Undersea Cables Cut: Oops or Uh-oh?

Originally posted by Xabora
I think I found something of interest.

Wiki - Iranian_Oil_Bourse
The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse - 2006

Iran oil bourse scheduled - 2008

EB reader BB writes:
Iran was scheduled to inaugurate its Oil Bourse this coming week.

That probably isn't going to happen because all internet access in Iran was cut over the weekend (the undersea cables were chopped). This was mentioned on Wikipedia for a day... but now the article links and coverage have disappeared.

Iran is in total internet blackout at the moment. Any further information is appreciated.

[edit on 3-2-2008 by Xabora]

[edit on 3-2-2008 by Xabora]

Out of all the maybes and "I thinks" I've seen in this thread, this one makes total sense. Now you see the Russians posturing in the region with their only Carrier Task Force to show support for the "Oil Bourse". Of course they will also have a few (or more?)Hunter-Killer class subs in the area with the Task Force that are probably patroling the areas near the cables right now toward off any more "underwater saboteurs". Just because it's not all over the mainsteam media doesn't mean you can't figure out two plus two for yourself.

reply to post by DancedWithWolves


I was tickled mercilessly as a child. What can one do? Think "good" thoughts and say affirmations? At some point one could choose to "poke" right back and then it's not giggling anymore... USA 193 just passed over me... cloudy. Like this deal in the Gulf... like driving in fog with a stuck cruise control, no brakes and the map is upside down and the little red light on the dash doesn't blink anymore... it's solid red.

Vic

Take a look HERE www.globalresearch.ca... at the last few weeks news.........

Originally posted by V Kaminski
Still can't get a site inside Iran. Has anyone had any luck?

Yes, I have had a bit of luck.

Also elemming posted this link.

Iran is not disconnected

reply to post by makeitso


Thanks makeitso... U of T is answering... slowly, but answering.

Cheers, and thanks,

Vic

So, the Renesys Blog you gave is only repoting on THREE of the FIVE cuts so far...... Also still saying ships will be sent out on the 5th, not the 10th, due to delays as other sites have reported. No offense, I'll take their report with a grain of salt.

[edit on 5-2-2008 by Yknot]

[edit on 5-2-2008 by Yknot]

I barely found something on the 5th cable cut myself... but all afternoon long, Florida was practically limpling along on the net with service cut somewhere in Georgia between Florida and the rest of the world. There are a few images and the full story here:

FULL STORY

There is a good chart there showing the percentages of internet outage by country..

Listen I run a tracert to 80.66.177.14 or .25 and I run a WHOIS... I get RIPENET for Tehran U... listed out of Europe. Same way isna.ir is out of Vancouver or irna.ir is out of NC... oh well, time for a medicinal and a snooze... Am I really pinging Iran? Tomorrow.

Thanks, makeitso,

vic

I found a pic that shows why we can still get to Tehran.

Its the overland fiber going to Turkey.




Yknot...

No offence taken. Its just a link I saw on one of the other threads. Maybe right, maybe wrong. Dunno.

[edit on 2/5/08 by makeitso]

reply to post by kokuryu


Nice link.



Why isn't Iran listed in the chart?

[edit on 5-2-2008 by loam]

Well i just tuned into Coast to Coast to see what the take on this is.

But nothing to listen to ...not even a mention. just some old bat talking about ghosts and reincarnation.

Also nothing mentioned about all the air force activity out west.

You figure even they would be all over this but yet nothing.

I'm headed to bed now wondering what news i'll wake up to in the morning.

[edit on 5-2-2008 by Krycheck]

reply to post by V Kaminski


Strange

Dnsstuff whois for 80.66.177.14 shows it as Tehran.

and so does Visual Traceroute

[edit on 2/5/08 by makeitso]

Originally posted by loam
reply to post by kokuryu

 

Nice link.

Why isn't Iran listed in the chart?

[edit on 5-2-2008 by loam]

It came from the first link on the Renesys link.

They explain why Iran is not listed.

We have gotten a few queries about why we did not highlight Iran in our review of the network outages that resulted from the cable breaks. (See here,here and here.) Like most countries in the region, the outages in Iran were very significant, but for the most part they did not exceed 20% of their total number of networks. Now 20% is a significant loss, but in the context of an event where countries lost almost all of their connectivity, such a loss did not place Iran into the top 10 of impacted countries. So we focused most of our attention where the losses where the highest.

But thats kind of strange, since SA, BA, and IN all had less than 20%, but they are listed on the chart.



[edit on 2/5/08 by makeitso]

reply to post by makeitso


S'cuse the lateral jump here, but the routing of those overland cables look very familiar...perhaps the follow the same path as the Tblisis-Baku-Ceyhan oil-line?





[edit on 5-2-2008 by citizen smith]

Originally posted by Now_Then

Originally posted by stumason
In a nutshell, I do not believe they can successfully tap a fibre optic cable, not without attracting huge amounts of attention and being found out, seeing as the operators will know exactly where the break occured and also the fact that they cannot get any meaningful info out of the traffic stream anyway.

Well hang on a second.

Weather or not it is technically possible (not my area at all - can't comment) the whole issue HAS attracted huge amounts of attention.

Good point. Lets think like a spook for a second.

Why not cut TWO slices in each cable? You could then add a tap to one break, and leave the other broken.

This way it can carry the appearance of an accidental cut, and no one will find the tap. The cable gets fixed, and hey presto, undersea NSA Echelon device has got what it wants.

Here's a scenario that's running around in my head....

Critical U.S. networks are being attacked by off-shore sources. The quickest way to stop an attack is to disconnect from the network. That's what I do at the server or workstation level. If the attack is big enough, ephemeral in nature, ( given the thousands of potential "bots" engaged in such activity ) and the PTB doesn't want to panic the local population....maybe you disconnect the network in such a way that it localizes the attack source. Then, a couple more disconnects in order to hopefully pinpoint the source...I suppose you could monitor routing tables and guess where the aggressive traffic is being re-routed?

My point being....maybe it's a defensive move? Most of the posts here seem to be focused on a "first strike" offensive type move....could be the opposite....at least that possibility should be explored.

I read all the news links (thanks) given and in almost all the verbage was "cut".

Has it been proven that they were cut? Not the buoy. There are a multitude of

ways it could of happened.

Double post.

Sorry.

[edit on 5-2-2008 by Desert Dawg]

The Herald Tribunes headline is calling the cable breaks, "ruptures."

In the body of the article they're calling them "cuts."

www.iht.com...


Ruptures make me think of cable quality and what country supplied the cable etc.
I can think of one country that's known more for its poor quality goods and shoddily made, dangerous at times products.

Other than reports of cuts, have we seen anything that shows evidence of a cut?

Originally posted by MrPenny
Here's a scenario that's running around in my head....

Critical U.S. networks are being attacked by off-shore sources. The quickest way to stop an attack is to disconnect from the network. That's what I do at the server or workstation level. If the attack is big enough, ephemeral in nature, ( given the thousands of potential "bots" engaged in such activity ) and the PTB doesn't want to panic the local population....maybe you disconnect the network in such a way that it localizes the attack source. Then, a couple more disconnects in order to hopefully pinpoint the source...I suppose you could monitor routing tables and guess where the aggressive traffic is being re-routed?

My point being....maybe it's a defensive move? Most of the posts here seem to be focused on a "first strike" offensive type move....could be the opposite....at least that possibility should be explored.

No, No, No and no.

First line of attack would be figure out the nature of the attack, then take appropriate action.

Do you rip out every cable in all your routers/switches when the firewall gets pinged?
Sure, it disconnects you and keeps you safe, but causes alot of work.

If systems are online, then it stands to reason that they are required to be online for a specific reason, hacking through parts of the internet is not going to do anything to help.

If the US systems were being attacked, and that attack was so serious to warrant taking the systems offline, that means there is a vulnerability in the security of that system. Cutting off the attacker would lead to loss of important data in how the attack was achieved. Even once the cables were cut, the vulnerability could still be exploited from another route. Last line of defense would be to turn the effected routers/switches even servers off, until the exploit was patched.

Unless they phoned a microsoft help desk, and were told to turn it off and on again?

If (which is looking likely) the attack is orchestrated, we are seeing something that is being done for financial gain, or denial of service for whatever reason.

Systems admins don't cut cables, they value them greatly.

Wonder if this could be seismic or volcanic related?