Fourth Undersea Cable Cut Near UAE, Suspicions Rise

February 5th, 2008 Posted By Pat Dollard.

underwater_cable.jpeg

Engadget:

For the fourth time in a week, an undersea communications cable has apparently been cut (or “failed due to a power outage,” as some sources suggest), and while no official reports of subversion have surfaced just yet, things are beginning to get suspicious. Flag Telecom, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, has had two cables damaged in the span of a week — a quandary it has never dealt with until now. As it stands, traffic from the Middle East and surrounding areas is being routed through various other cables in an attempt to remain online, but any more snips and we could be dealing with ping times eerily similar to those seen in 1993 (or much, much larger issues).

Related Article in the Herald Tribune


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12 Responses

  1. Brian

    If this is sabotage, how does one cut an underseas cable?

    1. Are the locations of these cables publicly available?

    1a. Even if you knew where these cables ran, finding them underwater adds to a dimension of difficulty. It’s not like a dropped bar of soap in a bathtub. Although I suppose if the cut occurs close to shore where they would have to hook up with mainland infrastructure I guess that would be easier to find then.

    1c. So if it was close to shore, it could have been an anchor like one report said. If two of the cuts were caused by ship’s anchors (cnn.com 02/01), what are the chances of an anchor hitting and damaging a cable? I would think my chances of getting a date with Jessica Alba would be greater. This excuse sounds like the ones we used to make up when I worked in tech support (cust: “why can’t I get my email?” tech answer: “we had a DoS attack on the mail server” == “the software upgrade crashed the server and when we tried to roll it back, something screwed up the dns routing blah blah blah” or vice versa depending on what really happened)

    2. What would be required, tool-wise or weapon-wise, to cut the cable? If it’s made to withstand seawater and water pressure and wildlife, I am guessing they must be fairly strong.

  2. Kermit

    That water is not very deep. Maybe 300 feet at its deepest and for the most part about 150 feet deep or so.

    There are a whole lot of divers for offshore drilling and pipeline inspection that could easily perform any cable cutting. I am not so sure about these days, but about 20 years ago most who taught commercial diving were former Seals.

  3. Brian

    Ok, thanks. So, then, finding them and cutting them requires some training and skill, perhaps akin to flying a commercial aircraft?

  4. Jim

    I believe the cables are covered in a polychloride and a metal mesh…It is going to be fiber optics and yes we would sabotage these lines directly or indirectly…As Kermit mentioned about the Seals, this would be their expertise and a very viable mission. I’m thinking Israel because of the location of the other 3…

    But we will never know

  5. GF

    Move along… nothing to see :wink:

  6. Rudemeister

    I don’t know if you guys have heard about this. But 4 under sea optical cables have been cut in the past week in the Mideast. Two were cut in Egypt, one was cut in Dubai a little bit later. And guess what? One was just cut in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Some people have tried to attribute this to strange coincidences with ships dragging their anchors. Uh huh. Sure. Let me just say that the coincidence is too statistically staggering.

    All these cables have effectively cut off……you may have guessed it……Iran from the Internet. Their bandwidth has now been reduced to 1993 levels. That’s like trying to drive while looking through a straw.

    In this age of modern warfare, one of the first acts of war is to blind your enemy. I cite the first and second wars against Iraq as a proof of concept. It has to either be the US or Israel that is setting up for something against Iran.

    Mark my words, this is no accident. Something fishy is going on.

  7. Gaige Mosher

    Okay, not the question is, is this a prelude to serious military action against Iran, or are we just fuckin’ with their toweled heads?

  8. Dave M.

    Also some stuff about this over at The Belmont Club,
    http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com
    Certainly seems suspicious.

  9. azbastard

    iran probably cut it because to many people watching porn.. and reading about how good it is to be free

  10. Dan (The Infidel)

    azbastard makes a good point. I wouldn’t put it past the 7th century idiots in Iraniac to cut off the Internet in order to curb the freedom of their people. And I still say it was the Iraniacs that are doing it. Could be azbastard’s
    scenario or just a bunch of Al quds practicing for something bigger.

    If the allies were doing it, seems to me they would just tap the lines and listen in to military traffic, like we did to the soviets and then leave no trace of our having been there.

    Israelis? Maybe.But why cut only a few lines, when they have the expertise to do much more? If they they were planning an operation?

    Nah…looks like an amateur malicious operation. malcontents, Al Quds, criminals maybe?

  11. David Ross

    It wasn’t that long ago that we were wondering what use the minature sub that Iran was “showcasing” could be used for. Well I’m willing to bet we have found it’s purpose.

  12. drillanwr

    No, guys, wait … I got it … I GOT IT! (hand in the air)

    We are experimenting with our new Nanotechnology … Our SEALs scuba down, use some sort of injection device and squirt the little mechanical buggers into the cables and they eat and chomp away until it’s cut off.

    Doesn’t that sound like the “charge” Pres. Amydidherdad might soon come out with? Thw “free world” is no longer safe. The evil United States has robo-bugs that will soon help the Satan Bush to take over before he must leave office …

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