Third Undersea Cable Cut

Many readers are reporting that another undersea fiber optic cable has been cut, apparently caused by another wayward anchor. It looks like Iran has completely lost Internet connectivity."

Third cut?

[Eevee]

Once is accident.

Twice is coincidence.

Thrice is enemy action.

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Re:Putting the puzzle pieces together

[Kadin2048]

It was widely reported from a variety of whistleblowers at the turn of the millennium that the U.S. was preparing the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter to be able to tap underwater fibre-optic cables. See Bamford's Body of Secrets [amazon.com] for exmaple.

That this operation was carried out on the submarine named after the president who did the most to reduce spying on civilian targets shows just how petty and spiteful the professional privacy violators in the NSA are.

What does that have to do with anything? You don't need a sophisticated submarine just to break the cables in half. All you need to do that is a ship with an anchor and an approximate idea of where the cables are located.

Tapping a cable is a subtle move, requiring a lot of technical expertise and work. Breaking one isn't.

Re:Third cut? do i smell Conspiracy BS?

[orclevegam]

Out of curiosity while would Russia or China be more likely then the USA to want to cut communications with the middle east? Also, by defining USA and Rebels as a maybe, they by definition must be more than 0% likely, therefore it's impossible to then list Russia or China as 100%.

Re:InformationWarfare

[HTH NE1]

I feel like America is going to do something stupid.

"Going to"? Been doing stupid things for awhile I would say, hmm?

Re:Third cut?

[riseoftheindividual]

If this is the work of our spies, they aren't earning their salary. They're incompetent bastards who should be fired for lacking any type of stealth or subtlety.

How much tech do you really need to cut a cable? It doesn't seem like it would require much in the way of high tech capability. Given that these cables are communication lines carrying western influences into muslim countries, I would say that at this point, we should not rule out militant acts to make a statement about wanting a reduction of western influence.

If this is our spies, this would seem to be a pretty boneheaded execution of tapping lines. But, since they work for the government, we can't rule out boneheadedness. Or just really bizzarre random chance, though that's kind of hard for me personally to swallow at this point.

Ya but conspiracy theories have to be complicated!

[Sycraft-fu]

You can't have a conspiracy theory if it is simple and straight forward. After all, a simple straight forward plan involving just a few people might actually work. No, rather it has to be massively and unnecessarily complicated with lots of intricate connections. That way, the people who notice the conspiracy are great geniuses for being able to see what nobody else could!

Seriously, it is just more of the same shit like moon landing conspiracy or 9/11 conspiracy. You've probably noticed that we have a fair amount of nutters on /. and of course they are going to subscribe to wacky conspiracies.

This is just going to be one more of those. However it doesn't work if it is something simple, they are only compelling if they are twisted and convoluted and something only the US government with its massive resources could pull off. A sub with some secret cable cutter sound so much better than a fishing trawler with an anchor.

"The Monsters are Due on Maple Street"

[HTH NE1]

"Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines, their telephones, their lawnmowers, throw them into darkness for a few hours, and then sit back and watch the pattern."

"This pattern is always the same?"

"With few variations. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find.... and it's themselves. All we need do is sit back and watch."

"I take it that this place...this Maple Street...is not unique."

"By no means. Their world is full of Maple Streets, and we'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves."

Re:Third cut?

[rucs_hack]

Sorry to muss your tin hat, but its no accident that all this is happening just after someone made the monumentally stupid decision that boats should anchor in the same area as the cables.

This is more likely down to one of two things, attempted money saving or pointless bureaucracy.

I say this because I have serious doubt that if the US were going to do it, they'd have done it in secret. I'd go for it being done after some threats, or as part of an actual invasion, and I don't see one anywhere, do you? It's not as if this could really stop Iran or anyone conducting war, there are these little things called satellites.

Yes it would disrupt business, but um, what good would that do the US Government? None in the short term, and in the long term the cable would be fixed.

Re:Third cut?

[GnomeThinker]

So, a "Flag official, who declined to be named" reports that a major portion of the Gulf region's communications are being rerouted through the US and UK. It's probably not as fishy as it sounds. I seem to recall a major portion of all Internet traffic at least passes through the US. However, it does make you wonder.

Of course this adds an interesting twist to the NSA wanting to access the 'tubes' that are running through the USA and the big worry that the anti-terrorism battle will be horribly lost if we don't let them sniff every packet that crosses the continent.

Re:Third cut? do i smell Conspiracy BS?

[RingDev]

How many ways are there to cut a cable buried at the bottom of the ocean? Saying that it is improbablr for them to be cut in the same way is absurd. That's like saying it's improbably for 3 people to be shot by a gun, as opposed to beat to death or suffocated with it.

It is improbable for 3 cables to be cut in such a short time frame, but the manner in which they were cut is entirely plausible and expected.

More importantly, look at what did cause it. Are the lines running under high traffic waters? If so, why did it take this long for one of the lines to get caught? If not, why were those boats trying to anchor there? What was causing the movement of the anchor? Storms? Idiots? Tides?

And truly, it's really not even that unlikely. Running cables next to each other makes maintenance easier, so it would lie in reason that if you are dragging an anchor across one, you are likely going to drag across the other. And once you cut the line, you are going to wind up with more vehicles in the area attempt to repair and investigate the situation. And with more traffic you increase the likelihood of another accident.

-Rick

Re:Third cut?

[crmarvin42]

I say this because I have serious doubt that if the US were going to do it, they'd have done it in secret.

I'm not a tinfoil hat type, I don't see conspiracy where ever I look, but why would it have to be the US?

Re:Can anyone enlighten me?

[russotto]

It's amazing that a ship's anchor could have the strength to pull apart two layers of stranded steel armour wires, a layer of copper, kevlar layers, and three polyethylene layers.

Have you ever seen an anchor? Sure, it's just a hunk of low-tech metal. But it's a very LARGE hunk of low-tech metal. Connected by a very heavy cable or chain to a ship which weighs many, many tons. Ripping apart a communications cable = not a problem.

Re:Third cut?

[Chris Johnson]

The question quickly becomes: is anyone actually retarded enough to think that if you cut off the internotz to Iran, you can secretly bomb them and nobody will notice? Or, not notice in a timely fashion?

Re:Ya but conspiracy theories have to be complicat

[Firehed]

Or the conspirators are just counting on an incredibly stupid general populace (safe bet) and an outcry of hatred by those that believe the assumed story towards those who question the truth (also a safe bet, as proven by your post and so many others).

I'm not taking or stating my views on any of the conspiracies you mention, just pointing out a flaw in the argument. Which I suppose makes me assume you're a conspirator for looking for a loophole, dunnit?

Of course, what would go into faking a moon landing or 9/11 being an inside job is just the slightest bit more complicated than some idiot in a boat turning out to be from the government instead of just being your standard idiot.

Re:Shallow seas

[scubamage]

Given that I can't recall in recent memory when one of these cables has been cut before the liklihood of these cables being cut one a day for 3 days, purely by chance, to be almost nil. A ship captained by a reactionary who hates the net? Possible. Goverment surveillance? Possible but strangely high profile. You better believe any sensitive data going through those tubes is gonna be monitored by warhawks in every one of the affected nations. Also, it wouldn't surprise me if China at the very least sends a sub out to verify the integrity of the cable over its full length. The fact that we conspiracy nuts are thinking it means that the conspiracy nuts in the affected nations' departments of defense were probobly taking action yesterday.

Re:How to tap the cable

[Eric Smith]

If the US wanted to tap the cable, they'd just use the submarine USS Jimmy Carter, which was retrofitted a few years back to perform exactly these sort of operations. They'd do it without any detected loss of connectivity.

While we're at it...

[CFTM]

Since we're all speculating like crazy on how the evil Americans did it, I figured I'd speculate that the evil north Koreans sent a fleet of fishing boats to the mid east and dropped anchors on these telco lines in order to get the Iranians pissed off so they'd attacked an American vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, precipitating world war III...given that GWB has about 11 months left, they figured to get it down now.

Yep, that sounds every bit as ridiculous AT THIS POINT.

Let's wait for a little more information, I'm sure by Monday international news outlets will be giving a more thorough report on what is occurring, though I doubt Fox News ever will...

Re:Third cut?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now they'll just have to phone/fax Haliburton

Re:Third cut?

[rubycodez]

here, let me fix that for you:

if this is followed by reports of various U.S. supplied deep penetrator bombings of Iranian uranium processing facilities by Israel in Iran which cannot be verified due to the lack of communication, then it would be even more suspicious.

Re:Has anyone considered?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm...jihadis have gotten bashed overy day 24-hours a day since earlier this century. A LOT more than the US ever has.

Re:Third cut?

[pugugly]

I love how any criticism of the U.S. is always translated as "The US _is_ the source of all evil".

Because y'know, any criticism of temporary policies always indicates a vast, hidden belief structure.

Sigh - Pug

Re:Third cut?

[wurp]

Er, coincidence certainly does exist. Three one-in-a-thousand events have a one-in-a-billion chance of occurring together, completely coincidentally.

I'm not arguing that this particular event is coincidental, but you're being just as blind as your tone implies others are if you think events never coincide just by chance. The important thing is to have some idea of just how unlikely it is for obviously related events to coincide. (In this case, fantastically unlikely.)

Re:Third cut?

[Chris Snook]

Actually, if you want to test your surveillance of an enemy's communications networks, deliberately disrupting their communications can be a very worthwhile experiment.

It's notable that Iran is now supposedly cut off entirely. If the Iranian government has any secret communications links, it'll be much easier to tell when they're using them.

Re:Third cut?

[spun]

Some people think America is always evil. Others think America can do no evil. A few of us believe that we should take it on a case by case basis. There's no proof here that America did anything. But this is likely more than a coincidence. When was the last time you heard of an underwater cable being cut? Never? Yeah, me neither. Then, boom! 3 or 4 in a few weeks. Not very likely. Now, I haven't ruled out coincidence, but I have shown probable cause to search for another explanation. So, who has the means, the opportunity, and the motivation? The Bush administration. Am I saying I know for sure they did it? Of course not.

Now, are you saying you know for sure they didn't?

Proposal for special +10 brilliant rating

[jd]

Some comments simply deserve a special "otherwise unachievable" rating. The parent post would be one of them.

Re:Third cut?

[jd]

No, you picked Bush because 98% of the planet wishes it was him, and the other 2% handed him cable cutters.

Re:Third cut?

[Dun Malg]

We all know that ironyblind people can see irony correctly underwater while those who have correct perception cannot.

There, fixed that for ya ;-)

Attempted facetiousness != irony.

Re:Third cut?

[Dun Malg]

Calling something a coincidence, on the other hand, is a way of psychologically dismissing it. It's a way of protecting a persons sense of being in control, which is very important to most people.

The desire to be in control makes people see controllable events as random and uncontrollable? Interesting analysis, to say the least! The same theory would be more accurately applied to conspiracy theorists. The compulsion to see undesirable events as having human instigators is an expression of the desire for control. Some folks find the idea that there isn't someone behind these events, that there's nothing that can be done to prevent these random horrors, too frightening for words. They grimly cling to the notion that someone, somewhere is in control of things, making bad stuff happen. Someone who, if the conspiracy were only exposed, could be made to stop these terrible events.

Just thought of a THIRD reason to do this

[WillAffleckUW]

What if there's a revolution going on in Iran and they cut their own cables?

It's not that hard to arrange, and it would cut them off from any media coverage while nobody could communicate to the media without becoming very visible and easy to arrest ...

Remember what happened in Bhurma when the monks revolted - they cut the Tubes to the Internets.

Bing - no pics of people revolting - and they could quell it successfully by killing a few people and beating or imprisoning the rest.

It's not always what you think. Sometimes it's different ...

Re:WHat? are you serious?

[Plekto]

The obvious punative reason to do this to people in Iran is to make the people unhappy with the current leadership. That's exactly the sort of reasoning our government believes will work with Cuba as well. As insane as it is, they still think that making the people unhappy will somehow make the people blame Iran's government instead of the U.S.

Re:Third cut?

[laejoh]

ironyblind?

It just means you can't understand a certain kind of humour.