I believe that if the US Government wanted to stop Wikileaks, they'd simply bomb the data centers. Electronic attacks like this are not what this government does; It's what its citizens do.
I beg to differ:
"USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks; and prepare to, when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."
Looks like they're "denying the same to their adversaries" (maybe).
Like anyone is going to go into court and say "I was molesting this guy and he beat me up". That really doesn't sound like a case, does it?
Of course not. They'd say "I was conducting a routine pat down search in accordance with the TSA's standard procedure and he assaulted me".
If anything, this is China or some one else showing that they now got subs that can come close the the US coast unnoticed... or a test / accidental firing by the US military.
I somehow doubt that any country would demonstrate some sort of brand new underwater stealth technology by performing the one action that is guaranteed to give away your exact position (launching a missile).
A 'hostile' sub 35 miles away from US Coast wouldn't be met with a slap on the knee and a response of "you totally got us!". It would be destroyed with impunity. Subs are expensive, you don't risk losing them on a mission that amounts to showing off.
It's most definitely a US missile of some sort.
Cool theory, except for the part where they evidently weren't caught. So yes, maybe their stealth sub is THAT GOOD that they can fire a missle a few miles off our coast and get away with it.
Countries having the capability of underwater launch include China, Russia, Britain, US, and maybe Iran and India using ex soviet era subs. Maybe a couple others.
France does. India is developing their own sub/missile which should be ready shortly (according to wikipedia). It wouldn't surprise me if Isreal has this capability as well. The one thing that struck me as somewhat odd when reading the wikipedia page on SLBMs was this: The five countries that are known to have SLBM capability are the five permanent members of the UN security council. India, the only other nation listed on that page, is indicated to be developing SLBMs. The other day, wasn't Obama advocating the inclusion of India as a permanent member of the security council? Something seems a little fishy to me.
BTW Subs do not launch intercontinental ballistic missiles "ICBMs". They launch Sub launched ballistic missiles "SLBMs"
They do launch ICBMs. Currently our only SLBM in service (UGM-133) also meets the criteria for an ICBM since its range is 11000km, easily above the 5500km requirement to make it an ICBM. In fact, I'm pretty sure all SLBMs are also ICBMs (with the exclusion of cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk, for example)
Life is a healthy respect for mother nature laced with greed.
