Unreal friends

On Starlink, 18 U.S. Code 953, and why someone needs to ask questions about the conversations between a business mogul and an autocrat

The administrator of NASA wants someone to investigate Elon Musk and why he has been in personal contact with Vladimir Putin. Musk owns at least a plurality of shares in SpaceX and is thought to have overwhelming voting control of the company.

■ NASA has an obvious interest in the conduct and management of the company. If the controlling partner in the operation is having secret gab-fests with the president of a very large and frequently hostile country, that's something quite different from a pipefitter in Brooklyn calling his grandma in Irkutsk. And the Wall Street Journal reports that it's a matter of "regular contact" between the two since 2022.

■ Starlink, for instance, is a SpaceX subsidiary, and the availability of (and access to) Starlink is playing an important role in Ukraine's war to repel Russian invasion.

■ Americans have broad rights to engage in international business and to hold opinions on global matters. But US Code imposes serious penalties on those who insert themselves into foreign policy to the detriment of the country. Musk occupies such an extraordinary place in economic and technological life that it would be dereliction not to probe more fully what's going on.