Third Cable Cut

[ninakat]

No way it's accidental.

It's probably just incompetence.

[Pele'sDaughter]

Oh, yes, I'm familiar with the concept of intentional incompetence. They even give promotions and bonuses for it.

[jingofever]

A longish Wired article from 1996 about the FLAG cable. Just some background information.

[Sweejak]

By my count, we are probably dealing with as many as eight, maybe even nine, unexplained cut or damaged undersea cables within the last week, and not the mere three or four that most mainstream news media outlets in the United States are presently reporting. Given all this cable-cutting mayhem in the last several days, who knows but what there may possibly be other cut and/or damaged cables that have not made it into the news cycle, because they are lost in the general cable-cutting noise by this point. Nevertheless, let me enumerate what I can, and keep in mind, I am not pulling these out of a hat; all of the sources are referenced at the conclusion of the article; you can click through and look at all the evidence that I have. It's there if you care to read through it all.

1) one off of Marseille, France
2) two off of Alexandria, Egypt
3) one off of Dubai, in the Persian Gulf
4) one off of Bandar Abbas, Iran in the Persian Gulf
5) one between Qatar and the UAE, in the Persian Gulf
6) one in the Suez, Egypt
7) one near Penang, Malaysia
8 initially unreported cable cut on 23 January 2008 (Persian Gulf?)

Three things stand out about these incidents:

1) all of them, save one, have occurred in waters near predominantly Muslim nations, causing disruption in those countries;
2) all but two of the cut/damaged cables are in Middle Eastern waters;
3) so many like incidents in such a short period of time suggests that they are not accidents, but are in fact deliberate acts, i.e., sabotage.

http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/ConnectingTheDots.htm

[anothershamus]

From Urbansurvival: http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

And with all the Financial Chaos and the Iranian Bourse going to the Euro What better time?

Urgent: Cable Cuts Now Total Five!

From our "eyes open" and be ready for the ME to go hot, not only are sources in Israel reporting that unofficially folks are being told to ready their safe rooms, but we now see that telecommunications cable breaks servicing that part of the world are now up to 5!

"A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each. These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria. " Source Link

About the drop in the price of gold today: Could this be a 'beat down' to let big players in on the cheap before something goes hot?? We're scanning for more 'telecom breaks' which might be a precursor to things getting ugly. That could be very bad for the equities markets as well...

[Joe Hillshoist]

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by men and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

[Penguin]

This is an interesting take on this as well:
http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/ ... arter.html

"So, at the risk of perpetrating a conspiracy theory, I will state that I am highly suspicious and until someone can point at USS Jimmy Carter snuggly alongside at its berth in Bangor, Washington, the Bush administration becomes as strong a suspect as any other possible perpetrator. There is also the fact that USS Jimmy Carter was due to become operational this year.

The Jimmy Carter, interestingly, is purpose built where its predecessors were regular attack subs modified for specific jobs. USS Parche was equipped with a set of pick-up arms designed to rip an armoured fiber-optic cable from its meter deep trench and tap into it."

"If I were conducting an intercept operation requiring an undersea fiber-optic cable splice which I knew the cable operator would detect, I need a way to prevent that operator from detecting it. Create a diversion."

Indeed. My take is that either someone is getting ready for some ugly action in the mideast, and preparing by taking out most seabased net lines before the attack begins, and then cut the rest - airstrikes on satlinks, cut the rest of the sea cables at the same time, take out power.
OR someone is putting up taps on all major optic cables serving Mideast and Asia. Or, it could all be coincidence - which at this point seems less likely. But well see.

So far the stories of "no interubes in Iran" have been bollocks. The site that says Iran is down takes its info from one single router in Iran. It means nothing. Several sites in Iran are up and accessible, those posters just didnt bother checking any. At least this was the case a few hours ago when I checked. The story just got wings fast and spread on the tubes

All in all, a little worrying story...

[Penguin]

Breaking news, just on BBC??! wtf is this...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7230396.stm

"Russia thinks the launch of an Iranian rocket into space raises suspicion over the true aim of its nuclear programme, a foreign ministry official has said.

"Long-range missiles are one of the components of a [nuclear] weapons system," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told Interfax.

Therefore Monday's test launch of Iran's Explorer-1 space rocket was "of course, a cause for concern", he said. "

[Sweejak]

Arms Control Wonk on the missile:

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1785/a-bomb-in-3-d

[sunny]

Breaking news, just on BBC??! wtf is this...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7230396.stm

"Russia thinks the launch of an Iranian rocket into space raises suspicion over the true aim of its nuclear programme, a foreign ministry official has said.

"Long-range missiles are one of the components of a [nuclear] weapons system," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told Interfax.

Therefore Monday's test launch of Iran's Explorer-1 space rocket was "of course, a cause for concern", he said. "

WTF indeed! What caused this sudden turn-around in Russia's attitude towards Iran? Our hopes that Russia would hold the brakes on a catastrophe just got a little dimmer...

[slow_dazzle]

It might have broken too late to hit the current online editions of Moscow Times, St Petersburg Times & other big Russian newpapers. Nothing about it in the current editions of Pravda or Tass. The only mention I could find is on Interfax which is strictly pro-Kremlin. Even then the article is a bit brief.

This sits very oddly with recent Russian statements about Iran and the trade agreements between both countries.

Feb 6 2008 2:25PM
Moscow concerned about Iran's tests of launch vehicle - ministry

MOSCOW. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Moscow is concerned about Tehran's tests of Kavosghar-1 (Explorer-1) rocket, which was launched into space on Monday.

"Any movements in the area of creating such potential arms, of course make others concerned, and moreover make one suspect that Iran could possibly create nuclear arms," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said on Wednesday.

link

[Sweejak]

I've seen statements like this before where they seem to change course, I think last time it was about fuel deliveries.

I think this is mostly posturing/card playing with the missile shield and Kososvo in the background.

Still, it's a legitimate concern for them about a neighbor developing ballistic nukes regardless of the background political climate.

[slow_dazzle]

This article appears on the BBC news website at present. A little bit about the cables being damaged/severed and then a lot of technical information followed by information to inform us unquestioning types that it was accidental:

In December 2006, seven of the eight cables connected to Taiwan were damaged by an earthquake, disrupting communications in much of Asia.

These cables took several months to fully repair.

Natural disasters are one of several causes of cable outages.

In this case, an errant anchor has been blamed and Mr Harper believes there is "still a partial conflict between the needs of shipping and of telecoms".

But it is not the biggest problem facing cable operators.

"Fishing is still the biggest issue. Historically in Europe trawler fishing has been a problem although in the last 15 years most cables have been buried in the seabed to overcome this," said Mr Harper.

Thank you BBC. Now please provide us with an explanation for the number of cables that have been damaged within such a short space of time.

[Seamus OBlimey]

Feb. 4 - Iran launches test rocket, preparing to send satellite into orbit.

Iran has launched a rocket designed to send its first home-made research satellite into orbit in the next year, state television said. The move is likely to add to Western concerns about Tehran's nuclear plans.

Reuters

Is this what we're seeing here? Western concerns?

[Sweejak]

Is this what we're seeing here? Western concerns?

This seems more concerning to me.
http://oraclesyndicate.twoday.net/stories/4677486/


Bill Hicks:

"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet.

"Pick it up."

"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."

"Pick up the gun."

"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, Mister."

"Pick up the gun."

(He picks it up. Three shots ring out.)

"You all saw him - he had a gun."