Project Quote: "Mission Accomplished" -USS Lincoln Banner proclaiming the end to the Iraq War of 2003
This project is a continuing look at various countries' IPv4 address space. For this particular project I look at Iraq (Apr 2006). Iraq is unique in all the projects I have done in this venue thus far, even compared to Afghanistan. The majority of the infrastructure that supported Iraq's Internet was destroyed during the war. And the rebuilding of that infrastructure, as for the rest of the country itself, has been painstakingly slow. In fact, it appears that the vast majority of Internet activity throughout Iraq is taking place on IP ranges assigned to the US and Britain. Added to that, most of the infrastructure that supports Internet communication appears to be conducted over wireless and satellite as opposed to land lines.
As usual, I started with Ripe's records. Their allocation file listed only 3 entities that had been assigned address space under Iraqi control- the INCMC, Sina Trade Co, and ZarkaNet. I came across a possible 4th connection, that being Uruklink.net, which used to be Sadaam's old Ministry of Communications. I elaborate on that particular one in the report below.
Since Iraq is even further continuing to slide into chaos at the time this report was written, there is no guarantee that any of it will be pertinent a few weeks from now. The reader should take my findings with a grain of salt. And until the situation in Iraq stabilizes (if it ever does), I will not devote that much time to it. However, one thing I was curious about was how was the American military gaining Internet access since many new agencies have reported that American troops have access? After the initial presentation of the uncompleted Iraqi IPv4 space allocations, I present some of the information I was able to find in that regard. For now, here is the Iraqi IPv4 address space:
| a.dns-server.iq | 194.117.56.1 |
| b.dns-server.iq | 194.117.57.1 |
| c.dns-server.iq | 194.117.58.1 |
| d.dns-server.iq | 194.117.59.1 |
| e.dns-server.iq | 194.117.60.1 |
| f.dns-server.iq | 194.117.61.1 |
Subnets 56-63 are all assigned to INCMC.
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnets 56-61: 1
Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnets 62 & 63.
This would be expected since the root DNS servers live in this block.
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Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnets 0-127.
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Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnets 176-184.
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 185: 1,7,10,11,23,26,27,37,39,41,43,58,78,98,121,169,189,190
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 186: 65
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 187: 19,172
Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnet 188.
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 189: 25,30
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 190: 1-3,6,12,16,18,19,26,28-30,34,46-49,52,53,56,75-79,81-84,97,98,100,113,114,121,122,137,138,140,145,146,153,154,156,161,162,169,170,172,177,178,181,182,193,194,196,217,218,225,226,230,232,236
Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnet 191.
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Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 0: 32,35,41,59,60,62
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 1: 2,3,5,10,12-14,16,28,37,39,40,44,46,49,59,60,64,77,81-83,87,102,103,114,119,130,137,140,141,145,159,162-166,210,212,216,217,224,246,249,254
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 2: 6,17,22,25,28,33,36,37,41,53,65,77,78,80,85,90,93,94,99,116,124,159,175,210,227,229,230,241,242,252,254
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 3: 25,37,41,45,51,53,59,63,73,74,82-84,86,97,104,106,108,109,116,119,123,126,128,134,139,143,146,151,167,192,197,200,203,218
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 4: 2,7,12,16,17,23,31,35,45,46,48,55,60,62-64,67,78,83,85,86,91,94,95,102,108,116,118-120,125,129,139,149,152,153,159,166,170-172,177,184,185,187,192-194,197,211,218,224,240,250,254
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 5: 14,15,54,81,84,89,96,104,111,112,140,169,170,185,214,216,225,239
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 6: 7,11,16,30,42,49,60,91,117,142,151,154,156,182,200-202,212,222,228,230,237,239,241,243,249,251
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 7: 3,4,6-9,14-16,19,25,26,30,32,34-36,41,44-46,53,66-68,75,81,84,88,94,96,101,112,118,123,126,130,131,135,137,158,159,164,165,169,171,183,189,191,194,200,207,211,213,215,219,222,238,242,245,249,254
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 8: 2-5,8,9,13,21,28,30,38,54,55,68,74,80-82,84,87-89
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 9: 236
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 10: 20,59,92,100,101,103,114,117,119,124,127-129,134,138,139,146,148,155,156,158
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 11: 1-4,6,12,14,15,20,25,26,37,41,42,44,49,50,54-56,61-63,65,74,75,78,87,92,102,107,111,114-116,120,121,128,130,131,134,138,144,145,156,159,161,173,174,176,182-184,189,190,192,194,197,199,203,218,248
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 12: 3,6-8,11,12,16,19,23,29,34-36,38,46,54-57,60,72,84,85,88,91,92,95,101,105,114,115,117,118,124,125,199,241,250
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 13: 8,12,20,22,24,34,41-43,46,50,63,65,68,79,80,82,114,120,125,127-129,135-137,145,150,151,158,184,185,194,196,211,232,239,246
Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnet 14.
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 15: 3,16,18,20,22,25,37,39,42,44,70,81,94,107,114,115,138,139,141,146,152,157,164-168,170,175,176,180,181,184,185,188,191,194,195,201,204,205,223,229,230,234,237,240,241,245,247
Ping Sweep shows no hosts up on subnet 16.
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 17: 6,16,25,26,33,37,48,53,61,65,78,80-82,97,100,121,127,128,130,136,137,139,168
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 18: 216,234
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 19: 17,20,22,71,84,101,123,135,157,196,202,205,209,212,240,245
Ping Sweep shows these hosts up on subnet 20: 1
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During my search for the Iraqi IPv4 address space, I came across information that US troops, specifically the US Army's Internet access might be provided by at least three entities, TigrisNet, Thuraya, and Twister, although there are probably other companies providing this service by now. TigrisNet is originally listed in Ripe's allocation file, but with no Iraqi address space assigned to it. Thuraya is a company based out of the United Arab Emirates. Both ultimately had connections to the US Military and some of their IP hosts led back to the US Internet Infrastructure. I wouldn't be surprised if this was by design (See Project 5).
UPDATED JUN 2006:
Since the time I did this report, TigrisNet has now been assigned IP address space for Iraq proper. This is the updated information:
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Their homepage at http://www.tigrisnet.net shows that they have satellite communictions in the following cities of Iraq- Um Qasr, Basrah, Baghdad, Ramadi, Baqubah, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Mosul, Erbil, and Sulaymanlyah. They describe their services as thus:
TigrisNet quickly installs a reliable and secure high-speed Internet connection to your office, hospital, university, hotel, NGO, Embassy, governmental institution, news organization, home or Internet cafe. We will connect your office computers to our satellite-based hub in Baghdad via license-free 5GHz wireless antennas. This not dial-up or slow congested VSAT. This is dedicated broadband service. And to ensure that you remain connected to the Internet, TigrisNet provides 24/7 pro-active network monitoring of your network from our Baghdad Network Operations Center. As your Internet and bandwidth needs grow, you will be able to instantly and easily upgrade to higher levels of service on your existing equipment.
Their website continues describing their "meshed" infrastructure:
TIGRISNET HAS BUILT AND MANAGES Iraq's leading satellite based wireless communications network. TigrisNet has deployed state-of-the-art city-wide wireless networks and is interconnecting Iraq's largest cities establishing the country's first fully meshed national infrastructure.
By "meshing" the cities, communications between cities takes place over a single satellite hop, yielding the optimum latency performance for delay-sensitive media such as voice traffic. Our network design dramatically simplifies the network and consequently reduces the amount, cost and complexity of the equipment and operations of this versatile and powerful network topology.
This system retains all the network functionality in-country as a true autonomous countrywide state-of-the-art backbone. There is no dependency on external networks, aside from the satellites used, such that the network is resilient to issues, technical, political or commercial.
Their website, IP address 209.151.245.38, falls in an address space (subnets 224-255) assigned to Cyberverse Online in Torrance, CA. At one time there was a host called sip1.tigrisnet.net (80.255.40.171). This IP fell in a block assigned to IntelSat-CUST-Crisis Communications (80.255.40.160-175) in the US. The domain registrar was someone named Peter Zimble at zimble.com, however, zoominfo.com shows a Peter Zimble who works for Interpacket Networks, a satellite network provider. He was a cofounder of that company according to Google searches. According to www.fundrace.org he gave 2,000 dollars to Senator Joe Lieberman's campaign (Zimble's address is listed as 11409 Berwick St, Los Angeles, CA). Zimble.com's domain fell into a range of 205.178.128-191 assigned to InQuent Technologies.
Also coming up in the searches for Peter Zimble's name was a man called Mike Labriola. Fundrace.org lists that he (17152 Avenida de La Herradura, Pacific Palisades, CA) also gave Joe Lieberman 2000 dollars during 2004. He was described at this website as being the Managing Director of Crisis Communications Group. He is also listed as the founder of TigrisNet. Back on Jan 15th 2004 there was some sort of conference in which one or both men above gave a presentation with these subjects:
- Our company background and philosophy
- Why Iraq?/Doing business in Iraq
- Fulfilling an urgent communications need
- Our satellite based wireless solution
- Dealing with the US Gov
- Technical and logistical hurdles
- On the ground personnel (Iraqi, non- Iraqi, cultural issues)
- Network monitoring
- How Internet is changing Health, Education, etc. in post war Iraq
- Case Study #1 - Internet Cafes
- Case Study #2 - Corporate customers
- Looking ahead
So, it is obvious that TigrisNet.net has some relationship to Iraqi Internet infrastructure, but as to what specific IP ranges might be associated with that structure is something I haven't discovered yet. However, there is some indication that the Iraqi system is tied into the main US structure via satellite, as this website still in Google's cache states:
"A group of independent US experts and their Iraqi partners have announced that they are currently in the final stages of preparations to launch the first wireless internet service in Iraq via satellite. Mike Labriyola [name as transliterated], director of the US Crisis Communications Group company, has said that a [US] group and Hamad al-Kharbit [not further identified] have established with equal shares a company named Dijlah Nit "TigrisNet". The new company will, for the first time in Iraq, introduce a direct, high-speed wireless internet link with the main internet infrastructure in the United States via satellite."
Keep in mind that the information above is probably outdated. The US Army continues to turn over FOBs to the so-called Iraqi army. Thuraya itself is based in the United Arab Emirates and is listed as a satellite communications company. Their website IP 194.170.187.24 falls under Etisalat Internet Exchange (all of subnet 187 is assigned to them). They also have the ranges of 194.170.0-3. But the whole class C (194.170) is assigned to Emirates Telecommunications Corp.
- Complete Renovation and Rehabilitation for the new PMO GRD Building for the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Green Zone including Local Area Network implementation, Fiber-Optic Connections, HF, VHF & Repeaters Communications Installations (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside BIAP in Camp Striker for the Task Force 1-35 (2004-2004)
- Complete Local Area Network & Satellite Internet Installation in Fluor Contrak Office in Mosul (2004-2004)
- Complete Wireless Network Installation & Two-Way Internet-via-Satellite Dedicated Bandwidth Setup in CAOA JV (CONTRACK/AICI/ORASCOM/ARCHIRODON) Employees House in Baghdad (2004-2004)
- Complete Wireless Network Installation & Two-Way Internet-via-Satellite Dedicated Bandwidth Setup in CAOA JV (CONTRACK/AICI/ORASCOM/ARCHIRODON) Office in Baghdad (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside BIAP in Camp Striker for the 40th Engineers (Mayor's Cell) (2004-2004)
- Established an Internet Cafe inside Camp Victory for the 1-303 Armor Battalion. (2004-2004)
- Supplying Thuraya Satellite Phones, Thuraya Accessories & Scratch Cards for the Contracting Office / Baghdad (2004-2004)
- Complete Local Area Network Installation inside the Green Zone for the US Army Corps of Engineers (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 3BCT FOB in the 1-38 FOB (HHC Main Building) (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 3BCT FOB in the 8th Engineers (D-CO) (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 3BCT FOB in the 8th Engineers (A-CO) (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 3BCT FOB in the 8th Engineers (C-CO) (2004-2004)
- Supplying Laptops and their Accessories for the Contracting Office / Baghdad (2004-2004)
- Supplying Iraqna Cell Phones and Prepaid Cards for the Contracting Office / Baghdad (2004-2004)
- Complete Local Area Network Installation inside the CPA for the US Army Corps of Engineers (2004-2004)
- Complete Local Area Network & Wireless Network Installation in Fluor Contrak Office in Baghdad (2004-2004)
- Complete Local Area Network Installation in LSA ANACONDA for the US Army Corps of Engineers (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 2BCT FOB in the 40th Engineers (HHC Main Building) (2004-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 2BCT FOB in the 40th Engineers (Assassin Main Building) (2003-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 2BCT FOB in the 210th Military Police NCARNG Building (2003-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 2BCT FOB in Aggressor for Task Force 1-35 Armor (2003-2004)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 2BCT FOB in Comanche for Task Force 1-35 Armor (2003-2003)
- Established and managed an Internet Cafe inside 2BCT FOB in the Combat Trains Command Post for Task Force 1-35 Armor (2003-2004)