I have just scanned this whole thread - it is the most amazing analysis of technical details I have e ver seen
national security also sean I am taking this in the sense of what the hell could these russian diplomats be doing? I have been a nanog reader since this list began in the spring of 1995 i believe remember i am parsing comments from the russian side as well i met aleksei soldatov at the kurchatov institute for the first time in april 1992. about 3 days earlier i met the demos guys who told soldatov suggested to soldatov that he should met me at kurchatov I followed the development of the russian internet very closely between April 1992 and 1999 not much after that. meanwhile i am well aware of international fiber optic cables geographic issues of same — see telegeography for example, His coordinates etc interception of cable via submarine etc see the US Sub named Jimmy carter I visited Russia for the first time in 1964 my dissertation completed in 1972 dis on site work for the Phd in Russia for 2 months summer of 1970 including pushkinskii Dom Thanks to steve Goldstein of NSF I received an invite to attend the second Nato sponsored conference on the future e of the russian internet met larry land weber there at Golitsyno - the conf was sept 30 to Oct 2 1994 The point? I have long experience with my Cook Report on Internet Protocol in April 1992 issue #1 and an even lon\ger experience with russian history language and culture I am also well aware this message will be readable by a ver large number of people both here and abroad. even visited the westin bldg In i think 1994. take a bow Sean!! :-) > On Jun 11, 2017, at 11:38 AM, Gordon Cook <c...@cookreport.com> wrote: > > Hi Sean > > You and I first met when i was at OIA about 1992 LOONG TIME ago > > Always thought of you as brilliant collector of info as well as analyst > there of > > this question of yours is absolutely brilliant > > look at the responses (more) than 45!!! > > > > > > >> On Jun 1, 2017, at 2:02 PM, Sean Donelan <s...@donelan.com> wrote: >> >> >> There must be a perfectly logical explanation.... Yes, people in the >> industry know where the choke points are. But the choke points aren't always >> the most obvious places. Its kinda a weird for diplomats to show up there. >> >> On the other hand, I've been a fiber optic tourist. I've visited many >> critical choke points in the USA and other countries, and even took selfies >> :-) >> >> >> http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/01/russia-spies-espionage-trump-239003 >> >> In the throes of the 2016 campaign, the FBI found itself with an escalating >> problem: Russian diplomats, whose travel was supposed to be tracked by the >> State Department, were going missing. >> >> The diplomats, widely assumed to be intelligence operatives, would >> eventually turn up in odd places, often in middle-of-nowhere USA. One was >> found on a beach, nowhere near where he was supposed to be. In one >> particularly bizarre case, relayed by a U.S. intelligence official, another >> turned up wandering around in the middle of the desert. Interestingly, both >> seemed to be lingering where underground fiber-optic cables tend to run. >> >> According to another U.S. intelligence official, “They find these guys >> driving around in circles in Kansas. It’s a pretty aggressive effort.” >> >> It’s a trend that has led intelligence officials to conclude that the >> Kremlin is waging a quiet effort to map the United States’ >> telecommunications infrastructure, perhaps preparing for an opportunity to >> disrupt it. >> > >