We momentarily interrupt our Election Meltdown ’08 coverage to quickly point out that a total of five large undersea Internet cables, leading to various areas of the Middle East, have now reportedly been “cut.” The Khaleej Times reports that “An estimated 1.7 million Internet users in the UAE have been affected by the recent undersea cable damage,” which, folks who worry about such things note, is in addition to millions of users in Iran.
We noticed the story when three cables were cut last week, but didn’t have time to look into it. We still don’t. Nor do we pretend to know what it all means.
But as BonnieNet — who’s done some good digging, and has put together a map of the locations of the reported cuts — says, “3 was quite a few. 4 is pushing it. 5 starts to make you wonder.”
Apparently, Ships Can Drag Anchors from Egypt to Malaysia
There were accidentally 3 cables cut, after being there for years. Then a 4th was accidentally cut. Then a 5th was accidentally cut. What’s so hard to believe about that? And it’s just a coincidence that Iran was most affected. (sarcastic; see fake Iran speedboat incident and fake stories about Iran’s “wmd”‘s)
Accidentally “cut” means “oh no Abdul, I thought you said off the coast of Egypt”.
Accidentally “severed” means “drop the anchor, we are taking on water and the storm is increasing … what was that jolt?”.
It seems that “accident” is not the appropriate word in this scenario.
“Test case” is more like it (“lets cut some of their communication lines and listen in to find out what they do in an emergency or invasion”), or (“lets do it to see which of our networks stop being hacked to determine where attacks are coming from”), or (“if we cut the lines we can hack into bank accounts locally and …”), or (“they won’t be able to hack the Super Tuesday machines again if we cut the lines …”).
Who knows …
Under the new FISA those who read mid east newspapers will be WATCHED.
For no good reason.
Call your Senator and urge them to vote against Rockefeller’s fascist bill that gives immunity to the fascist telecoms.
follow up to post #4
Like selling our ports to mid-eastern nations that supported the Taliban (and probably still do), where Haliburton moved its Headquarters, the selling of America continues unabated:
(Financial Times, emphasis added). The ports are most likely still being sold off secretly under “national security” phony cover up.
One wonders why, since the government allows wholesale selling of America to that area, do they spy on those who communicate with people in that area under the proposed FISA law now being debated in the Senate?
Who cut the news channels of the MSM so we don’t get the real scoop anymore?
There has been NINE CUTS on the cable network, not five.
It is industrial sabotage by none less than the American CIA, in concert with the covert elements in the American military, assisted by the Israeli Mossad.
It was done for one reason: Saving the dollar.
The Iranian oil bourse would have opened in the first of Feb and they would have been selling their oil in any currency EXCEPT THE US DOLLAR. The US CANNOT afford to have the petrodollar lose its supremacy as the primary currency of choice in the oil markets. The loss of the dollar as the primary currency of choice would mean the end of the American Empire as we know it and an end to the wars that America does, plus a retrenchment of the entire American military apparatus world-wide.
Hmmm, not a bad idea, but the bassturds running Washington wouldn’t have any of that, so they’d do literally ANYTHING to keep their empire afloat, including staging more 911s, more attacks on other countries, more industrial sabotages, etc. I’m ashamed to be an American these days.
You might wanna change that part about Iran, from BonnieNet link:
“… EDIT Many readers have written in to inform me that Iran is, in fact, not entirely offline and that InternetTrafficReport.com is a terrible source. However, there are still millions of people without service. Thanks for keeping me in line.”
Mozart has perfect pitch. The Washington trash just want to prop up the sinking dollar for oil. It’s hard to believe that people around the country take our leaders seriously.
Could it possibly be there is too much real information on the internet? They have to keep that spin machine spinning!
Mozart #6
I get your drift, but those are not Americans, they are the Amurkans (military industrial oil complex) who have infiltrated us.
I am always proud to be an American, but never want to be an Amurkan.
Kos said the CIA is a liberal institution. Kos is possibly an Amurkan plant, even tho daily kos is a liberal website. That is because of the bloggers, not because of kos.
It is Amurkan v American … that is the story these daze.
Okay I’ve read the post now and see the BIG picture. And people still believe that can’t happen in America, we stand for freedom. Well, freedom is now just a symbol to cover up their ever growing list of crimes.
Oh yeah, as far as a ship dragging anchor that far…I can tell you after having done all night anchor watches myself up in Bristol Bay, Alaska that could never happen. When your getting dragged aroun in a storm, the first thing you do is pick the anchor up so as not to slam into other boat or the beach. Now, in those narrow straights the only way anybody didn’t haul up their anchor in a strom is if they were ordered not to against their own saftey, literally putting their lives at risk!
Hey Dredd, don’t leave out congress– Eisenhower who coined the phrase for his departing warning speech originally wrote “the military industrial congressional complex,” but his speech writers made him take out the congressional part. It was too strong of a condemnation! So, try military industrial congressional oil complex!
On second thought, make that military industrial congressional telecom oil complex!
FISA is where to start putting these bastards back in their place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our government cannot convince our people to join our military and go to war against the people of the Middle East without cutting off communication between our people and the people of the Middle East. It’s as simple as that.
And regarding the people of Iran specifically, they are a wonderful people, and there are many, many opportunities on the internet to dialogue with them and to share videos of each other. Our government knows this, and realizes it cannot fool the American people into supporting its war policies against Iran as long as we the people are connected with their people.
We are literally closing ourselves off from the rest of the world, by public officials who are afraid of the bogeyman. And in doing so, we are placing ourselves at greater risk from actual terrorist attacks, by fomenting more hatred of America, and by preventing Americans from having access to information, ideas, and communication with other people that might lead all people to understand and appreciate each other better.
If they give the telecoms imunity, every able bodied American better SWARM dc. Then vote every last one of em OUT! And to clarify, that would be peaceful swarming.
In only the past few daze The CIA has admitted to waterboarding, secret prison at GITMO, and targeting blogs for “turrists”.
When will they admit to building internment camps in the US to hold us?
BIG BROTHER is an Amurkan.
FUCK, THEY WERE SPYING ON US PRIOR TO 9/11!
Yeah Dredd, but the beauty of all this shit…Americans still out number amurkans.
There still is strength in numbers, if Brad and Bev can get this voting system scam straightened out!
A main cable in the US election has been cut, so, how about this scenario:
ROMNEY DROPS OUT
Obama/Clinton
v
“100 Years More Iraq War Plus More Wars” McCain
We know where the people are on this, and where the neoCons are on this, so, a thrown election will be obvious, will it not?
Here is a report with excellent source links at the end:
Connecting the dots
This link has a map of the Suez to Sri Lanka cable:
Feb 1 Cable Cut – ArabianBusiness.com
By my count, there are eight cables cut. There was a previously unreported cable cut January 23rd; There were five locations: 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. At two locations two cables were cut, near Dubui & Alexandria. That’s eight total; seven in two weeks. The repairs may be done about mid-February.
In unrelated news, US anti-missile ship the USS San Jacinto, an AEGIS cruiser in the Ticonderoga Class to dock in Haifa Monday according to the Jerusalem Post.
Ancient #11
Yep, the anchor must meet the need. A sea anchor when you can’t reach bottom or don’t have power but you need to face a certain direction, a bottom anchor for other times, and no anchor when you have power and want to face the storm.
Have you even been thru Seymore (a.k.a. Seymour) Narrows? I was at the helm last time I went thru.
Ancient #12 I have been on congress’s ass lately.
Ancient #19 I hope Americans do outnumber Amurkans, because that would be a damn good thang!
Come on you guys … it is a metaphor or allegory for the US Elections.
ROMNEY just cut the cable dudes, and the election is adrift without coherent communications.
Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are going to raise money and campaign for Hillary, according to a Raw Story.
Now tell me some frickin communication is cut … somebody is not getting thru … wha the f**k???
Come on guys, enough spreading of the mass hysteria: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke...t-the-cab.html
It’s up to FIVE undersea cables, spanning from the middle of the mediterrenean all the way beyond india, mysteriously cut all withing the timespan of less than two weeks.
Does someone smell Karl Rove and Dick Cheney planning another NEOCON bush war into Iran next week?
I smell global depression (see #6)…Speculation Central Banks Will Cut Rates
Re:#26 http://www.postcarbon.org, Sibel Edmonds, and Cognitive Dissonance
Hey Dredd my lil brother went down on a fishin vessel, an I seen some harry times myself.
But, I’d like to say THANKS for your insightful commentary.
And hey, Linda is that you?
You know who my favorite millitary is? THE COAST GUARD. They were disgusted with the rest during KATRINA!
I subscribe to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), and he has reported about these mysterious cable cuts several days earlier than here, and is the only other source I have yet heard this story. According to WMR, there has been a sixth cable cut recently to Malaysia. This is what was posted today on WMR:
Contrary to previous reports in the corporate media, Egypt’s Communications and Information Technology Ministry said the two cables that were severed near Alexandria last week, FLAG Telecom and SEA-Me-We4, were not cut by the anchors of ships. Egyptian authorities examined photographic footage of the restricted maritime area and no ships were seen 12 hours before and 12 hours after the time of the cable cuts.”
The fifth cable cut reportedly came off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and affected the FLAG FALCON ring cable the serves the Persian Gulf. The other cut was on the SeaMeWe-4 cable off the city of Penang, Malaysia.
The six cable cuts are being blamed on a covert sabotage operation. A hundred million users in Iran, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, and Maldives have been affected by the six verified cable cuts. Since Israel and U.S.-occupied Iraq have been unaffected by the sabotage, Middle East intelligence agencies and computer users are blaming the United States and/or Israel for the attacks.
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://bushout.blogspot.com/200...ng-cables.html
…it was an accident(s)! According to our wonderful controlled corporate media!
Have the neocons figured out a way to install
‘black boxes’ or other peripherals into the undersea cables, to monitor ALL the traffic going through them, similar to what the AT&T whitsle-blower said was done prior to Sept 11, 2001?
This could merely be the “switchover” to the monitored network from the earlier unmonitored version.
I would not put anything past these war-mongering NEOCON PNAC Fascists in the bush administraton, they have both the means and the motive as stated by their incessant ‘march to war’ against Iran like they did against Iraq.
Bush/Cheney need another war, to boost their approval ratings and prevent them from being charged with treason, war crimes and impeached as the worst, most corrupt administration in the history of the nation since Germany in WWII.
Well, it looks like plausible physical evidence for one of the cables has been found:
It seems like rather bad planning to have all the cables go through the same “choke” point, putting all of the internet traffic for that part of the world so close together. It smacks of an ad hoc building process, with pieces tacked on as needed instead of planned for scalability in advance.
Independently of the actual cause of the damage, this story has revealed an astonishing vulnerability to disruption inherent in their current deployment of cables, no? Similar to the way that our elections systems have been revealed to be vulnerable: aside from any determination of intent behind the problems, the problems still must be addressed! The wake up call has been delivered.
Then again, the last paragraph says:
If the cable owners have insurance coverage for these incidents, then a hefty insurance payment sure would come in handy right about now…
Wait until “they” start cutting oil pipelines. Then, like the movie says, “there will be blood”.
Read and watch video where keynote speaker at ASPO6, Dr. James R. Schlesinger, former US Energy Secretary, says:
(ASPO News) or watch it on youtube.
Iran oil bourse is opening on Sunday, 2/17. Iran doesn’t want to except dollars for oil, just euros. This could prove a financial disaster for the U.S. government. High probability that cables were purposely cut to this new oil exchange to greatly disable it.
The last person that decided to get rid of the dollar as oil currency, and replace it with euros, was Saddam Hussein. A few months later, well, I think we all know what happened.
The following link will take you to the more comprehensive story behind this: make sure to read down all the way to the bottom.
http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html