Washington's secret plan. 6,000 Starlinks were smuggled

Donald Trump's administration secretly sent 6,000 to Iran. Starlink terminals after the Iranian regime suppressed demonstrations in January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. It was supposed to be a reaction to cutting off opponents of the regime from the Internet.

As the newspaper reported, citing sources in the Trump administration, approximately 6,000 were smuggled to Iran in January. satellite Internet sets, which is to be the first such case. According to “WSJ”, the kits were purchased by the Department of State in January, and they were sent after the authorities in Tehran brutally suppressed anti-government demonstrations. The money for the purchase was reportedly diverted from other internet freedom programs in Iran.

According to the newspaper, President Donald Trump knew about the deliveries, but it is unclear whether he directly approved the plan. Trump and Elon Musk, the owner of the SpaceX company responsible for the Starlink network, talked in January about providing Internet access to Iranians.

As “WSJ” points out, owning Starlinks is illegal in Iran and can result in a long-term sentence, and law enforcement agencies have recently been searching the roofs of houses and apartment blocks in search of terminals. Nevertheless, it is estimated that tens of thousands of Iranians have them, for whom it is a way to circumvent government censorship and blockades. According to experts quoted by the daily, unlike VPN, an alternative method of bypassing restrictions, satellite Internet also works when the traditional network is turned off throughout the country.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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