Uh oh, folks! Maybe it is time to be more concerned about terrorists cutting those undersea cables in the Middle East.
CNN and the International Herald Tribune both report that, early today (Friday) local time, another cable was cut, this time in the Persian Gulf, about 35 miles off Dubai.
The abiguity in previous news reporting about whether one or two fiber optic cables were cut in the Med on Tuesday, and whether they were cut in the same place 8 miles off Alexandria or at opposite ends of the Med at the same time, has been replaced by a much worse conundrum. Its not at all ambiguous now that at least two distinct cables were cut about 250 miles apart, on opposite sides of the huge Arabian Peninsula landmass.
What could possibly account for such sudden and nearly crippling impairment of Internet access, e-mail, and phone lines? Granted its still early hours as of this writing, but a Dubai telecom executive told AP that the cause hadnt yet been identified, and this latest service outage was very unusual. Congestion in the Middle East and parts of India has gotten severe, following so quickly after the break(s) on Tuesday. (If you think the U.S. is immune to these problems, remember how dependent American businesses and consumers are on support outsourced to India.)
Id rule out seismic activity for sure: Any tectonic event so widespread would have turned up on scientific instruments.
A sheer coincidence is at this point pretty hard to swallow: Major trunk cables seldom go out individually, let alone in widely dispersed pairs or triplets like this. (The last such serious problem, in 2006 off Taiwan, was indeed caused by an earthquake — but the cause was understood immediately, exactly because of seismograph readings.) OK, dragged anchors by ships near Alexandria may well be what happened there. But dragged anchors within the same week in totally different bodies of water? For storms plus stupidity to strike twice in three days seems pretty odd, even if the same weather system was involved.
So once again, we need to ponder the possibility that these cable cuts were intentional malicious acts. And even if the first incident was just an innocent but damaging accident, the second, off Dubai, could well be a terrorist copy cat event.
Regardless of specific causes, international Internet service already impaired by the cable break earlier in the week is now even more disrupted in the volatile Middle East, with effects being felt on continents far from the site of the cable breaks. Which is scary.
– Joe Buff
Two words for ya: Cloverfield. Doh!
Good Morning Joe,
Ok Joe, how about some details please, such as where these events happened, at what depths, closest hostile folks with the abilitity to do this and most important where was the 5th. Fleet and what ASW capabilites are needed to stop this international vandalism.
Finally Joe, your speculation of how this was pulled off.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
“Two words for ya: Cloverfield. Doh!“
lol you beat me to it. I was literally going to post the same thing!
you’ve got to wonder what the motive would be for terrorists (the bulk of whom have leadership in the middle east) to cut ties to their own region.
These people want to live in the Stone Age? Let em. No more internet for you!
heh, paul. Gotta get up earlier in the morning.
Pulling this of is easy. All it takes is knowing where a cable runs an a boat with an anchor.
It would be worthwhile to look into who has the alternative infrastructure for the middle east to fall back on. They are most likely the ones in a position to gain from this.
I thought this was Defense Tech, not Defense Spec[ulation].
I’d rather stick to getting my completely unsubstantiated alarmist speculation from… well, not at all, ideally.
I wouldn’t jump to conclusions just yet. Locations for undersea cables are tightly guarded, difficult to find, and usually buried.
Keep in mind also that this third cable that failed was a backup cable that in the past had not been used due to it’s unreliability. (http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=3919)
To quote Bruce Schneier: “Never attribute anything to malice, that can also be attributed to incompetence”
Sounds more like a NATO op if it was intentional. Terror networks are always using the internet to broadcast their propaganda. There is not much reason for them to do stop that. I’d say its a NATO op if it really was intentional and we were speculating here.
Anyone who thinks it is Nato is paranoid/delusional.
We have much better IO options than cutting cables.
And when we tap them, the USS Jimmy Carter does a really good job.
I much rather think this would be a commercial act
of terrorism… Terrorists are into terror not mischief.. cutting these cables had a result of loss
of communication … Great if you had a money interest.… Never that I know of has terrorism been
so “strategic” they murderers… not sabotage artists…
Any way .. there’s the 2 cents..
“I thought this was Defense Tech, not Defense Spec[ulation].
I’d rather stick to getting my completely unsubstantiated alarmist speculation from… well, not at all, ideally.“
Thanks TG. I comepletely agree with you. You editors must be hard pressed for stories to post this speculatory crap.
These sorts of breaks happen all the time, all it takes is one uneducated freighter crewman to drag a ship anchor over it. As an investor in fiber opticl lines, I am aware that there are several of these breaks around the world every year. Sometimes it is defective cable, sometimes a trawler anchor, sometimes someone with a backhoe on the beach. It’s most likely statistical noise combined with a region steeped in paranoia.
Well, since we’re in rampant speculation mode, let’s throw another log on the fire. Isn’t the Russian fleet doing exercises in the Med? Aren’t the Russian’s replaying the Cold War again: May Day parades, Bear flights near Iceland/US/Canada, shooting cruise missiles off of Europe? And what underwater practice is a Cold War favorite? Cable tapping?
i doubt it’s the russians — probably radical islamic fundamentalist groups who think the internet is anti-islamic
it’s not quite ‘terrorism’, and yet considerably more than ‘mischief’
10 bucks on CIA.
By the way, this reminds me of a certain event. First plane, “What a terrible pilot!”.
Second plane, “We’re under attack!”. So now we have the third(!) plane err cable cut, but Iran still hasn’t declared war on error or launched any new-clear missiles. What’s the moral? There is none. Not in this world.
Who needs facts to come to a conclusion? It was the aliens from outer space!
the us navy cut the cables. When the repair teams from the fiber companies come to repair the cut, the navy then splices another part of the cable miles away at the same time and inserts an eavesdropping box. This is how the us gets its intelligence.
by the way, these cables have MILES of play in them. They are not ‘tight’ else the strong ocean currents would snap the connections. A ship anchor would have to drag the cable MILES before it broke. Ships don’t sail with anchor down. The suggestion that THREE separate cables broke simultaneously due to anchors is beyond ludicrous.
The navy inserts the sigint listening device several miles away from the point of the original cut, while the fiber company repairs the original cut. It is done this way to avoid detection. Otherwise the fiber company would find the eavesdropping device during inspection of the original problem.
Anchors? I’ve got a bridge for sale.
Terrorist number one motivation is to get us out of Iraqi and the whole area so they can go back to normal operations…all this speculation that the terrorist have no motivation for it…ever hear of moral…cut communication with family members of US troops and disrupt the general economy of the area that uses communication capabilities and you are now winning without firing a shot. Come on ladies, start thinking like soldiers…disrupt communications!!!
Terrorists alone.
Since all else rules out.
Major threat alone to the global economy machine.
Infowars.com says that 4 cables are out,but that the internet for Israel & Iraq are working just fine.They’re wondering if something is about to go down,you know,knock out communications before you attack.It would however seem senseless(I just don’t believe it) since nobody seems to have any forces poised to attack anybody else right now.Now if all of a sudden various communications satellites start going off line.…..
When I worked at a telco in Australia, we had two paths of a SDH ring from Sydney to Melbourne. One was terrestrial, the other submarine.
On the second day I was in the US for conferences/meetings, a trawler pulled up the submarine cable, putting it out of service. No big deal, the SDH did what is was supposed to do and the terrestrial picked up the load.
On the fourth day I was out of the country, and three days before the cable repair ship was on site of the submarine break, a backhoe dug up the terrestrial link, causing complete failure of communications between the two cities.
My point is, it’s not outside the bounds of possibility that this was purely accidental. Trawlers dragging the floor of the ocean plus a container ship with an idiot crewmember who likes to play out the anchor chain might just coincide, and couple that with the time it takes to find, reel in, fix and test a submarine cable makes it seem like it’s a coincidence, when it’s really an overlap of events.
I heard a rumour that the cables were cut by cyber-crabs on heat!
My one and only in Iraq has internet. Anything is possible.
Don’t soldiers in Iraq get access to satelite communications? Such that they don’t even use the cables on the ground and the cables under the sea they use the satelites in space and dishes on the ground because they are in remote bases or preindustrial areas? Aren’t cell phones even more common in a lot of these 2nd and 3rd world places than land lines? Also from what I have read these cables aren’t the only way for India to get internet. India can go the other way around the world through japan guam hawaii US. The only interesting conspiracy there is that with the cuts going from the Middle East to the West cut that forces all traffic to go to the east through the United States. It slows everything down but some can get through it just passes through the UNited States telecoms.
It’s obvious what has happened here. This is all Bush’s fault.
You see, by not signing the Kyoto agreement, Bush directly caused global warming to increase. This has caused temperature change and many animals that once lived in peace and harmony to have to move to new habitats, some of which are not ideally suited to support their new inhabitants. This is the case with the Persian Gulf and its newest resident, the Great White Shark. Now everyone knows that the Gulf cannot support the food requirements of a Great White. None of the animal’s normal prey reside within the Gulf’s waters. This has caused starving Great Whites to seek new sources of food. These creatures have therefore cut our internet lines so that repair crews will be sent to investigate. Once the divers descend into the depths of the waters, the sharks who have cleverly hidden themselves amongst undetonated mines from the Iran/Iraq war (the fault of George Bush Sr and Ronald Reagan), will spring out to attack their new food supply.
You see, this is certainly the fault of the Republicans in general, and Bush specifically. The families of those soon to be dead repair crews can lay the blame at the feet of our “President”.
We are in the last days spoken about in God’s inerrant and infallible Word. Things are going to get a lot worse world-wide.
Living Hope In Jesus
http://www.livinghopeinjesus.com
Terrorists,know that we need comms only from their
own needs,and since they hate us,they cut the cables!What other,nonesens do we need to know?
Funny the terrorists would cut their access to the internet while leaving the West virtually untouched since there is a veritable spider web under the atlantic. And not to mention that it’s the US Europe and Russia that have the most satelites… china too I guess
is this really important
If it wasn’t an accident, it was the USA. They did the same thing to pakistan a year or two ago. They want to tap everything they can get their ears on.
Russians are cutting everything cuz they are so full of stupidity.
Who is the beneficiary ? Thats the question. If we don’t know him now. Wait for news, he may come up with the solution to this unreliable cable setup,to a new reliability that we shall follow and buy, when he does, i will know. Otherwise blame it on the waiter or Al Qaida because thats common.
I think it was aliens, teaching thier alein kids how to drive the family UFO’s (or USO unidentifed submergered objects). Illegal aliens are always up to something!
Oh yeah it’s Bushs Fault too.….….….……
Having worked on cable ships, I know that searching for a cable thousands of feet down on the ocean bottom is no trivial task. This can take days or weeks even when the cable’s original location was well known. The parties that lay the cable know it’s rest position on the bottom to a remarkable degree of precision. On the other hand, when a cable is broken, particularly by dragging, it’s position can be shifted by significant amounts. My conclusion would be that either someone provided accurate location data,unlikely situation, or they failed by unfortunate mistake.
Where is the USS Jimmy Carter at the moment?
Other than that, I would suggest Mynocks.
Well I could tell you who done it. But then they would want to kill both of us. and that my friend would just be reduntant. um, best guess, Al Gore, he invented the internet and global warming. so klnow he is trying to cool it off a little.
Unidentified submerged object
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidentified_submerged_object
UFO Files — Deep Sea UFOs-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=933Guc7_VE4
UFO Files — Deep Sea UFOs Red Alert-1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbTy8FHAmQQ
http://www.dailytech.com/Bad+to+Worse+Fifth+Undersea+Cable+Cut+in+Middle+East/article10598c.htm
Another one cut. Sure doesn’t look like an accident now.
UPDATE at 2:30 pm EST on Wed 2/6: Well folks, a Google News search on ’”undersea cable” + cut’ just now turned up several sources that say two intriguing things:
1. As citanon posted, a fifth cable has been cut, although the cut might actually have been a second cut to one of the earlier 4 cables — not sure this minor distinction makes much difference re who or what is causing said problems,
and
2. Several news sources state that the Egyptian telecoms ministry insists that the cable-lay area off Alexandria is very well protected and marked, and NO ships either anchored in or transited through the area where 2 cables were cut a week ago.
Grandjester:
Mynocks only chew on power cables.
thaaaaaank you MAN
thaaaaaank you MAN
excellent blog