter.

You haven't a clue how the Internet operates. There is no Internet
central authority.

I didn't say they could shut down the internet. I said they would shut down
your ACCESS to the internet. Surely you aren't so gullible as to believe
that the government couldn't shut down AOL, Mediacom, Qwest, and the dozen
or so other ISPs that provide 95% of Americans with internet access in time
of national emergency?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

I didn't say they could shut down the internet. I said they would shut
down
your ACCESS to the internet. Surely you aren't so gullible as to believe
that the government couldn't shut down AOL, Mediacom, Qwest, and the dozen
or so other ISPs that provide 95% of Americans with internet access in
time of national emergency?

After dealing with numerous backbone firms: I seriously doubt that Qwest
could easily/quickly shut down Qwest. THe same is true for any of the
other backbones. AOL...maybe. It's a different kind of service, and one
could probably "attack" it via the mechanism it uses for
authentication/authorization.

- Andrew

One thermonuclear device going off at say 100,000' will wipe out communications over a very wide area.


"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message online.com...
Jay Honeck wrote:

I didn't say they could shut down the internet. I said they would shut
down
your ACCESS to the internet. Surely you aren't so gullible as to believe
that the government couldn't shut down AOL, Mediacom, Qwest, and the dozen
or so other ISPs that provide 95% of Americans with internet access in
time of national emergency?

After dealing with numerous backbone firms: I seriously doubt that Qwest
could easily/quickly shut down Qwest. THe same is true for any of the
other backbones. AOL...maybe. It's a different kind of service, and one
could probably "attack" it via the mechanism it uses for
authentication/authorization.

- Andrew

Blueskies wrote:

One thermonuclear device going off at say 100,000' will wipe out
communications over a very wide area.

A lot of the EMP damage comes from the impulse generated over long cables.
Fiber obviously lacks this problem.

Still, there are other issues (even if we ignore the policital backlash of a
US President EMPing the US {8^). For one, we'd lose a lot of our orbital
traffic (are the GPS satellites hardened against EMP?).

Scientific American did an article on this subject not too many months back.

- Andrew

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 21:31:57 -0500, Andrew Gideon
wrote in ne.com::

(are the GPS satellites hardened against EMP?)

Protection circuits are off the shell items:
http://www.meteolabor.ch/e/uss220e.htm . The GPS satellites, being
military in origin, would certainly include them.

You haven't a clue how the Internet operates. There is no Internet
central authority.

Not that many border-gateway routers connecting US backbones to the rest of
the country though, which becomes a different argument. Unlikely, but not
overly difficult to isolate the USA from the internet if need be.

Cockpit Colin wrote:


You haven't a clue how the Internet operates. There is no Internet
central authority.

Not that many border-gateway routers connecting US backbones to the rest
of the country though, which becomes a different argument. Unlikely, but
not overly difficult to isolate the USA from the internet if need be.

You might be surprised. I'm aware of some very regional (ie. not too large)
"backbones" in the NYC area that have their own connectivity to some ASN
outside of the US.

Now, NYC might be unusual in the intercontinental traffic it generates. But
not *that* unusual. I expect many MANs now have pretty widespread
peerings.

- Andrew