Reports on Musk's Starlink use reveal serious national security concerns – Bloomberg
The US Senate Armed Services Committee, which is investigating Elon Musk's restriction of Starlink satellite internet service near Russian-occupied Crimea to thwart Ukraine's attack, says it has identified serious national security liability issues.
Source: Bloomberg
Committee Chairman Jack Reed said that the reports on the use of Starlink had exposed "serious national-security liability issues and the committee is engaged on this issue."
Jack Reed also said that the committee would look at the issue more broadly, including "the outsized role Mr. Musk and his company have taken here".
"Neither Elon Musk, nor any private citizen, can have the last word when it comes to U.S. national security," Reed said.
Other Democratic senators on the committee are demanding answers from the Defence Department as to why Musk, and not a US government official, was the one to decide when Ukraine could use the satellite network.
Bloomberg recalls that earlier this week, Musk said he would have extended Starlink to Ukrainians in Crimea if President Joe Biden had ordered him to do so, but no such directive was given.
Musk said that Starlink for Crimea was cut off because of US sanctions against Russia.
Background:
- Earlier, CNN, which obtained an excerpt from Musk's biography written by American journalist and author Walter Isaacson, said that Elon Musk had thwarted the Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol in 2022 by disconnecting Starlink services.
- Musk later said that he had transferred some of Starlink's equipment and services to the Pentagon's control.
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