WHY LONDON WANTS TO SPY ON THE OCEAN FLOOR

On 21 November 2022 / Dossier Deep Sea Mining, IBI World Sweden, Military / Leave a comment

An American company, DST Digital Sky Technology, born as a rib of NASA, but financially supported by the Russian oil giant Gazprom and directed by two oligarchs (Alisher Usmanov and Yuri Milner), launches micro-satellites into orbit that allow the planet to be monitored inch by inch, and coordinates the activities of NASA (the American space agency) and NOAA (the American ocean agency) in preparing for the mining exploitation of the ocean floor and other planets[1].

Control of land waters and the atmosphere can now be carried out from the seabed, which is why, after World War II, NATO built and developed two submarine bases, BUTEC in northern Scotland and AUTEC, off the Bahamas[2]. Bases from which so far only submarines have departed, but which could also be used for the deployment of millions of transmission systems, equal to those of satellites, capable of controlling any movement in the seas and oceans, but also in the sky above[3].

It is a project that goes hand in hand with the development of the technology needed to exploit the ocean floor as a mineral resource, and which is coordinated (politically and commercially) by an agency ‘blessed’ by the United Nations, the ISA International Seabed Authority in Kingston (Jamaica), which has been granting licences to exploit the ocean floor since 1982[4]. Among the various international consortia that have obtained such a licence, one belongs to two Russian oligarchs, Alisher Usmanov and Yuri Milner – and they, thanks to DST Digital Sky Technology, are preparing, even before digging out minerals, to deploy transceivers on the seabed, linked to the Russian central power[5].

To deploy the transceivers, the Russian-led consortium uses a Swiss company, Allseas, which belongs to the Heerema group, one of the few companies that grew up in the 1930s and survived the denazification of Western Europe[6]. Allseas itself is responsible for the construction of the NordStream 2 pipeline and the maintenance of NordStream 1 – the one recently hit by an act of sabotage suspected to have been personally decided by Vladimir Putin as part of his war against NATO[7].

The attack increased international pressure on Allseas (which had suspended the construction of the second pipeline anyway)[8], while Alisher Usmanov has been under attack since the first days of the invasion of Ukraine: he has been placed on the list of Russian personalities affected by the sanctions, and everywhere his properties are identified and seized[9] – except, of course, what he and his family have already managed to hide in the United Arab Emirates, which protect criminals from all over the world [10]. But these sanctions affect his properties, which does not prevent his companies and those linked to him (such as DST Digital Sky Technologies, which was not affected by the sanctions) from continuing to operate.

An underwater robot, already in use by oil companies drilling the ocean floor, can also be used for ocean surveillance[11]

A few days ago, Great Britain, frightened by the fact that the attack was possible in NATO waters without anyone noticing, decided to compete with the Usmanov-developed ocean surveillance project: the British Ministry of Defence opened a tender for the purchase of a deep-sea remotely piloted vehicle for a price estimated at around $24 million. The vehicle must be able to manipulate objects, deploy transceivers and produce high-resolution images down to a depth of 6,000 metres[12].

At the same time, the British Royal Navy is accelerating the construction of ships to coordinate ocean surveillance, a programme costing nearly $300 million, hoping to protect oil pipelines and submarine cables from potential sabotage. The ships will be equipped with advanced sensors and a series of autonomous, remotely operated underwater drones, similar to those in the opening image of this article[13]. These technologies are already available on the market and increase the possibilities of controlling the entire planetary system.

Needless to reason about the sci-fi possibilities opened up by this military development. It is simply yet another fruit of the new times, which began with the global crisis of 2008: once the propulsive thrust of industrial capitalism has been exhausted, and the soap bubble of creative finance has burst, we now live in a world where, in order to grow, one must first destroy – which is why, as Pope John Paul II predicted in 1999, the 21^st century is being driven by religious faith and military force[14]. The driving force of democracy died out with the end of industrial capitalism – at the moment when there was no longer any need for the participation of the masses in production. Those who have not wanted to understand this up to now, from now on listen very carefully to the signals coming from the sea when they go on their summer holidays.

[1] ALIŠER USMANOV: GLI SGUARDI INDISCRETI DI UN OLIGARCA SUL MONDO | IBI World Italia

[2] BASI MILITARI E MINIERE: IL VOLTO NUOVO DEL FONDO DELL’OCEANO | IBI World Italia

[3] BASI MILITARI E MINIERE: IL VOLTO NUOVO DEL FONDO DELL’OCEANO | IBI World Italia

[4] https://www.isa.org.jm/index.php/about-isa

[5] ALIŠER USMANOV: GLI SGUARDI INDISCRETI DI UN OLIGARCA SUL MONDO | IBI World Italia

[6] ALIŠER USMANOV: GLI SGUARDI INDISCRETI DI UN OLIGARCA SUL MONDO | IBI World Italia ; BASI MILITARI E MINIERE: IL VOLTO NUOVO DEL FONDO DELL’OCEANO | IBI World Italia ; HEEREMA: IL LUNGO VIAGGIO DAL NAZISMO ALLO SFRUTTAMENTO DEI FONDALI OCEANICI | IBI World Italia ; LO SFRUTTAMENTO DEI FONDALI OCEANICI, NUOVA FRONTIERA DELL’AUTODISTRUZIONE DELL’UMANITÀ | IBI World Italia

[7] https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/sabotage-nord-stream-schweden-ukraine-krieg-russland-100.html ; https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/schweden-zu-nord-stream-staatsanwaltschaft-bestaetigt-sabotage-als-ursache-fuer-explosionen-a-418a8ecd-82f3-4efd-b1f7-dedd5e04bd38 ; https://www.dw.com/en/sweden-prosecutor-confirms-nord-stream-2-sabotage/a-63806519

[8] https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/der-lange-arm-der-us-justiz-reicht-bei-nord-stream-2-bis-ins-freiburgische-ld.1529838 ; https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de/700637/Nordstream-Pipelines-Bundesanwaltschaft-ermittelt-zu-mutmasslicher-Sabotage

[9] https://www.rferl.org/a/germany-raids-usmanov-russian-oligarch/32044695.html ; https://www.rsi.ch/news/mondo/Germania-caccia-ai-soldi-di-Usmanov-15771166.html ; https://www.lanuovasardegna.it/olbia/cronaca/2022/03/29/news/porto-cervo-sotto-sequestro-l-auto-da-600mila-euro-di-usmanov-1.41336398

[10] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/vereinigte-arabische-emirate-russland-ukraine-sanktionen-101.html

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remotely_operated_underwater_vehicle#/media/File:ROV_working_on_a_subsea_structure.jpg

[12] https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2022/11/16/uk-military-ups-investments-in-undersea-surveillance/