Third Undersea Internet Cable Cut in Mideast
February 2nd, 2008I spent some time this evening trying to get a better idea of what this information warfare campaign is all about. (Anyone who tells you that this is some sort of fluke is a f*@$^!& idiot, and that’s being kind.)
Remember the Iranian Oil Bourse?
This is from January 4, 2008:
Iran Oil Bourse to deal blow to dollar
Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:45:41
The long-awaited Iranian Oil Bourse, a place for trading oil, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, will soon open.
Iran’s Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari told reporters the bourse will be inaugurated during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (February 1-11) at the latest.
“All preparations have been made to launch the bourse; it will open during the Ten-Day Dawn (the ceremonies marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran),” he said.
The Minister had earlier stated that the Oil Bourse is located on the Persian Gulf island of Kish.
Some expert opinions hold inauguration of the bourse cold significantly devalue the greenback.
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Maybe that’s it, maybe not. But it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the legend about the ship anchors.
Via: CNN:
An undersea cable carrying Internet traffic was cut off the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, officials said Friday, the third loss of a line carrying Internet and telephone traffic in three days.
Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.
Ships have been dispatched to repair two undersea cables damaged on Wednesday off Egypt.
FLAG Telecom, which owns one of the cables, said repairs were expected to be completed by February 12. France Telecom, part owner of the other cable, said it was uncertain when repairs on it would be repaired.
Stephan Beckert, an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues, said the cables off Egypt were likely damaged by ships’ anchors.
The loss of the two Mediterranean cables — FLAG Telecom’s FLAG Europe-Asia cable and SeaMeWe-4, a cable owned by a consortium of more than a dozen telecommunications companies — has snarled Internet and phone traffic from Egypt to India.
Officials said Friday it was unclear what caused the damage to FLAG’s FALCON cable about 50 kilometers off Dubai. A repair ship was en route, FLAG said.
Eric Schoonover, a senior analyst with TeleGeography, said the FALCON cable is designed on a “ring system,” taking it on a circuit around the Persian Gulf and enabling traffic to be more easily routed around damage.
Schoonover said the two cables damaged Wednesday collectively account for as much as three-quarters of the international communications between Europe and the Middle East, so their loss had a much bigger effect.
Something smells; and it ain’t whaleshit.
Yeah, I was surprised this wasn’t also filed under “coincidence?” Seems like a hell of a one to me.
No kidding. Anchor once, fine. Anchor thrice in three days …
It’s a dry run, like the “gone missing” nuke a while back. Get the kinks out of the plan before it goes production. Holy interesting times, Batman.
Yeah, I was surprised this wasn’t also filed under “coincidence?”
Good point!
The anchor excuse really smells…dragging anchors makes no sense. Plus, while it seems most of the Arab countries lost internet, Israel didn’t. That’s NO coincidence!
Other things that smell are the simultaneous bomb blasts in Baghdad which killed 72 people. I wonder if those “terrorists” have anything planned for the Monday before Super Tuesday. Other than another video by bin Laden, who’s supposed to be dead according to Benazir Bhutto, but of course she’s not around anymore either.
I tell you its Ken Lay dragging the “anchor” on his submarine that’s responsible for “cutting” all these cables.
There’s a good thread about this on the mailing list of the North American Network Operators Group.
http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg05863.html
Caught the following in the comments at Americablog:
“A third undersea cable has been cut, effectively eliminating the Internet in the Middle East. But according to CNN that cable outage does not extend to Israel, Lebanon and Iraq.
“Is it a coincidence that these three countries, who represent the next phase of the war on terrorism, were spared in the communications blackout that is affecting the rest of the Middle East?”
More at http://www.dailyscare.com/comment/reply/2955
This, about the ability of a U.S. submarine to tap underwater fiber optic cables, is interesting. http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050218-uss-carter.htm
In San Francisco, everyone walks by that AT&T building where a backup copy of the internet is diverted to the NSA, so I guess this is feasible, but many might think, how likely is it for them to do that. Yet, why would defense industry people gossip about this technological capacity, if there hadn’t been an intention to use it. There are probably all sorts of things a submarine could do.
My friend’s ATT cell phone tends to turn itself on at night, and yesterday it turned on and showed a screen saying “swipe card” (with a debit card image like at grocery checkout machines), as though a stray signal had activated a program which would let you use it for credit payments.
There’s speculation that the cable cuts and the Superbowl are linked. This is a scary scenario. From Scholars for 9/11 Truth–a press release:
http://twilightpines.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=121&Itemid=67
Here’s just a clip from the total article:
“An analysis now making its way across the internet is being attributed to Sio Bibble, who concludes, “A communications disruption can mean only one thing—invasion.” On his scenario, American military radio chatter during the game could provide cover for other communications taking place. “03:00 and the troops are up, file into the mess to get a cup of coffee, sandwich and watch the game,” Bibble writes. “Meanwhile, an Israeli sub in the Gulf goes to Battle Station alert. The game starts, the troops go wild, they get pumped with adrenalin and into combative psychic. 10 minutes into the game, a micro-nuke goes off in the stadium. The aforementioned sub commander gets the signal and launches his surface to surface missiles at various Iranian sites and several American ships.”
“The sailors on the ships are stunned by what they see on the TV screen,” he continues, “then the Claxton horn goes off as American ships start taking hits. The ships go live, the Iranians go live. American sources declare a surprise Iranian attack as three American ships sink in the Gulf. The smoldering Super Bowl is blamed on Iran, Mom and Apple Pie need to be defended.” According to Fetzer, no matter how fantastic this might sound to those who have never studied 9/11, it is an appealing alternative for an administration that has run out of options and whose leader is widely regarded by the American public as the worst president in history. It could reverse his standing at a single masterstroke.”