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April 25, 2016
Internet Outage Reports Increasing In Frequency As First Time Ever Riot Control Drills Are Being Conducted - Are They Beta Testing The 'Kill Switch' To Be Used When Mass Civil Unrest Breaks Out?
According to the Outage Analyzer website, which tracks worldwide website outages over 45,000 websites suffered outages across the globe on April 24, 2016, as seen above from the screen shot taken this morning of their front page.
When your favorite website goes down there are million upon millions of others you can browse through while IT techs fervently work to get it back up, but what about when your Internet goes down?
Consider the recently release polling data showing that only 6 percent of Americans consider news media as "very" trustworthy. While 56 percent say they do get their news from television, 32 percent of those rely on cable news. In this day and age where Americans are becoming more and more disillusioned with politics and more are are saying they are not affiliated with either party, the next quote from Rasmussen is very interesting:
Voters not affiliated with either party are most dependent on the Internet, with cable news a close second.
According to another poll reported on by ABC News we see the following information:
About 6 in 10 Americans watch, read, or hear news several times a day, as computers, smartphones and tablets make it easier for people to follow the news on an on-demand basis.
A majority of people get news from social media, most frequently by far from Facebook. "Facebook is the place where everyone is, and so you're not necessarily looking for news, but you're getting it..."
There is an old philisophical thought experiment which asks ""If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Well, take that a step further..... if the economy collapses, or a terror attack occurs on a large scale, or if a bomb is dropped on a large U.S. city, or any major massive event happens and the government shuts down your Internet, cable and communications.... how would you know?
That is a question that makes the following information very disturbing.
INTERNET, CABLE AND PHONE OUTAGES
Why are we seeing an increase in frequency of outages in America, each and every day, from some of the top companies such as Comcast, Cox, AT&T, Time Warner and Verizon?
Screen shots taken of each of the above referenced companies "live outage" maps, taken on April 25, 2016 are shown below, but it is noteworthy that in each case the most reported problem is Internet outages, with reports of phone, television or total blackouts showing a significantly lower number.
For Cox, 79 percent of the reported problems were Internet, total blackout 13 percent and television 7 percent. Comcast, Internet is listed at 65 percent, total blackout at 17 percent and TV at 17 percent. Time Warner 73 percent listed Internet, 13 percent total blackout and 12 percent TV. AT&T lists Internet reports at 64 percent, and phone iterruptions at 18 percent with 17 percent reporting "no network or reception." Verizon reports 75 percent of complaints were of no Internet service, phone service reports came in at 16 percent and TV at 8 percent.
In every case, the Internet was the most reported outage and as seen in the screen shots below, it spans from one end of the country to the other.
Readers can check these outages and others at Down Detector.
Now we have all experience equipment failure, weather interruptions and a whole host of other issues that might knock our internet out periodically, but looking back at previous reports, and having reported on this issue at ANP multiple times, we seem to be seeing a massive increase in frequency in whole areas on different dates.
Something very strange is going on with these constant outages, and the list of potential reasons are not comforting.
Is the internet infrastructure so outdated that even the biggest of the service providers cannot maintain stability? Are hackers, hostile countries or even terrorists systematically testing our vulnerabilities?
Or is our own government beta testing their infamous "kill switch?"
On July 6, 2012, Barack Obama issued an Executive Order titled "Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions", which on the surface is very straight forward as stated in Section 1, where it says "The Federal Government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions....."
It isn't until we read much further down that we get to Section 5.2, where we see the the EO actually gave Obama control of the Internet:
Sec. 5.2. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall: (a) oversee the development, testing, implementation, and sustainment of NS/EP communications, including: communications that support Continuity of Government; Federal, State, local, territorial, and tribal emergency preparedness and response communications; non-military executive branch communications systems; critical infrastructure protection networks; and non-military communications networks, particularly with respect to prioritization and restoration;
(b) incorporate, integrate, and ensure interoperability and the necessary combination of hardness, redundancy, mobility, connectivity, interoperability, restorability, and security to obtain, to the maximum extent practicable, the survivability of NS/EP communications defined in section 5.2(a) of this order under all circumstances, including conditions of crisis or emergency;
In other words, in times of emergency or "crisis" the Executive Office can take total control of all commercial or private networks.
In January 2016 it was reported that the Supreme Court has allowed the details of the U.S. government's internet and cellphone kill switch to remain a secret from the American people.
United States — On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that sought to force the Department of Homeland Security to release details of a secret “killswitch” protocol to shut down cellphone and internet service during emergencies.
BOTTOM LINE
With more and more financial industry insiders warning of an economic collapse, while top insurers are talking about preparations on the part of world leaders for "pandemics" of civil unrest on a global scale, in conjuntion with the DHS and FEMA holding "first time ever" riot control drills, we find the timing of these outages to be suspicious, especially when you note from the outage screen shots above, that Texas where those first time ever drills occurred, is highlighted in almost all the reports.
ANP has consistently urged readers to prepare with extra food, water, medical items and basic necessitites, but there is a good likelihood that the Internet, your cable news and your phones could be shut down in the even of a national emergency, so we would also suggest a short wave radio and/or learn about Ham Radios and print out their frequency lists, pre-plan meeting places with your family, friends, and like-minded community members.
Decide now what you would do if the Internet goes dark and prepare accordingly.
