Posted on 05/15/2023 5:01:21 AM PDT by tlozo
Ireland is likely to join a new Nato initiative to monitor and protect undersea cables running through Irish waters against potential Russian sabotage, according to sources familiar with discussions in Government.
Ireland is a member of the Nato-led Partnership for Peace, which enables non-Nato members to co-operate with the alliance on specific projects. That membership, in place since 1999, is currently being renewed and a new Nato project called the Critical Undersea Infrastructure Cell is likely to part of the discussions.
It’s expected that Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Micheál Martin and officials will discuss the potential for joining the Nato project in the coming months but one senior source said it would be surprising if he did not recommend joining, given the current context.
Announcing the initiative earlier this year, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said “the centre will facilitate engagement with industry and bring key military and civilian stakeholders together”.
Nato said it would “share best practices, leverage innovative technologies and boost the security of allied undersea infrastructure”.
Ireland has little if any means of protecting the undersea cables which carry internet traffic between the US and Europe and pass through Irish waters off the south and west coasts. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and especially since the sabotage of an undersea gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea last year – for which all sides deny responsibility – concern has been growing in western countries about the vulnerability of the network of undersea cables.
There has been concern that Russian vessels have been mapping the cables to make sabotage possible. Last week, the Defence Forces confirmed they were monitoring the presence of four Russian ships in the exclusive economic zone which extends over 200 miles off the west coast. The ships were observed by an Air Corps patrol aircraft and Naval Service’s LE George Bernard Shaw.
Nato has also conducted a number of exercises in the north Atlantic aimed at protecting subsea infrastructure. In addition, the alliance last week began an annual exercise in the north Atlantic called Formidable Shield.
“Throughout Formidable Shield, allied and partner forces will participate in a series of live-fire events against subsonic, supersonic and ballistic targets, incorporating multiple allied ships, ground forces and aviation assets working across battlespaces to deliver effects and effectively accomplish exercise objectives,” Nato said in a statement.
Several Russian military ships were observed close to the Nord Stream pipelines in the days before the gas links between Russia and Europe were blown up last year.
A Russian tugboat SB-123 capable of launching and rescuing mini-submarines was seen near the pipelines on September 21st and 22nd, shortly before the explosions on September 26th, according to an investigation by four Nordic state broadcasters based on intercepted radio messages.
Denmark’s overall military command authority confirmed to the Financial Times that it had taken 26 pictures of the special Russian ship SS-750, which had a rescue mini-submarine on board, on September 22nd to the east of the Danish island of Bornholm, close to where the sabotage of the twin pipelines took place.
Operation Ivy Bells
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells
Operation Ivy Bells was a joint United States Navy, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and National Security Agency (NSA) mission whose objective was to place wire taps on Soviet underwater communication lines during the Cold War.[1]
The tapping of the Soviet naval cable was so secret that most sailors involved did not have the security clearance needed to know about it. A cover story was thus created to disguise the actual mission: it was claimed that the spy submarines were sent to the Soviet naval range in the Sea of Okhotsk to recover the Soviet SS-N-12 Sandbox supersonic anti-ship missile (AShM) debris so that countermeasures could be developed.
Although created as a cover story, this mission was actually carried out with great success: U.S. Navy divers recovered all[citation needed] of the SS-N-12 debris, with the largest debris no larger than six inches (150 mm), and a total of more than two million pieces. The debris was taken to the U.S. and reconstructed at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Based on these pieces, at least one sample was reverse engineered. It was discovered that the SS-N-12 AShM was guided by radar only, and the infrared guidance previously suspected did not exist.[3]
Compromise
This operation was compromised by Ronald Pelton, a 44-year-old veteran of the NSA, who was fluent in Russian. At the time, Pelton was $65,000 ($214,000 today) in debt, and had filed for personal bankruptcy just three months before he resigned. With only a few hundred dollars in the bank, Pelton walked into the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. in January 1980, and offered to sell what he knew to the KGB for money.
Reading between the line: The Democrats are fixing to sabotage the cables and blame the Russians.
They better join quickly, NATO will be gone by the Fall.
> …protect undersea cables running through Irish waters against potential Russian sabotage <
Better: … protect undersea cables running through Irish waters against potential Russian or false-flag sabotage
Not that Ireland can do much against a determined CIA operation.
Who could blame Russia for sabotaging undersea cables after the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream Pipelines? One good turn deserves the “favor” to be repaid.
So many are convinced Russia is “on the ropes” it is of great strategic benefit to Russia. Russia is in the perfect position to suddenly pull the rug out from under the arrogant West.
As Sun-tzu wrote over 2,000 years ago in the Art of War, “when you are strong, appear weak.” He also said, “All warfare is based on deception.”
The West cannot win in Ukraine using deception alone. You cannot win a war deceiving yourself and your allies.
Ireland supported Hitler.
As I’m sure you know, Ireland was neural during WW II. But you’re not all that far off the mark. Ireland did little to help the Allied cause. That’s puzzling. Ireland had to know that should Germany win, Ireland would turn into just another Nazi puppet state, perhaps something like Vichy France.
Some folks ascribe Ireland’s neutrality to Prime Minister de Valera’s hatred of the British.
When Hitler’s death was first announced, de Valera sent his personal condolences to Germany. Can’t ascribe that to hatred of the British. And it’s tough to buy the argument that it was just standard protocol. After all, many Nazi atrocities were known by that time.
Its not puzzling Brits were still occupying part of Ireland.
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