Bad to Worse: Fifth Undersea Cable Cut in Middle East

Originally posted by Riposte

Originally posted by Pellevoisin
Try submarines and other submersible craft equipped with arms, torches, saws etc. That is far more likely what was employed or is being employed.

I don't think submarines are equipped to launch submersible deep sea craft.

About forty years ago the USA had the technology to employ submarines and 'hack' into Soviet deep sea telephone lines. Today they have far better technology, and cutting such lines is no great challenge though the kind of craft and machinery would probably leave the ordinary joe in awe. In addition to submarines, there are all sorts of submersible craft that could be employed and launched from a variety of venues. For the USA it is very easy to do this.

But it is also not outside of the range of others like Israel, China, Russia, and Great Britain.

Strong Africa earthquakes kill at least 40
02.03.08, 2:29 PM ET

www.forbes.com...

reply to post by jamesder


That is a misread of the info. At least, one major router is down. That doesn't mean it is the only router down, and it certainly doesn't mean that cables haven't been cut.

The cut cables have been independently verified and not are not speculations based on outages and drops in bandwidth. While nations are inspecting their cables, it will take some time to discern just how many in total have been severed.


[edit on 6/2/08 by Pellevoisin]

Originally posted by jamesder

Originally posted by Esoterica
reply to post by Pellevoisin

 

I've been visiting a few iranian (www.***.ir) websites. For example, their Information and Communicaiton Technology government website is up, as are every other media and government website I tried.

If you look for information from people who seem to actually know what they're talking about, it appears a single major router went down and no cable was cut today.

It's easy to jump to conclusions (as I did and probably will) given the buildup in the gulf.

The Information and Communication Technology website in your quote, for examle, has an Iranian URL but the website is hosted outside of Iran.

There is more here than meets the eye.

Maybe Iran did it and wants to make it look like the US.

Ok, I have been loosely following this story until tonight when I decided to peer a little bit deeper into the specifics of the cables depths, integrity, etc. And here is what I came up with on the submarine communications cables that are in question:

A cross-section of a submarine communications cable. 1. Polyethylene. 2. "Mylar" tape. 3. Stranded steel wires. 4. Aluminum water barrier. 5. Polycarbonate. 6. Copper or aluminum tube. 7. Petroleum jelly. 8. Optical fibers.
Submarine communications cable

These cables are not iron protected like they were during the 19th century, modern technology has allowed them to use other more efficient materials. They are just as pictured above, and they also have another level of protection being buried in trenches. The cable weighs about 22lbs per yard and is 2.75in thick, or at least most are. Wiki also says deeper water section cables are typically lighter and thinner.

WikiPage

Now onto how they became severed. Plenty of cable cuts have occurred over time due to boats anchors, trawling, undersea avalanches, and "shark bites". Shark bites? Sounded far out to me so I dug a little deeper into that realm. I found that there had been reports of sharks biting through cables underwater causing millions of dollars to AT&T and other phone companies. They pulled the damaged cable up and found a few teeth of a shark that had stuck in the cable when it was bit. However, these recored attacks were on a different type of cable in the Atlantic. These cables were strung out above the ocean floor like a tight bar extending for miles and miles. The cables in the Persian Gulf are submerged and are not above the surface like the ones in the Atlantic leading me to dismiss the shark bite incident in this case.

Also take note that the Persian Gulf is not a very deep body of water, only about 280 feet deep at the max. This makes the boat anchor / trawling theory more plausible.

Undersea avalanches / seismic activity ? Well it turns out that on February 2, 2008 there was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake in the Persian Gulf. That certainly could cause some cable cuts.
Source: IRIS Seismic Monitor


After reviewing all of this information I still am concerned that there have been a reported 9 cables cut within the past 2 weeks or so. The incidents are also contained in the Middle East which is troubling. Lets see where this goes...

a friend sent a packet/trace to Iran which went through Turkey and made it to an Iranian IP. Completely normal and nothing out of the ordinary.

Not claiming anything definitive with that, but he's a very smart fellow and it seems to be the consensus among that group of "uber nerds"

Originally posted by Harlequin
so , `they` want to upset ME countries as well as India who own the damn cable in the first place.

silly people playing silly games - next we`ll see satellites and land phones line going down i bet.

Riddle me this. Who owns the internet?

This is bad. My bowells soften and release (BSAR). Oh my God, what shall I do? ----PC

Originally posted by West Coast

Originally posted by Harlequin
so , `they` want to upset ME countries as well as India who own the damn cable in the first place.

silly people playing silly games - next we`ll see satellites and land phones line going down i bet.

Riddle me this. Who owns the internet?

I'm going to venture a guess and say no one actually owns the internet per say but I have a feeling I'm looking too deep into this

reply to post by LogicalPhilosophy


Well, who invented it. Many of the physical attributes to maintaining the internet is on US soil.

If America truly wanted to cut the world off from the internet, it probably could.

I KNOW WHAT IT IS I KNOW WHAT IT IS!!!!

It's the monster from Cloverfield!!!!!!



Edit: Why was I denoted? This is a viable Skunk Works answer!

But to stay on topic, is it possible for some massive fish creature to harm these cords? Perhaps an underwater alien sabotage? Seriously though, I think Cloverfield has some explaining to do...

Edit: Maybe it was a terist. Or an alien shapeshiftin terist.

[edit on 7/2/2008 by Nyorai]

Originally posted by Pellevoisin
A clock is ticking for the Skull & Bones boys. They need to invade Iran and get to Persepolis and also to the grave of Cyrus before the current Iranian government floods them in a dam project. After the Skull & Bones boys got what they were looking for in the Great Museum in Baghdad .. scavenger hunt for the honour of Enlil and Lucifer...

Somebody should send a
* diplomatic-scientific-security mission; or
* controlled reputable scientific-security ngo
to video record as much as possible.

Enlil is not Lucifer


Mod Edit: Fixed quote


[edit on 2/7/08 by FredT]

Originally posted by Quazga
Uhm... You obviously have no strategic background. If you want to cause serious problems without incurring the wrath of public opinion, then you disable the communications comming out of the country


Also, you cut off communications which are used to move money in different accounts.

there are literally 100's of reasons to cut communications outside of the country.

Uhm... but they can still do all of those things.

I cant believe people are still debating wether they were intentionaly cut or not, COME ONE, five cables in less than a week. Also, I have read alot of the coments and nobody is talking about the Irainian Oil Bouse ( I am sorry if i missed somebody who has ) this should be the main topic of this thread. THIS IS A WARNING TO IRAN NOT TO START IT UP, AND A WARNING TO OTHERS NOT TO USE IT, OR ELSE LOOK OUT.The American economy is allready at breaking point, if Iran and other countries start trading oil in other currencies ( which they have every right to do so ) it will be the straw that broke the camels back.

This is a very interesting mystery. I think the pertinent question here is: Who Benefits?

I think the mystery will begin to unfold if you can answer this question.

Originally posted by Esoterica
I would imagine that the Iranian military would still have plenty of radios and landline phone connections. It's also, physically, not very large. I don't think cutting the internet would severely hamper their defensive capabilities for a first aerial strike. It would divert their attention and create confusion and panic.

However, their internet has not been severed. It's been damaged, along with many other nations.

Also, the link provided saying Iran is offline only connects to one router at one univeristy. That rotuer is offline, meaning it's not sending info to the website, resulting in a return of zero. Iran is not "offline", not any mroe than Egypt or Pakistan really.

Just want to clear things up...

The "internet" does not exist, as a standalone network. It means "interconnected networks". All traffic, be it voice or data, all gets transmitted over the same fibres. These cables carry any and all traffic, not just ISP traffic, although that does make up a significant bulk.

Also, for those saying Western media doesn't cover this, I've been following this on BBC for some time.:

A submarine cable in the Middle East has been snapped, adding to global net problems caused by breaks in two lines under the Mediterranean on Wednesday.

The Falcon cable, owned by a firm which operates another damaged cable, led to a "critical" telecom breakdown, according to one local official.

The cause of the latest break has not been confirmed but a repair ship has been deployed, said owner Flag Telecom.

Well, someone at The Register thinks we're all mad and this is a fuss about nothing

Cable cutter nutters chase underwater conspiracies

Apparently it's just an accidental coincidence

Does this mean some of our 'outsourced' jobs can start coming back to America? I am sure the true nature of this sabotage will come to bear sooner than later. I know this is 'way out there', but, could it be the cause of the damage is better unreported, like alien in nature?
Hopi, they will cut the net....hmmm.

[edit on 7-2-2008 by jpm1602]

[edit on 7-2-2008 by jpm1602]

What ever happened to good journalism? They report cable cuts left and right causing the ATS speculation to run amok but wait, there are now ships repairing the cables correct? Were I a good news agency I would have a team on the repair ship finding out what caused the break. At the very least I would be in contact with the ship. Was this a cut with a torch or a saw, any sharks teeth embedded or does it look like a pressure break indicative of a cable break due to tectonic action? If anyone finds info related to this I would love to read it as it would really narrow out the guesswork.