Tinfoil? US Navy ship in Caribbean jamming NOLA radio comms (-Madsen)

[StefanX]

Tinfoil Time

For the past couple of days Wayne Madsen -- ex-NSA spook, computer privacy activist and freelance investigative journalist -- has been banging the conspiracy drum about alleged efforts by the federal government to jam radio frequencies or otherwise interfere with emergency communications in the hurricane zone.

This is, of course, an utterly fantastic claim -- but if it is fantasy, it's quite detailed fantasy:

we now have a new unconfirmed report that the culprit may be the Pentagon itself. The emitter is an IF (Intermediate Frequency) jammer that is operating south southwest of New Orleans on board a U.S. Navy ship, according to an anonymous source. The jamming is cross-spectrum and interfering with superheterodyne receiver components, including the emergency radios being used in New Orleans relief efforts.

-- Billmon, 5 Sept 2005

[Slit Skirt]

1. there have been quite a few reports

and threads on this...wmr would only be a secondary source...there are many more than just he

[Rex]

2. Communications blackout

I believe that was the plan, control and contain anyone found in the region. They don't want the body count numbers to become public.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Fantasy of a peculiarly ill-informed kind.

The author has no idea how receivers work.

Last time I looked the various ham radio disaster nets on 20, 40, and 80 meters were going great guns.

There were some problems early on with interference to 14.265 MHz, but it wasn't widespread, and wasn't of the magnitude that Marsden describes.

The IF of modern radios are usually 455 kHz and 10.7 MHz, and I am not aware of any suddenly-appearing stations on those frequencies. It would take enormous signals to jam the IF of a receiver at any distance, as opposed to the frequency its front end was tuned to.

Interested folks could look here. (eHam.net)

73

[StefanX]

5. Anyone qualified to vet this rebuttal?

I don't know anything about radio myself.

Saying that it would take "enormous" signals doesn't seem like much of a rebuttal - I assume if US black ops is doing this their jamming system would be far more sophisticated than anything most mortals are aware of.

And saying that the ham radio disaster nets on such-and-such meters were going "great guns" doesn't seem to rebut the many reports of communication breakdown cited by Madsen.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. To disrupt a receiver hundreds of miles away...

...by interfering with its IF would require a signal in the tens of megawatts. That's a power range consistent with the largest land-based SW broadcasters -- Voice of America, BBC, etc.

Shipboard -- ain't gonna happen.

You could do it with a few kW if you simply put a signal out on the actual frequency in question. Several orders of magnitude easier.

There simply aren't any significant complaints in the ham community about QRM on the scale Marsden reports.

73

[BiggJawn]

18. I'm an RF Engineer, and I play one on TV, too.

That quote from Madsen is just so much bullshit. He throws in terms like "Intermediate Frequency" and "Superheterodyne" and that's supposed to make the Average Joe got "Wow! He knows his shit!".

The effect on someone who actually fucks with this stuff for a living AND grins and giggles is "Oh, that's like saying 'Jimmin' at the Jam-Jam, klopping at the Frotz, and it shorts out the Frammistat'..."

Even the "Spooks" have to follow the Laws of Physics.

I have a healthy suspicion of ANYONE identified as a "former NSA spook".

The communications problems were because some municipalities, not learning the lesson of NYC, still rely on cellphone-style trunking systems or actual cellies, there's STILL no intercommunications between agencies, and, I'm sorry to say, it seems that all the rich white folk, who comprise most of the Ham Radio operators, headed north and there was nobody left in the disaster area...

But I SERIOUSLY doubt the Navy was offshore, operating some kind of waterborne "jammer"...

[B3Nut]

21. Little good it would do...

...to even attempt to jam 455KHz, since you'd just be disabling AM radios. It would shut Rush Limbaugh and ballgames up, but that's about it. :D Well, that and regular shortwave...since the SW sets I've had used 455KHz...

10.7 is IF for standard FM radios...not sure what VHF communications radios use. I mainly tinker with older hi-fi gear and beat-up old Hammonds, so I'm not an RF eggspurt by any means...

Todd in Beerbratistan, lover of glowy glass bottle thingies

[Silverhair]

4. BullCrap!!

Rampant tinfoil paranoia. A ship in the Caribbean is jamming NOLA local radios? From that great distance? And the rest of the world doesn't notice anything????

Electronics doesn't work that way.

That tinfoil hat is making the rest of us look silly.

[StefanX]

9. Do we know what US black ops radio capabilities really are?

Maybe they are stronger and more targeted than we could ever imagine.

Remember, if this kind of technology is being developed by US black ops, it must be HIGHLY classified.

This high-tech hacking seems like JUST the kind of stuff Rumsfeld, Poindexter and the other joystick generals in the bowels of DARPA might be interested in.

This electronics newbie would be more convinced by a detailed, patient explanation of how and way "electronics don't work that way" rather than an essentially contentless rebuttal.

"And the rest of the world doesn't notice anything??" Well, yes, we've actually been hearing a LOT about communications being interfered with in NOLA - specifically a Parish President in NOLA complained that FEMA had shut down his lines. The Parish President had to station armed guards to keep the FEMA thugs out.

Seen in the context of the dozen or so well-documented cases over at DailyKos and Constructive Interference where FEMA inexplicably blocked civilian and local/state material aid from reaching Katrina victims, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were running a few high-tech SigInt ops alongside good old-fashioned sabotage on the ground.

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board

FEMA turns away generators (See entry from 3:32 P.M. by Ben Morris, Slidell mayor)

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond" (No, this is NOT an Onion headline!)

In summary: these cases of MATERIAL sabotage are definitely not tinfoil - they are bizarre and fantastic but also corroborated by many eye-witnesses.

So, given all we know about the high-tech proclivities and capabilities of this current Pentagon, it seems rather premature to simply yell, "No, they would / could never do THAT!"

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. Laws of physics...

...pretty much determine that "No, they would / could never do THAT!"

Strange signals -- certainly anything of the magnitude reportes -- would be reported places like here within hours.

There are lots of ears listening.

73

[Silverhair]

17. Black ops CAN'T change the Laws of Physics.

Those laws are above mankind's ability to change.

I have a degree in math with a minor in physics, and used to teach electronics.

Get the appropriate degrees and I will discuss this with you. Until then I will dismiss it as a conspiracy theorist's fantasies of desire.

[LittleClarkie]

6. I'm not speaking to Madsen at the mo'

He accused DU and DailyKos of being in on it.

I think his little red choo choo has gone round the bend.

[mattclearing]

20. Madsen had the most wild theories about the election, too.

Diebold and op-scan being manipulated at the central tabulator I can see, but he had it tied into every suspect Bush scheme and some I've never even heard of. It was bizarre.

I consider Octafish to be the resident authority on plausible conspiracy theory.

[Walt Starr]

7. Ahhhh Wayne Madsen

Never has there been a more wretched hive of wacks and tinfoilhat nuttery.

[StefanX]

10. I've always been very impressed with Wayne Madsen's articles

Just expressing my two cents' worth here.

[Walt Starr]

11. Oh really?

Have you ever seen one that panned out to be true?

[StefanX]

14. Well, I've also liked a lot of your posts Walt, so I'm conflicted here

Let's look at two of the more tinfoily propositions laid out by Madsen:

Anthrax and the Agency
Thinking the Unthinkable
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html

An Israeli / Rove Connection?
The McGreevey Scandal
http://counterpunch.org/madsen08142004.html

What was the disposition on these? (The jury may be out on both of them - but all I can say is that, to me, they seem highly probable.)

And as I said, reports of jammed radio signals do seem right in line with EYEWITNESS reports of FEMA cutting a Parish's communication cables, and blocking many deliveries of "assets" to NOLA.

[RSchewe]

13. He should come out with his own brand: Madsen's Wrap n/t

[Ladyhawk]

15. I agree. Madsen and tinfoil are synonymous from what I've seen. n/t

[jim3775]

16. THINK PEOPLE: This is untrue and is very easy to disprove

Cross-spectrum jamming would disrupt a wide range of communications.

As we all know the national guard and louisiana police radios work fine, people have been listening to them on the on-line scanner stream for many days now. That in and of itself disproves the story.

Also, cell phones work and television communications have worked too.

[Ioo]

22. Your Logic and reason has no place in the Bush Years, Be GONE.

:)

[bpilgrim]

19. after everything we have witnessed this past week i would not be surprised

it does amaze me that some here think the GOV would NEVER do such a thing after all the blocking of aid and physical cutting of emergency comm lines that local authorities had to place armed guards around to secure.

:shrug:

peace

[Moderator]

23. Locking...

This story comes from an unreliable source.
If you find a mainstream news source, please
repost.