A cargo ship, linked to the Russian ghost fleet, which has been investigated for suspicious activity in the Baltic was spotted by an Irish Air Corps aircraft dropping an anchor close to an undersea cable in Irish waters.
It has emerged that the incident earlier this year occured in waters off the north east coast. The Air Corps had dispatched an aircraft to monitor its movements as it is a list of Russian related vessels.
There has been several incidents in the Baltic Sea where anchors, dropped by Russian linked vessels, have damaged critical internet cables.
The Air Corps was able to film the ship, dropping the anchor in the area, and following communication from the Irish crew the cargo vessel fled. It was not confirmed if the ship was intentionally targeting undersea infrastructure or if it was a case of bad seamanship.
The ship, sailing under a flag from Caribbean region, had been in trouble in the Baltic Sea in the same month. German authorities escorted it out of the area along with Swedish and Danish naval colleagues.
On that occasion she was sailing from St Petersburg en route through the waters near Gotland, an island off Sweden.
The sighting of it in Irish waters was made earlier this year and it was being monitored after intelligence was shared from a friendly nation with the Irish State.
An Irish Air Corps maritime patrol vessel was despatched to keep watch – it is understood that they recorded it, using specialist camera equipment, as it dropped the anchor.
It is understood the ship was contacted by radio by the Irish Defence Forces and directed to haul its anchor back up and it departed the area.
The Journal has learned that the ship is back in Irish waters and is heading towards the west coast.
It is understood that the ship has steamed from the Bay of Biscay and is currently off the Cork and Kerry coast.
Using an open source flight monitoring service The Journal was able to follow an Air Corps CASA 295 aircraft which went to a location near the ship this afternoon.
This publication has previously revealed that Ireland held a major exercise behind closed doors to test how Ireland will deal with a complete loss of the internet after a targeted attack.
It is understood that the event, known as a tabletop exercise, was held in February and involved multiple Government departments and agencies including the Defence Forces, An Garda Síochána and other emergency services.
The scenario was a concerted cyber attack which was combined with the loss of multiple undersea cables.
There are a large amount of fibre optic internet cables connecting Europe to the US and other parts of the world running through Irish waters. They carry all high speed internet traffic, including banking and other critical data.
It’s not just US though. I think a sovereign country should have a say in who they trade with and who they do not. Thinking USA somehow holds the puppet strings was probably plausible before Trump, but right now I’m simply surprised they have managed to survive this far without collapsing completely. It’s not in any way plausible that the country led by that baffoon, doing all the things he’s doing currently, is somehow the puppet master of the western world, straight dictating who does what.
No, it’s been a choice by the EU to also join USA (or is it the other way around? I think the US propaganda machine could’ve managed to make it seem like US-led effort, but is it?) in these economical battles against an aggressor attacking a sovereign European country. And it simply makes sense, don’t need any large conspiracies to explain that. Just sensible. Europe defending Europe.
Regarding Israel though… I guess the military power of the US, no matter how much of a buffoon is ultimately at the helm, causes some to consider twice before putting on sanctions against them. But that image is largely falling apart right now, and I’d love to see Europe uniting in sanctions against Israel, too. Those disregarding others’ sovereignty and attempting to assimilate them, deserve nothing good from us or as many of others we can sway.
I mean they are the single most powerful military force in the world right now, with no one even close to equal them. It holds some weight necessarily, when they choose to do something. Or choose not to do something.
But that alone being enough to simply dictate what other nations do? I think not. And it’s becoming more and more clear to me that it probably never was like that. But they have a ridiculously large backing for soft power too. Maybe this image we have about this is purposefully build to make murica seem like such a power player. Maybe it’s all just bark, little bite? They do have the biggest set of teeth though, so if they do bite, it might hurt unless you have a lot of friends to stand with you.
The original comment was removed but I'm guessing the poster was trying to say the US is some scheming puppeteer of foreign countries to make this happen?
LMAO I could have believed that around 2005.
You could have even swung that convincingly in 2010.
This administration wouldn't know what a puppet IS without the hand shoved up their asses drawing some pictures for them. They are the puppets. Half of them have an education in name only, their diplomas and degrees were paid for by status or money. Their positions secured through ass kissing and the ability to say "yes master whatever you wish"
You are spot on with your assessment of the military industrial complex. In my youth I enlisted, and it's an entirely different beast from the inside. Simultaneously more and less coordinated than you thought, just in different areas. Day-to-day sure things might get fucked up, a clerical error makes comical goofs and endless maintenance delays... But once "war were declared" then I have never seen anything that moves in coordination more smoothly except literal machines.
Even with a group of idiots at the wheel, they aren't the ones with boots on the ground. They aren't the ones coordinating the logistics. If they decided to go to war, I would HOPE enough of the military would refuse to cooperate that any efforts fail before they get off the ground. I would have absolutely gone AWOL if the administration declared war on an EU nation. Not only do I have friends there, I know enough about them to know if we're fighting, they aren't the ones who started it.
I can only hope that the people in the military now would just decline any orders to invade a foreign country based on trade bullshit from an orange blob.
All that said, if they DID decide to start shit, I fully believe the EU is capable of defending its home from invasion, if not just blitzkrieg-era bombardment.
You could stop the armies, but not the navies.
Yeah that was how I read it, and I assume from the downvotes a lot of others too, but I guess it was a bit ambiguous. To be fair, here’s their elaboration: (Comment)
Make of that what you will.
I made no comment about the EU, only that 1. the US's sanctions necessitate shadow fleets 2. The US's sanctions are orthogonal to international law.
You can see deleted comments by clicking here:
I am making no prescriptions of what should be, the question is "why does Russia have a shadowfleet", I'm describing the fact that the US's comprehensive sanctions have more teeth because they sanction countries for violating them and are unrelated to international law, hence why such a country requires a shadowfleet to trade with anyone who isn't already sanctioned by the US.
The EU and UK have their own sanctions, but they only reflect the EU's willingness to do business with Russia, not their willingness/ability to cut off anyone else who does business with Russia.
Fair enough, I see your point now. I don’t know enough about the US side of the sanctions, or more in-depth details from any side, so I can’t say if that is wrong or right. But I do know that the wording in your earlier comment had very different implications than what you are now saying. But maybe that’s on me for not asking clarifications.