Elon Musk biography author Walter Isaacson forced to correct failed drone strike detail

Walter Isaacson’s official biography of Elon Musk, more than two years in the making, is facing major revisions just after it hit the market this week.

Among the excerpts shared recently by the biographer are descriptions of “ruthless” leadership changes on Twitter and Musk’s sordid details. father of twins The most controversial revelation about the Neuralink manager he hired was an “untold story” in which the billionaire allegedly intervened to prevent a potential attack by Ukrainian forces on a Russian naval base, which was compared to Create a “mini Pearl Harbor” scene.

However, the news cast a pall over the author’s reputation this weekend, as he admitted significant errors in the narrative just days before the book’s official release on Tuesday.

Isaacson, who has had unprecedented access to Musk over the course of the project, claimed last Thursday that the SpaceX CEO had secretly ordered engineers to shut down Starlink wireless coverage in Crimea. Previously he had only said he would not extend coverage to Russia proper to enable Ukraine to launch attacks on foreign soil.

However, as Isaacson describes it, a planned drone attack on a Russian naval fleet ended up with military hardware “washing harmlessly ashore” after losing its signal.

Almost as soon as the first news reports hit the ground, Musk denied giving the order.Instead, he said Thursday night that he was simply detain Urgent request to activate network connectivity in Russian-occupied Crimea.

This subtle but not unimportant distinction suggests that it was Kiev who was trying to get SpaceX to change the rules of engagement, not the other way around.

“The clear intent is to sink most of the anchored Russian fleet,” Musk said last week. “If I agree to their demands, SpaceX will clearly be engaging in a significant act of war and escalation of conflict.”

On Friday, his biographer began reviewing his version of events.

Isaacson first wrote that he wanted to “clarify the Starlink issue,” claiming that the Ukrainians mistakenly believed that Musk had achieved coverage all the way to Crimea. This is consistent with Musk’s denials of intentionally deactivating it.

On Saturday, the author fully corrected the record and took responsibility for getting this crucial detail wrong.

“Based on my conversations with Musk, I incorrectly believed that the policy of not allowing Starlink to be used to attack Crimea was first decided on the night (Ukraine) attempted a sneak attack,” he wrote on Saturday. “He is now saying that the policy was implemented earlier but Ukrainians did not know about it.”

Musk is uneasy about the possibility of further escalation in the bloody regional war

His initial version of events proved to have serious consequences.

Musk has been called a traitor by some, and calls to nationalize SpaceX and Starlink continue to spread — including on Musk’s own Twitter (“X”) platform.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had to defend the billionaire on Sunday, calling Starlink an “important tool” for Ukraine.

A top aide to Volodymyr Zelenkiy criticized the decision as a “mixture of ignorance and arrogance” and said Musk now has blood on his hands.

“Elon Musk did not allow Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military fleet through Starlink interference, thereby allowing this fleet to launch Kalibr missiles against Ukrainian cities,” Mykhaylo Podolyak wrote. As a result, civilians and children were killed.”

Granting Ukraine access to Starlink war begins But it’s not without certain risks: Musk has even hinted that Putin might target him for assassination.

But amid a rising tide of support for Ukraine, the government’s very public demands are difficult to refuse, providing the tycoon with a rare opportunity to be hailed as a hero.

As the war dragged on, however, Musk grew increasingly uneasy.

He claimed he had spent the night thinking about how to bring peace to Ukraine, questioned whether Crimea would lead to Putin retaliating with a nuclear strike and later suggested Russia could retain illegally occupied territory in exchange for a ceasefire.

However, the Crimean issue is not a simple one.

In 2014, it was illegally occupied by Putin. pro-western government came to power in Kiev ostensibly to protect the predominantly ethnic Russian enclave from reprisals.

Ukraine’s allies are also debating whether Russia should retake the disputed peninsula if it loses or be limited to liberating territory lost since the February 2022 invasion.

Excerpt from Isaacson, by Washington posthas since been updated to reflect the new version of the event, and is marked with a warning at the top to indicate that it has been Corrected.

This is embarrassing for any author and can lead to reputational damage. Furthermore, it always raises questions about what other details can stand up to scrutiny.

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