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September 1, 2021
 

'Operation Starfall' Introduced By Republicans In Congress Warns Of 'Rogue Regimes Shutting Down The Internet' And 'Tyrants Shutting Off The Lights'

- Is The 'Internet Kill Switch' About To Go Live? Never Think It Can't Happen In America 


By Stefan Stanford - All News Pipeline - Live Free Or Die

Just days ago on August 27th, a very interesting and concerning bill was introduced before the US House of Representatives, H.R.5123 - The American Freedom and Internet Access Act of 2021, by Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and a dozen other Republican lawmakers as heard in the 1st video at the bottom of this story.

While internet freedom and the ability of Americans to access the internet and alternative information free of restrictions sound like a great idea, once we dug a little bit deeper, we've found that something sinister is lurking behind the scenes. 

With H.R. 5123 also known as 'Operation Starfall', this new Fox News story published on Tuesday about 'Operation Starfall' gave us a look from behind the scenes at what might be ahead, and to understand it properly, we need to read very closely 'both the lines and between the lines'. From Fox News before we continue.: 

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and a dozen Republican lawmakers are set to launch a plan that would provide access to wireless communications abroad to ensure individuals can use cellular devices amidst natural disasters or when "rogue regimes" shut down internet access

Salazar, R-Fla., is expected to roll out the "American Freedom and Internet Access Act of 2021" on Tuesday—also known as "Operation Starfall." 

Fox News obtained a copy of the legislation, which would deploy stratospheric balloons, aerostats, or satellite technology capable of rapidly delivering wireless internet anywhere on the planet, from the stratosphere, or higher. 

The bill would require the secretary of the Air Force, in consultation with the chief of Space Operations, to develop and being the implementation of the plan. Salazar’s office says the bill is "critical to protecting the safety and wellbeing of American citizens at home and abroad." 

"The U.S. cannot stand by when tyrants shut off the lights and when American security is at risk," a Salazar aide told Fox News, saying that Congress "must act to ensure we have a clear strategy to deploy in a time of crisis." 

The aide said "Operation Starfall" would "improve homeland security and be ready to restore internet, freedom, and prosperity to those in need." 

The bill, according to a Salazar aide, would have both domestic and foreign policy functions—noting that the strategic plan could also be deployed in the United States in the wake of floods, hurricanes, or wildfire devastation when local communications infrastructure is disabled

With that Fox News story directly referencing 'rogue regimes shutting down internet access' as well as 'tyrants shutting off the lights', the independent media has long warned of the globalists working on an 'internet kill switch' to kill Americans access to the real information we can get online, un-poisoned by the mainstream media's/democrat party's 'spin factory'. So are the globalists, who refuse to follow the US Constitution, about to impose it upon America?

And while some might argue that there is no such thing as an 'internet kill switch', back in August of 2020, the website 'Access Now' argued 'it's time to take away Trump's internet kill switch' (story has since been updated since Biden got into office.) While all the way back in 2010, BBC published a story titled "Should Obama's 'internet kill switch power be curbed?"

And does anyone really think that out in the open totalitarian nations such as China and the many others across our planet in 2021 don't have an 'internet kill switch'? From Wikipedia.: 

An Internet kill switch is a countermeasure concept of activating a single shut off mechanism for all Internet traffic. 

The concept behind having a kill switch is based on creating a single point of control (i.e. a switch) for a single authority to control or shut down the Internet in order to protect it or its users. 

In the United States, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Nominet Trust have criticized proposals for implementing the idea so far.

China: Internet censorship in China § Usage of Internet kill switch. China has completely shut down Internet service in the autonomous region of Xinjiang for almost a year after the July 2009 Ürümqi riots.

Egypt: Internet in Egypt § 2011 Internet shutdown On January 27, 2011, during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the government of President Hosni Mubarak cut off access to the Internet by all four national ISPs, and all mobile phone networks.

This version of a kill switch was effected by a government-ordered shutdown of the Egyptian-run portion of the Domain Name System, and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), making transmission of Internet traffic impossible for Egyptian ISPs. All network traffic ceased within two hours, according to Arbor Networks.

Iran: The Iranian Government activated the internet kill switch during the 2019-2020 Iranian Protests to prevent the organization of new protests and riots.

Turkey: In June 2016, Turkey introduced an Internet kill switch law permitting authorities to "partially or entirely" suspend Internet access due to wartime measures, national security or public order.

The mechanism came to attention when Internet monitoring group Turkey Blocks detected a nationwide slowdown affecting several social network services on the eve of a major offensive during the 2016 Turkish military intervention in Syria.

Similar Internet restrictions had previously been implemented during national emergencies to control the flow of information in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, originally without any clear legal grounding.

So does anyone really think that a totalitarian government wouldn't do the same thing here in America, and for many of the same reasons, to control the flow of information, deprive Americans of a way to communicate and make it so Americans cannot get valuable information not being reported by the mainstream media?

As mentioned above, the actual wording of 'Operation Starfall' as reported by Fox News is very concerning.  

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So while we'd love to see some kind of 'universal access to the internet' unveiled for people living under tyranny, as well as for those who might one day be living under tyranny, as this October of 2020 story titled "‘Internet Kill Switch’ Is a Tool for Tyranny. This Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Wants to Get Rid of It" warned, the executive branch technically has the authority under a World War II-era amendment of the Communications Act of 1934 to seize control of the internet. That's scary.  

Just think about that in this day and age of election fraud and Democrats acting like wannabe tyrants! A way for Joe Biden and Democrats to totally cut off the internet for Americans. Talk about a potential disaster! An extended excerpt from that story.: 

The COVID-19 crisis has taken an enormous human toll, with more than 200,000 Americans having succumbed to the virus, according to government data. So, too, the sweeping government response has wrought both unprecedented economic and public health consequences

Thus, in addition to the obvious health consequences, one major concern posed by the COVID-19 crisis is that unprecedented government power grabs may be here to stay. Consider that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used the coronavirus as pretext to unconstitutionally outlaw evictions nationwide in a de facto nationalization of the rental market or that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer baselessly made lawn care services illegal, and it quickly becomes clear why a bipartisan group of legislators is now seeking to limit the government’s power to take drastic action in future emergencies. 

Right now, the executive branch technically has the authority under a World War II-era amendment of the Communications Act of 1934 to seize control of, monitor, or shut down “any wire communication” if the president deems it necessary for “national security” and declares an emergency. This power applied to the modern age would certainly include the ability of a president to, amid a crisis, seize control of the internet or even shut it off in swaths of the country in the name of national security. It even appears the president could do this all unilaterally.

“If you give government an inch, it takes ten miles, and this has been vividly illustrated by the surveillance state’s overreaches in a time of seemingly endless war,” Rand Paul said. “No president from either party should have the sole power to shut down or take control of the internet or any other of our communication channels during an emergency.” 

"The oath that I took as a Soldier and as a Member of Congress was to support and defend our Constitution,” Tulsi Gabbard remarked. “No President should have the power to ignore our freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and violate our civil liberties and privacy by declaring a national emergency.” 

"When governments around the world turn off internet access, they do significant harm to their national economies and their citizen’s civil rights,” Rep Thomas Massie said. “This bipartisan bill will ensure that no future American president can unilaterally trip an ‘internet kill switch.’ Americans do not have to accept the premise that one person can deprive them of their 1st Amendment rights by flipping a switch.” 

Why Restraining the Government’s ‘Emergency Powers’ is Necessary: 

Some might fail to see the need to roll back emergency powers over the internet. After all, they would only ever be used in a true extreme emergency, right? Why wouldn’t we want the government to have all the available tools to address a genuine crisis? 

The problem with this stance becomes clear when you take even a cursory glance at how often the word “crisis” is bantered about in modern political discourse.

History Shows How ‘Emergency Powers’ Lead to Disastrous Abuses:

We’ve seen this play out time and time again in American history. 

During World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the emergency posed by the war to round up Asian Americans and Asian immigrants and throw them in internment camps without due process or even any suspicion of wrongdoing. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the emergency was used as justification for unconstitutional warrantless spying on Americans and the detention and torture of alleged “enemy combatants” without any due process. 

Many of these spying powers are still in effect today, nearly two decades after the attack. And the internet “kill switch” is itself a remnant of emergency powers granted during World War II but never rescinded. 

If the thought of your political opponents wielding unilateral control over the internet disturbs you, that’s a good sign it’s a power the government should not have. 

Imagine the havoc a power-hungry federal government, controlled by either party, could wreak during an emergency, real or perceived, by seizing control of wireless communications. Yet this isn’t a far-fetched fantasy. If we leave the federal government’s sweeping power to shut down the internet on the books, it’s likely that it will eventually be exercised to the detriment of Americans’ civil liberties. And once the power is exercised, it’s unlikely we’ll ever be able to scale it back. 

This is not a hypothetical. China shut down the internet in Xinjiang for an entire year in 2009 in response to protests and riots in the region. Iran temporarily killed the internet in 2019 to shut down the spread of information during anti-regime protests. Even democratic nations such as India have exercised an internet “kill switch” in some regions to control the populace and stifle communication. 

But this dystopian fate isn’t inevitable for the United States. We should be thankful for the bipartisan group of legislators working to ensure that this nightmare scenario never comes to life here.

So with Republicans in Congress just unveiling 'Operation Starfall' at a time when Democrats are pushing tyranny to the hilt, Americans should all be prepared for the possibility of absolutely anything, even the internet being taken down to stop the free flow of pertinent information, as America tumbles every day more deeply into this time of utter madness.  





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Thank you and God Bless. Susan and Stefan.


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