Update: February 4, 2008 - Fourth Undersea Fiber Optic Cable Cut.

Cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged
on Sunday, February 3, causing more telecommunication disruptions.

source / credits: Earthfiles

coincidence? i don't think so...

Egypt's Communications Ministry reported Sunday that damage to the undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean was not caused by ship anchors, as previously speculated. In fact, the Egyptian transport ministry said that onshore video cameras at the location of the damaged cables did not show any ship traffic in the area when the communication cables were damaged.

[edit on 4-2-2008 by EBE154]

About the same time, there was power disruptions in dubie and possibly other area's.

Was this 4th cable telecommunications or that and power???

yes i guess the cut of this fourth fiber optic cable was also responsible for the outages due to the effects this had on the power plants... probably their whole network operating systems stopped working for some time before using their own built-in units. (intranet)

[edit on 4-2-2008 by EBE154]

What the poo?

Now I have to ask the central question. Who did this?

It is prep for some sort of follow up? Who is benefiting from this sabotage?

Edit: I am quite sure that someone is withholding knowledge.

[edit on 4/2/2008 by Nyorai]

Most people without thinking will accuse the US.

That said, it is a good question of who gains from this.

If you think about it, Russia would gain greatly.
They can blame the US, without any proof, and then take aggressive actions based on their unproven theory.

An excuse to put more Russian militray in ME?
An excuse to challenge the US?
An excuse to let their little muslium buddies do their terrorit actions?

Don't laugh, Iran would gain greatly from this.
they can whine to their Russian buddies and hope for some action-a Russian militay base in and around the nuclear bomb making-er-civillian power generating-:lolsorry, I can't say that without laughing at Iran an peaceful).

reply to post by mrmonsoon


That is because most people can't think for themselves so they need something to pick on kinda like Microsoft let's pick on the big guy..

just thought I would mention MS I am not a fan of MS and do not use it Linux and open source for me thank you..


Respectfully

reply to post by mrmonsoon


Hey thanks for bringing up the other point of view. I have always seen the US as the one solely as the hand behind false flags.

But if they really wanted to I suppose Russia or anyone else for that matter could blame the US or an ally of theirs as an excuse to act aggressively or otherwise.

In any case, I get the feeling something is really being withheld. Something could be going down.

reply to post by EBE154

cables did not show any ship traffic in the area when the communication cables were damaged.

Ok, so if there were no ships around then how did they get cut?

Its not like cutting a telephone wire. It would have taken some know how and planning. Could someone have got dumped off with scuba gear to the location and cut the wires? It just seems a bit odd.

It seems to me a "relitivly" simple thing to do.

Depending on how far down men in wetsuits/diving suits could go and simple cut the cables-I mean with some form of electric saw-or if time allows, even a non-electric one.

Honestly, I am surprised this sort ofd thing does not happen more often.

reply to post by Nyorai


The first benefit that comes to mind, would be that information flow into and out of the Middle East is restricted and can probably be completely cut-off very easily now. That would be an important advantage if anyone wanted to launch a pre-emptive attack on a Middle Eastern Country.

Not naming any names..

Around 90 percent of the services were expected to be restored by Sunday, the ISPAI said.

So it's not a total wipeout... but still curious though.

Cables of this strength are typically 69 mm in diameter and weigh over 10,000 kilograms a kilometer. In deeper waters lighter and less insulated cables are used.

Cable Map

Cable map

Undersea cable map

Submarine Cable

Submarine Cable


Another perspective

Its all pretty interesting.



[edit on 4-2-2008 by Digital_Reality]

reply to post by Digital_Reality
It is called a submarine large or small could do the job using robotic arms to snip the cable. A good indication of how it was cut is the design of the cut and if it is a clean cut or jagged cut. rik Riley

It would be interesting if this were someone else other than the US, perfect timing too. These days who in the world is gonna buy the US saying "we were framed!" even if it were true? That being said I really do wonder who benefits the most from this.

As someone said in the thread the other day regarding this, it could be the Cloverfield monster coming to play

I can think of a couple of reasons that a cable break that isolates Iran even for a few days could be advantageous:

--- When a cable is cut the traffic is rerouted through some other cable or network to try to maintain as much service to the customers as possible. My question would be, are any of these temporary network traffic routes going through the US or somewhere else that the NSA or somebody could listen in?

--- If the US (or anyone else for that matter) wanted to freeze bank accounts or take some other monetary action against IRAN, what better time to do it than when they are off-line and can't monitor or react to the situation.

--- There is also just plain old misdirection. "Look here! Look here!" when something bigger is going on elsewhere.

Like others have said, I don't think this is just a random string of unfortunate accidents. I agree that somebody is up to something.

Could we be looking at a more insidious form of direct censorship here?

Filters and guards may prevent some from accessing the internet freely but are always subject to back doors.

Cutting the cables is a sure fire way of making sure that information flow is severely restricted out of the areas in question, at least to civilian sources (war of hearts and minds).

Could this be the calm before the storm? The media blackout before the start of a war against Iran?

Originally posted by 44soulslayer
Could this be the calm before the storm? The media blackout before the start of a war against Iran?

Considering all of the turmoil in the Middle East it would be easy to come to the conclusion that something is "brewing." I don't know if the "something" is as big as a military attack on Iran but it could be.

Also, if the US really was planning to attack Iran, disrupting communications, banking, electrical systems and all kinds of other things would be part of the plan. A media blackout would certainly be in the mix but I think disrupting their military infrastructure would be a more likely goal.

Isn't it funny how another hot topic on ATS is called "Pentagon: The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an "enemy weapons system".
Not that I'm pointing fingers or anything, just find the coincidence amusing.

"Pentagon: The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an "enemy weapons system".

When I think about it, it is!

I'm rooting for US black-ops as the culprit. I've read somewhere on the Internet that it is common US military doctrine to disrupt communications of countries they're planning to attack.

Why now? How's that for a reason:
On February 19, after years of postponing and delays, the Iranians are finally getting ready to open their euro-denominated oil bourse.

That could mean a huge blow to the US dollar... maybe even the last nail in the coffin for our already ailing currency.

Seems like a good enough reason to me...