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Fifth Cable Cut To Middle East
You may have noticed a number of stories recently about undersea cables getting cut around the world. Apparently the total is now up to 5, but the scariest part of this is that Iran is now offline. You can also read Schneier's comments on this coincidence. Update: 02/06 17:42 GMT by Z : As a commenter notes, though the country of Iran is obviously experiencing some networking difficulties, it is not offline.
"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."
-Auric Goldfinger
But who is the enemy?
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
Hmmm, let me see. Is this one it? No that's Syria. Is this it? No that's Saudi Arabia. Ah, here we go, Iran.
first post on the fifth cable
That's one way to do traffic shaping :-D
One router in Iran -- the one that happens to be used by Internet Traffic Report -- is unreachable. As are dozens of single points on the internet in many states in the region.
A quick perusal of, e.g., newspaper web sites in Iran finds every one I have tried working fine, including all state-run media. As is the web site of the Government of Iran and numerous other government and press web sites physically located in Iran. See for yourself. (And yes, I am aware that simply ending in
I know all of you are just itching to believe it's a US information operation (I love some of the articles..."a secret Pentagon strategy called 'information warfare'" -- uh, guys, I hate to break this to you, but it's not a secret) to cut Iran off from the internet in advance of the secret Iran invasion that Bush -- er, Cheney -- is oh-so-obviously planning.
No one ever said that one ship damaged all the cables. What was said was that a single ship probably cut two cables in a particular area off Egypt. But that has been called into doubt in that location. Unfortunately, it isn't clear exactly where some of the cables have been damaged, so simply because one area didn't have a ship doesn't mean it wasn't possible for it to be damaged elsewhere.
Even if someone is cutting the cables, as telecom and undersea cable experts believe is unlikely, it would be better to actually consider the facts of the situation, instead of feeing the conspiracy mill with garbage like "Iran is offline" when it clearly isn't? How about waiting until the cables are raised to see what kind of damage has been caused?
But if you want to believe one guy's blog post that "Iran is offline", which ends with:
Or, we could perhaps consider that "[m]ost telecommunications experts and cable operators say that sabotage seems unlikely."
Or, we could perhaps believe the facts, which is that Iran is not "offline", as I have illustrated above.
It seems that the premise to this story -- namely, that Iran is "offline" -- is patently incorrect. So, since that is untrue, what are the motivations of people who want to believe this is a prelude to war?
That lying about it somehow serves a greater purpose?
Oh, and by the way, for all you pushers of the Information Warfare theory, keep in mind that it runs both ways. I wouldn't be surprised before Iran picks up on the conspiracy stories and starts promoting that itself. What a great way to detract attention from its continuing defiance of the world community -- no, not just the US -- on its nuclear processing.
2 cut cables are a coincidence
3 or more has to be deliberate. The question is, who is cutting the cables and what is their agenda?
Fear is the enemy; the one true enemy. {Sun Tzu-The Art of War}
Cut all the alternate paths until the traffic you desire to capture comes through your surveillance hub.
not-so-thick-tinfoil
The system is down. The system is down. The system is down. Down. Down, down, down, down.
Is anyone else beginning to think there's something fishy going on? (OK, sorry, excuse the pun).
If I'm honest, I was suspicious from the start, but I'm a tad too paranoid I guess.
ilovegeorgebush
Okay something is going on, I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories but shit. How do 5 connections get cut? Someone in one of the other articles said it could have been under sea volcanic activity but does account for all 5? I would have to say something weird is going on if you ask me. If anything I'm not buying a lottery ticket today, the planets have aligned and its not in our favor.
I remember last time a cable cut was reported they said Iran was offline that time as well. I'm not so sure Iran is really offline now either. I have been clicking into the websites of various Iranian universities and all of the ones I've checked so far are up, although some are kind of slow. While I guess it's possible some of them are hosting their main websites offshore, I doubt all of them are. Unfortunately, the routers here block outgoing traceroute for some dumb reason, so I can't verify for sure, but it seems like Iran is not as offline as we might think.
Is it possible this is the result of plate tectonics? How much elasticity do these cables have? Is it possible that the shifting continents are causing these cable breaks, or is there something more sinister afoot.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
According to Internet Traffic Report the Tehran node has been down for few days.
My
He says he knows it all he will just wait until his next post to tell you all, so this is where "journalism" is heading. It's all about the money of course, but it's actually the first time it's been so clear.
I don't think s/he has anything.
Didn't they say Iran was completely offline when the third cable was cut? Then I hear a fourth cable was and they were "now they're offline"! Now there's a fifth cable cut and the news is saying "Now they're REALLY REALLY offline!". And yet it still appears that they are still not offline.
So, how many fscking cables do they have and can they please tell us exactly how many have to go down before I can't ping a single thing in Iran? I don't wanna go through this on the next 12 cables . . .
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Iran has shown a connection of 0 for the past week or so. That doesn't mean a cable was cut does it? Just means that you cannot ping that one router. Last time I checked Iran had more than 1 router.
Also look at this.
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/namerica.htm
Does that mean Florida is offline? No it just means you cannot communicate with one of their routers.
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
Oops.
So when the basic, sole premise and of the story is wrong, and by extension the clear implication, where do we go from there?
from TFA "However, this author actually dug a bit deeper and found a trail that leads from the owners of most of these internet cables all the way back to some very, very large companies in the U.S. and in the U.K. Which companies you ask? Who is behind this?"
what. the. fuck?
the author clearly has his tinfoil underpants and armadillo hat on. I mean come on, whilst I realize that almost everything can be turned into a conspiracy theory this is too much. Accidents happen all the time and I remember reading that some of this outage is due to routing maintenance. Occams Razor, to me the facts as reported seem simpler then some ulterior motive and cable cutting gear.
Obivously, it's to stop them from downloading Truecrypt 5.
You gotta watch those loose anchors!
It's "Operation Notwork" AKA "InterNot" it was Big Dick's idea, but I liked it... submarine, big pair of scissors, there you go. - W
My suspicion: RIAA. They can't sue them, so they cut their cables!
Slashdot is too nerdy for me.
Do you has it!?!?!
Seriously, you'd think they'd armor them a little better in areas where a collision with an anchor is likely.
I'm tired of this myth. For the LAST TIME: There are NO laser-equipped sharks. All the shark operatives are issued simple wire cutters. Tests with sharks equipped with nuclear landmines were abandoned after it was found that the chickens drown too quickly for the sharks to be maximally effective.
Who says that it's America? The most likely suspect would be an Islamic nutbag, or group of nutbags that want to cut primarily Islamic states from western influence.
"Afghanistan is now the #1 producer of cocaine and cannabis."
You forgot heroine(sp).
"Iraq has over 1 million civilian death by now and is close to complete anarchy."
I'd have to see the stats on the deaths. Does it include people that die of natural causes also?
As for anarchy, there will never be any. Local sheiks will always have control of their regions. Well, as much control as Islamic militants will allow.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
How did 5 backhoes drive into the ocean in such a small period of time?
It's the Conspiracy theory heavenly event... 5 cables in such a short period ? with Iran being probably the most affected by this. ps I live in Lebanon, I'm not affected by this ( so far! )
I am putting on my tinfoil hat for this post but...
What if this is actually a US government plan. Make Hi-Tech industries from low-cost countries unstable and unusable. All of a sudden, companies panic and start to re-think the outsource planning that has been losing US jobs. What if the US is making a coordinated effort to rescue its economy by sabotaging others?
Don't you mean heroin?
C'mon get your drugs straight.
Besides Afghanistan producing large amounts of heroin is part of the plan since most of it goes to China, former soviet block countries, and Iran.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
According to an acquaintance who works for an ISP, the weird thing isn't that these cables are broken, it's that all of a sudden it's news. There are always issues with submarine systems. That is why we have so many repair ships in the global fleet:
list of ships
I finally get it, thanks for the post. Occam's Razor is responsible for cutting the cables !
Yes, that is a logical conclusion to come to. That this is prelude to Iranian invasion.
The conspiracy theorists just got more fodder. A low-flying plane cut Egypt's wireless Internet connectivity.
Some people in the USA might think that Iran is declaring some sort of economic war on the USA by daring to set an oil bourse that allows oil to be bought and sold in a currency that is not the US dollar:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7998
Obviously this is the beginning of the rise of the dolphins to re-take over the world.
1. Cut internet communication with the rest of the world
2. ???
3. Profit
...Al Gore taking back the internet since he wasn't getting any credit for it anyway.
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
I thought we were better than this...one router goes down and suddenly "OMG IRAN HAS NO INTARWEBS!"
Ok, so if Iran has _no_ intarwebs, I shouldn't be able to hit a server in Tehran right?
http://www.iust.ac.ir/
Wah Sig!
The big problem with your debunking of tinfoil-hat theories is that it doesn't account for 5 cables (FIVE!!! --- let that incredible number soak into your skull for a bit) being cut within the space of a few days.
It is statistically unlikely for a single cable to go down. No surprise there, as these cables cost dozens of millions apiece so they're engineered for permanence. Two in the same week is unheard of, unless there's an underwater earthquake. It doesn't take a PhD in statistics to understand that 5 cables do not get cut by normal processes in the same week or two, EVER. Under any circumstance at all.
So, while you're being partly rational in your response, you're also not addressing the issue. It can't be dismissed.
It was the Cloverfield monster!!!
"A sysadmin is a cross between a detective, a police officer, a gardener, a doctor and a fireman"
Without the Internet the people of Iran will be denied objective information and access to the outside world! They won't enjoy free speech and free press! The open exchange of ideas and knowledge will be stiffled!
Oh, nevermind . . .
Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
I'd either finger Israel or some fundamentalist Islamic group that doesn't want western views on the internet corrupting their women and bringing some of the countries out of the middle ages.
The internet is good for western propaganda so I doubt the the US has anything to do with it.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
The greatest threat to an oppressive religious regime is the free exchange of information and exposure to different cultures. The only thing cutting off communications would do is strengthen the power of the few people who already run the country. If you're going to make crazy conspiracy theories, at least get it right and say that Iran is doing the cutting.
read a Sherlock Homes novel, or about the scientific method? Nevermind....
Does anybody know where the USS Jimmy Carter is operating at present?
What about sharks? I saw a documentary that said that sharks are attracted by the stray electrical fields emitted by submarine cables.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
A communications disruption can mean only one thing: Invasion.
"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe
My unsupported wild-ass speculations about the cable cuts is that:
* The US is behind at least some of the cable cuts.
* The cable cuts may be the first step to a covert operation where the US wants to restrict news flowing out from the region.
* The US wishes to "punish" Iran for not cooperating with the US on nuclear issues.
* Something else is about to go down. Perhaps the US is looking to invade Iran afterall.
Well, let us hope that my wild-ass speculations are nothing more than that!
All of the above are legitimate wild-ass speculations. However, you seem to be stuck in a groove. There is no reason to assume that the US isn't behind this, but there is no reason to assume that it is.
Try this wild-ass speculation on for size:
The leaders in Iran are prepping for the mother of all crackdowns where they expect to kill civilians by the hundreds (thousands?). They are systematically shutting down communication out of the country so that they can do what they they want without the world watching.
I believe that the US is capable and stupid enough to be doing this. What I do NOT assume that we are the ONLY ones who are capable and stupid enough to be doing this.
Whether the cables are being cut by ship anchors, Navy Seals or lasersharks, there are slower alternate routes. In a pinch most Gulf-region ISPs can route the other way, through Asia, under the Pacific Ocean to America. Obviously that degrades connection quality. Backup routes were contracted after the tsunami damaged so many of the undersea cables at once.
The BBC has a decent article on the issue, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7228315.stm
The cables (at least two of them) are owned by http://www.flagtelecom.com/, they have updates on repairs on their news page and a nice map of the cables. Their Gulf-region cables are described as a "Self healing Gulf loop, providing maximum design capacity of 1.28 Tbps. Initial launch capacity 50 Gbps.
Four fibre pair route linking the Gulf to Egypt and India. Design capacity of 2.56 Tbps, with initial launch at 90 Gbps.
Approx. length 10,300 km."
Is it "they" or is it "them"? How come your are so sure it is "they" and not "them". My bets are on the "them", not the "theys". Before you go off telling everyone it is "They", you had better get all your facts straight.
Oh, and by mentioning "they", you've just popped up on the RADAR of both "They" and "Them". Nice going! And, in case you were wondering, I'm already being watched. I got nothing to hide.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Well, obviously the cables are shrinking and snapping off...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
what is UP with that story?
1. iran is not offline
2. the has been no "5th" cut
3. there are no actual schneier comments in the link, just the blurb w. links to info about the cuts.
how did this pass thru editors?
Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so.
CmdrTaco got a haircut today.... and IRAN IS NOW OFF LINE!!!!1!!eleven!
Bullshit. My buddy from Iran is currently chatting with me in on AIM. The cable may be cut, but Iran is far from offline.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
The Iran Institute of Science and Technology ( http://www.iust.ac.ir/ ) is online, and their servers are physically in Iran, but a traceroute from Roadrunner in New York, NY shows traffic going the wrong way around the world.
Tracing route to www.iust.ac.ir [194.225.228.25]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 194.225.228.25
2 8 ms 9 ms 11 ms 10.39.192.1
3 12 ms 8 ms 7 ms gig-4-3-nycmnyg-rtr1.nyc.rr.com [24.29.98.109]
4 8 ms 9 ms 8 ms pos-3-2-nycmnya-rtr1.nyc.rr.com [24.29.130.129]
5 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms tenge-3-0-0-nwrknjmd-rtr.nyc.rr.com [24.29.119.106]
6 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms 4.79.188.37
7 23 ms 18 ms 17 ms ae-32-54.ebr2.Newark1.Level3.net [4.68.99.126]
8 29 ms 18 ms 14 ms ae-4.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.101]
9 20 ms 16 ms 19 ms ae-92-92.csw4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.158]
10 14 ms 18 ms 13 ms ae-94-94.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.189]
11 89 ms 91 ms 89 ms ae-4.ebr3.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.69.132.81]
12 84 ms * 84 ms ae-93-93.csw4.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.69.137.46]
13 84 ms 81 ms 86 ms ae-4-99.edge3.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.68.20.201]
14 84 ms 85 ms 83 ms SINGAPORE-T.edge3.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.78.195.202]
15 118 ms 84 ms 83 ms ge-7-1-0-0.laxow-cr2.ix.singtel.com [203.208.183.81]
16 85 ms 274 ms 84 ms ge-4-1-0-0.laxow-cr2.ix.singtel.com [203.208.183.90]
17 276 ms 265 ms 282 ms so-3-0-1-0.sngc3-cr2.ix.singtel.com [203.208.149.185]
18 338 ms 253 ms 269 ms ge-0-0-0-0.sngtp-dr1.ix.singtel.com [203.208.149.78]
19 254 ms 272 ms 264 ms GigabitEthernet1-1-1.sngtp-ar4.ix.singtel.com [203.208.183.114]
20 284 ms 287 ms 303 ms 203.208.192.226
21 298 ms 286 ms 290 ms 217.218.155.201
22 301 ms 299 ms 292 ms 217.218.163.252
23 328 ms 319 ms 292 ms 194.225.239.254
24 298 ms 294 ms 303 ms 194.225.228.25
Trace complete.
Don't mess with The Phone Company. Piss them off and you'll be using two tin cans and a piece of string.
Iran's Oil Bourse is the target. Can't have the world trading oil in non-dollar currency. Nowadays, you cut the Internet and there won't be much trading. Props to Jeremiah Cornelius for the link.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
It doesn't sound like an anchor anymore, the ship responsible would've been spotted days ago. I doubt it is volcanic or tectonic activity either. A force strong enough to break all those cables would've shown up on seismographs around the world. Could drifting fishing gear do this? That would be hard to imagine but it is a possibility. Maybe the dolphins are getting back at us for all of those tuna nets.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Surprised not one of you file shoplifters have started this angle...
Its the RIAA and their new, cant stop em, cut em policy.
Now back to your regularly scheduled pilfering of copyrighted material
First no gays.. now no internet
From Bruce Sterling's blog at Wired.com...
"...Others maintain the damage signifies retribution for the impending opening of the Iranian Oil Bourse, which will allow trading in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, potentially diminishing the value of the dollar. (((As if the dollar wasn't busy diminishing itself, with or without submarines.)))
Clearly, the political impact, should the damage be attributed to military or financially motivated activity, poses severe implications, but apart from that, the mere impact on broadband connectivity within the region, and communications capabilities with Europe and North America have already been hampered, causing significant disruption to workflows at many businesses.
"This has been an eye-opener for the telecom industry worldwide," said According to Colonel R.S. Parihar, Secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India. "Today, the cause of the problem might have been an anchor, but what if it is sabotage tomorrow? These are owned by private operators, and there are no governments or armies protecting these cables."
http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2008/02/the-undersea-ca.html
Since they won't let Cheney satisfy his invasion fetish, Cheney has to do something with all that free time on his hands.
We all know this to be true - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dWA9DwDQpM
...that these news stories about cut cables comes merely weeks after the big hoopla the government made about needing to strengthen our country against cyberwarfare?
Best defense is a good offense, anyone?
Living With a Nerd
I'm sorry, I'll try to keep from cutting any more.
Oh CABLES, never mind.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
This isn't like some masterful blitzkrieg, it's more like the slasher cutting the power and phone line to the house and dicking around for 90 minutes scaring the person. What, the imam is going to get a call on his cell phone from George Bush and his communications guy is going to be like "Oh my God, the call is coming from inside our country!" Will he look out the window and see Dick Cheney's face illuminated by a flash of a clusterbomb?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Cutting the cables doesn't serve any purpose... but perhaps repairing them does. It would be a good time to insert monitoring equipment, no?
Not that I think that's what's happening... far too obvious, in a supermarket-checkout-line-pulp-techno-thriller kind of way. I'm sure they can (and have) tapped such lines in a less clumsy way.
But how many companies are equipped for these kinds of repairs? It would be fairly easy to predict which one(s) would be used and stock them with agents. Dunno.
NESSIE! The infamous Loch Ness monster unleashed is anger overseas...
With all of our technology and our superior intelligence community, why would we be so naiive as to think that cutting cables wouldn't be an obvious ploy to disrupt communications among Middle Eastern countries, and so that tactic would only backfire on us? Unless, our intelligence community calculated that everyone would think it was obvious, so that we'd never do it because everyone would immediately know it was us. But then, people would realize that we knew that they knew we'd think it was an obvious ploy and therefore no one would believe we'd done it, so then they would't believe we'd done it, all just to throw them off. But then, people would realize that we knew that they knew that we'd knew they'd knew... forget it. I'm going back to sleep.
So, how many fscking cables do they have and can they please tell us exactly how many have to go down before I can't ping a single thing in Iran?
Ah, obviously you, and perhaps the evildoers, the cable cutters themselves, need a little lesson in how the 'ol internet works. Because the answer is:
All of 'em. That's the beauty of the internet. Recall that this was one of the main design guidelines from DARPA. Like a big spider's web, take out one node, the traffic simply routes around.
So what's a little funny here is, the solid design of the internet, makes it quite hard to knock a country off the web
Fry: What's happening?
Dr. Zoidberg: All 6,000 hulls have been breached!
Fry: Oh, the fools! If only they'd built it with 6,001 hulls! When will they learn?
.
P.S. On a side note, how can we not believe in a conspiracty at this rate??? Seriously!!!
I'm sorry, I just can't believe that 5 under sea cables have been cut in so short of a time and not have it been deliberate. OK, it is possible that these have all been accidents, but who are we kidding? Seriously.
Now, who has the most to gain from this? I would assume that these cables have already been monitored by the US, so I doubt it is the U.S.A inserting monitoring systems. Not, mind you, that I would put it past us, but I believe that they probably already had this capability. Also, I think they would be able to do it without being so blatant.
Could it be Iranian agents purposefully cutting the internet to sever information to and from the country? Could it be the US cutting the cables, not to insert monitoring, but to actually reduce information flow? Is there a common denominator we are over looking? Is Kuwait affected? Oman? Qatar? UAE?
If we assume it is not an accident, there must be a purpose. Is it an anti-cyber-terrorism preemptive action? It certainly an interesting set of events.
Where in the world are you getting over 1 million civilian deaths?
*ponders*
Can we use real science, or at a minimum some standard statistical methods...thank you!
Does anyone know how often undersea cables normally have issues? Sure, 5 cuts in an area *seems* high to me, but then again, I don't have any frame of reference.
So, what is the statistical probability of an undersea cable having a minor, major, or catastrophic issue? If it's once a week, then perhaps we have an anomoly of location, not an anomoly of frequency.
I remember seeing some Discovery Channel show on how they end up fixing those cables, and it was rather interesting. I also have some fuzzy memory of how there are multiple boats designed to do this kind of repair work, and they are usually busy out at sea fixing *something*. I get the feeling (this is where my plea for verification comes in), that 5 cuts may not actually be TOO unusual.
The lobsters are revolting.
Cut cable #6 then!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
n/t.
Now we know where Cthulhu stands on the issue of net neutrality.
Unfortunately the same can't be said about their military and Islamist government that profits greatly from that wonderful connection.
I can't believe that people are *still* protecting the Iranian government (note I'm not talking about their citizens) after all the crap they've pulled during the last two decades. Just because the US media has tuned into Iran in the last five years doesn't mean this story came out of the blue. Iran has been funding and training terrorist groups and publicly boasting about it for over 20 years now. We've been waiting for their population to overthrow the Islamist government for years yet that hasn't happened either. Just take a look at the kind of things coming out of their government-controlled media: http://memritv.org/
Yes, most Iranians dislike their government but no this won't be happening anytime soon. In the meantime, thousands upon thousands of people die every year because of direct funding by the Iranians to terrorists. Ironically most of the victims are Muslim.
If you want to avoid war with Iran then you should be in favor of diplomatic action to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons which could be a pretext for such a war. By preventing economic sanctions from going through you leave the world no choice but turn to the military option. Also it is worth noting that we've held toothless diplomatic talk with Iran for decades now and that didn't work (if anything, their government got more radical). They need to feel the heat for there to be any change.
As several people here have pointed out, Iran is not disconnected from the Internet. Users in Iran have been able to connect to the internet without any atypical problem... this rumor has been swirling about for a few days. I manage a Persian-language website with many readers in Iran, so I have both the motivation and the resources to check into this... we've seen no decrease in traffic from within Iran. I've also been able to find no source for this that doesn't trace back to the Internet Traffic Report, which as other has pointed out has a somewhat inexact methodology. This is the second time this has been mentioned in Slashdot, and everytime it is posted, it gives me a heart-attack... there might be a need to post a correction or at the very least to stop asserting that Iran has no connectivity without better confirmation.
Does that mean Florida is offline? No it just means you cannot communicate with one of their routers.
Close, it means that the internettrafficreport can't communicate with on of their routers.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams, the ravenous internetrafficrepport of america is so stupid, that it thinks that if it can see it, you can't see it.
It is a common problem with "amateur" websites for gaming clans, person A "I can't load the site" person B "you are an idiot, works fine for me".
Is that router really down? Hard to say, other articles have already explained why the itr.com site methods are flawed, they are too reliant on a single paths to determine what works and what does not. All you know from their site is how THEY can communicate with the rest of the world, not how the rest of the world can communicate with them.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I had no idea until now (I've never even seen a .ir URL before), but one of the images on the Iranian government's Web site features the GNU and Linux mascots. Clicking on that link brings you to http://it.iran.ir/ which features instructions on how to add Iran's CentOS mirror to your yum repos. I think this article would've been much more interesting if it had featured the government of Iran's involvement in the free software community. For one, it would have been true. A government that distributes a free operating system can't be that oppressive, can it?
Have you driven a fnord... lately?
You must wait a little bit before using this resource; please try again later.
"My buddy from Iran"
No one has a buddy in Iran, only terrorists do
We'll be seeing YOU soon, be sure to have clean undies on, your gonna go away for a little while while we ask you some "questions"
The cables them are very redundant. Even though they require complete maintenance at regular interval does not mean that complete failures are anywhere near the norm.
The MTBF time of a single fiber strand+repeater is in the order of decades. Just through shear number of strands/repeaters over long distance make the failure rate become significant, but single strand or/and repeater breakdown is far from a complete failure. Complete failures are generally only caused by complete cable cut or land based failures.
First attempt I got a "503 Service Unavailable". How fitting. =)
OH NOES! The slashdot tubes have been cut!
Can all fish swim?
If the news is wrong, Slashdot, remove it or amend it quickly. This is not serious at all and destroys a lot of support in this site. We're not talking puppies here, so be serious.
...and boogie!
was to stop the basilisks lest they kill again!
According to the same source, it looks like Florida must have fallen off the edge of the world again! Quick, call in the Navy, wait, they are too busy in the middle east cutting communication lines... I love how the post talks about Iran being complete disconnected, and do you know what the source is? The Internet Traffic report, where if you look on their website, they list Iran being off-line as well as Florida and Germany. So the source is interesting but in no way a definitive source for making the statement that Iran is disconnected. Take a look for your self. (http://www.internettrafficreport.com/details.htm)
Now I know I am coming close to the lawn bit (get off my lawn ya damn kids) in age, but I was under the impression that the original design of the internet was such that if one node was "taken out" communication could be routed through other nodes. If you drop a main router, there are secondaries to take up the flow.
Simply put, there are many paths to where you want to go (unless where you want to go is bombed to hell)
Mayhap this is more then coincidence, but as a plan to effect Iran's connection to the internet it is a failed operation. Beyond the obvious land line option, there is now even satellite to allow communication flow in and out of a country. The design works!
Here are some optional theories just for fun...
* It is Iran cutting the lines and they'll accuse the US of preemptive attack and will use the distraction to complete their nuclear ambitions
* It is the Oil companies want to put pressure on Iran to allow more drilling and expansion of new oil fields in the country
* It is Russia...just because they like to push the world's buttons
* and finally, it is an alien race preparing for conquest of the world. They need to know how hard it is to knock out our networks. Thank goodness they don't know about EMP blasts
So if I got anything out of this bruhaha it is that the network works as designed. It routes around the failures and works to ensure data flow from point A to B.
Good job DARPA!
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
How old are these cables? Unless they're made from the recycled husks of classic game boys, this generation of cables might just be failing. Products do fail and are recalled from time to time, but in a situation like this it would be hard to take a cable back. Also, saltwater doesn't play nicely with electronics, in general.
just wanted the author to know. humour is rather subjective, don't sweat the mod down clown
-- How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.
We need to see what is going on in that region. I would not be the least bit to find out that it was us. It is almost certain that we have a small generator (probably nuke, but tidal might work in the right place) that allows us to tap elsewhere. We simply needed a break in the line, while we added out tap. Once the line gets hooked up, nobody would be wise to the fact of our tap. It would just appear that that the fix was not perfect (which is not surprising).
BTW, America is not the only one with this capability. UK, France, and Russia all have similar skill sets.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Transcript of an intercepted phone call between Washington DC and an undisclosed location, end of 2006.
... Forget about it George, you really f*cked up too many times. The next president will be a Democrit, nothing we can do about it now...
... Not so fast!...
... Hey, that you, Dick?
... Incident? You mean like one of those little boats attacking our fleet? It just might work... or else we will have to come up with another idea. By the way, you inside that safe again?
... Whahh! If that doesn't work, we can let the intelligence guys explain how Iran could produce a nucelar bomb within say a year... The old WMD trick.
... Go on...
... Of course, our candidates will have to start supporting George, the war and the surge. That way, when the sh*t hits the fan, they will look like the only people who can protect us... unlike the cut-and-run cowards cross the isle. Whahh!
... Sounds like a plan. But we need to cut off Iran's communications to make sure the attack is over before they know what hit them. I don't care what happens after John is inaugurated...
... So John it is? You know he will have to eat sh*t and kiss our b*tts to get the nomination... think he will?
... Let me see what I can do.
... Hey, I think I know a way to cut those communication lines. Lemme check with some of my old friends at Halli. Whahh!
... Later Dick. Oh, and you George.
(A muffled voice)... Whahh! How about this idea. We start a surge in Iraq to create an illusion of winning the war. Meanwhile, we force an incident with Iran...
(end of transcript)
What the hell does "but the scariest part of this is that Iran is now offline" mean? What exactly is "scary" about Iran but not the other countries?
Now we need to know if any of this arrives through an undersea cable going to Iran or if it goes through a terrestrial link or a satellite link.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
that he'd like all this freedom shit wiped out (After all, he's already wiped his ass with the constitution.)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Why on earth was this modded as flamebait?
How can a post be modded "overrated" or "underrated" when it hasn't been rated yet?
... April first is over a month and a half away.
Iran is visible from Europe.
realkiwi
Incompetence is not a crime, nor is it a hardliner policy.
What a great way to detract attention from its continuing defiance of the world community -- no, not just the US -- on its nuclear processing.
Sorry to bust your bubble, but there is hardly a world consensus on the handling of Iran's nuclear processing other then the United States overbearing pressure on other permanent members of the U.N. Security Counsel plus Germany, well as least behind the scenes:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41064
Besides both Russia and China have not adhered to any sanctions imposed on Iran by the U.N. Security Counsel plus you even have states like Turkey that have told the United States to "piss off" when asked to cut international banking ties with Iran:
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=95039
Didn't here about that little tidbit of information in the western press now did you? Just as you posted don't believe the cut cables are some type of "US information operation" don't believe that western media is somehow giving an accurate description of the situation when in reality they're only parroting statements from US government officials. Now would you like some bread to go with this circus?
"The American press, with very few exceptions, is a kept press. Kept by the big corporations the way a whore is kept by a rich man." - Theodore Dreiser
Iran is an Islamic Republic, meaning its government is half democratic and half unelected asshats.
The measure of a theory of behavior is not "Does this action/occurrence further the given goal?", but "Given a hypothesis that group X is pursuing goal Y, is the action Z the best action X can take?"
Let's take the goal of "cutting off Iran's information before an attack by the US". Does cutting the cables in this manner "further that goal"? Yes, it does. However, given that goal, would the US military consider this its best action? Hell no! If the US Military wants to cut off your internet, they're not going to give you a lead time of several days; they're going to cut off all your links within minutes, possibly seconds of each other.
Are extremist Middle Eastern groups cutting off the cables to cut off Western influences? They would lack the capabilities to cut all cables at once, but I also suspect they'd know this was a brutally short-term situation. Most such people seem to believe that standard authoritarian government techniques are a better choice. I can't quite rule this one out as thoroughly, but it would have to be an awfully small, insular group to think this is the best choice.
The problem with the standard metric of "does it further this goal" is that it leaves you with an excessive abundance of theories, which can't all be true, but can't be ruled out by that metric. Every event further numerous goals and sets back numerous other ones. You really need to be looking at what people consider their best actions; that tends to be much more constrained and much more accurate. Less fun if you need to see conspiracies everywhere though, but that's the price you pay for caring about truth.
And so on. So far, I haven't really heard a good conspiracy theory yet, so I'm still judging natural event as the most likely, pending more information.
They're on the net? Well, I guess with the massive censoring, they're on about 10% of the internet. So, now they're down by another 10%. Could be the government deciding it had become to dangerous to let in.
"Teach a man to build a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."
I think we can all agree here that this isn't a coincidence anymore.
But I just can't stop thinking why anyone would do this and wich value it would have.
Strategic value in preparation for war?
It seems to me that if you want to disrupt communication you'd focus on internal lines, not the external ones. Even if you'd cut of Iran completely their internal networks will still function. Destroy all communication seems a bit far fetched, you'd need to do a lot more then this and a lot faster. There are still a lot of landlines left not to mention satelites, ground phone lines, hell even a pigeon can still do a lot of comm.
Terrorist attack?
If it is they picked the wrong continent (you should have googled a bit more Osama!). Besides, also for terrorist organisations the net is of great value for communication and coordination. It seems a bit silly to cut of your own recources.
Islamic Extremists?
The internet is the root of all evil and must be removed from our Sacred Land? If you have the money, skill and organisation to pull this of you also have the brains to realise that the cables will be restored in 1 or 2 weeks. The effort vs effect ratio is horrible, so that's a very unlikely scenario.
Cutting and tapping the lines?
For each line that get's cut you'd need a second physical line next to it to start tapping it. Apart from the fact that such a operation will get noticed it seems to me that there are other cheaper and more stealth methods to achieve this.
The only reason I can think of is that it's just a test.
Just a test/excersise from someone to see what the effects are when such a disruption happens.
What are the effects on the population, how will they react? Same with world news and governemts, how much exposure and repsonse does such a event get?
Does it impact the economy, and by how much?
How much effort, time and money does it cost to cut of a certain region?
How much time does it take to restore it.
How resilient will they be and find alternative methods and routes? And so on. There would be much to be learned from from such a operation. A cyberwar simulation, but then taken to the next level
I'm placing my bets on this one.......
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
and not their fault. It's the fault of the cable layers for not putting sings up saying "buried cable do not dig" at the bottom of the ocean.
Suddenly these guys have a submarine and the sophistication to locate and cut deep-sea communications cables?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Allahuakbar! Death to Israel! Death to Amer*%#&!^$_+#@!^/,~.>? NO CARRIER
No, Iran is not offline.
/. users that post these stories and the admins who approve them had hit their head when they were very young.
http://english.khamenei.ir/
http://www.president.ir/fa/
very much online ( the sites are hosted in Iran).
Get a life, CmdrTaco, I expected at least you to check the news you post.
Anyway, if Iran were to be under attack or large scale action would be planned against it, I would not be posting here, but I would be jumping up and down in the field in full gear and shouting at my platoon, since any time there is big in our area, and Iran is not terribly far and this would be big trouble indeed, we find out first.
I get the feeling somebody wants really hard that there should be a war between USA and Iran, and that the one who wants it it's not USA. That, or the
now go mod me troll
Iran's not offline. Many Iranian sites (www.president.ir, www.tu.ac.ir) work fine. But instead of routing across the Atlantic it's routing across the Pacific, through links between California and Singapore. It's slower than it should be, but it's working.
To be fair, router1.iust.ac.ir isn't responding for me either. Oddly, though, www.iust.ac.ir responds fine. And VisualRoute is having no trouble with router1.iust.ac.ir.
ITR has only a single node in the Middle East, so it's not really going to tell us much about this picture.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Imagine the cable spewing out pornography, spam and inanity...those poor, poor fish.
I can't believe that people are *still* protecting the American government (note I'm not talking about their citizens) after all the crap they've pulled during the last two decades. Just because the world media has tuned into the USA in the last five years doesn't mean this story came out of the blue. America has been funding and training terrorist groups and publicly boasting about it for over 40 years now. We've been waiting for their population to overthrow the judeofascist government for years yet that hasn't happened either. Just take a look at the kind of things coming out of their government-controlled media: http://www.cnn.com/
Yes, most Americans dislike their government but no this won't be happening anytime soon. In the meantime, thousands upon thousands of people die every year because of direct funding by the Americans to terrorists. Ironically most of the victims are religious.
If you want to avoid war with America then you should be in favor of diplomatic action to prevent them from using nuclear weapons which could be a pretext for such a war. By preventing economic sanctions from going through you leave the world no choice but turn to the military option. Also it is worth noting that we've held toothless diplomatic talk with America for decades now and that didn't work (if anything, their government got more radical). They need to feel the heat for there to be any change.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
A communications disruption can mean only one thing: invasion.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
That's just deaths attributable to the conflict, and above normal death rates (old age, diseases etc.)
Survey shows Iraq conflict has killed a million | Top News | Reuters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL3048857920080130?rpc=401
"Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan
But usually, they are exactly what they appear.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
This article says: . "About 60-80 per cent of damages to undersea cable are due to external factors and only 10 per cent on an average can be classified as component failure," If those numbers are real, then cables break all the time for a variety of reasons. As the cable population increases, the probability that some cable somewhere will break approaches certainty.
-Auric Goldfinger Four times, ???.
Five times, profit!
Of course, if there's a sixth cut, I'll revise:
Four times, OMG!
Five times, WTF?
Six times, BBQ!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
The Bush administration has demonstrated time and time again that they want control over the media. It takes an idiot to believe the contrary.
How many more man-whores disguised as journalists will it take for you to accept the truth? I mean a literal male prostitute was employed to lob softball questions at your president, do you really think the white house gives away press passes without background checks?
You can't take the sky from me...
Is it possible that this is an attempt to limit information transmission in the event of an imminent strike on Iran or other Middle Eastern regions by the US? It may be a crude and misguided means of damage control; I could certainly see Bush, in his thundering ignorance, believing that all he has to do is cut a few strategic cables to achieve an instant news blackout, or at least delay news of an attack leaking out to the media. That's what the radio messages from Alpha Centauri say when I take of my tin foil hat.
When wearing said currently-fashionable headgear, I do still come to the conclusion that, no matter what is really going on here, I cannot dismiss that there may indeed be more afoot here. I have read about the existence of US submarines capable of cutting undersea cables; if so, could these be at work?
I do firmly believe that Bush intends to go out with a bang, and he has stated that he has no desire to go gently into that good night. Judging from one recent interview, it would appear that he has pretty much the mindset of a suicide bomber, and doesn't care who gets hurt in the explosion.
Who is this delectable creature with an insatiable love of the dead?
The point of cutting the wires is to make sure no news comes out of Iran -- not that no news comes in. It doesn't matter if they develop weapons subsidize Hizbullah or do whatever else (Syria sponsors and houses Hammas -- noone cares). Iran is trying to end the petrodollar cycle by opening an oil exchange where oil would be traded in Euros. They will not be allowed to do it. Case closed. If it takes kicking half the world off the Internet to make sure that it is done in secret because there is no popular support for the war, so be it. 5 cables in two weeks? Go ahead, call me a crazy conspiracy nut. My other conspiracy theory: the Sun will come up tomorrow and whatever Internet communications Iran has left will be destroyed within the next week.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
http://www.iust.ac.ir/
IP: 194.225.230.89
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran
http://www.mfa.gov.ir/
IP: 217.172.99.41
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran
http://www.cbi.ir/
IP: 217.218.174.178
Machine Location: Tehran, Iran
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2008/02/attention_iran_is_not_disconne_1.shtml
A shit didn't cut the egypt lines.
The transport ministry added that footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.
'The ministry's maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area,' a statement said.
'The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships,' the statement added.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=theworld&xfile=data/theworld/2008/february/theworld_february77.xml
Iran is an Islamic Republic, meaning its government is half democratic and half unelected asshats.
Iran WAS a democracy, until the CIA and the British military intelligence organized a coup and replaced their democracy with a subservient monarchy.You can't take the sky from me...
Take position in the bordering country to the east.
Take position in the bordering country to the left.
What's the next move, now that they are surrounded?
That's right: Attempt to replay the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
Invading Iran has been on the agenda all along.
You can't take the sky from me...
Since the end of WWII, the US has basically NEVER gone out of its way to promote democracy, in fact, at every occasion, it has favored tyrants and thrown democracies over the bridge for a couple bucks.
Iran - Mossadegh, 1953
Guatemala
Cuba - if you think Castro is not democratic enough, take a good look back at Battista
Nicaragua in the 1980s - Reagan sold weapons to Iran through Israel to finance terrorist death squads, the Contras, to undermine the democratically elected Sandinistas, who happen to be too lefty for his tastes.
Chile, Pinochet
And the list goes on.
My point is, we know the neo-cons want war with Iran, they don't care about democracy and freedom of speech one bit.
HA HA HA!!! Don't make me laugh! It's part of the traffic re-routing program implemented by the US Dept of Technology. The Navy SEALS, uh I mean technicians thought it would improve throughput to have Iran's internet traffic re-routed.
GO NAVY SEALS!!! Hoorah!!! (I think)
The fact that five undersea cables have been severed due to unknown causes in the past two weeks is newsworthy in itself.
Ironically, this makes the "sole premise" of your post wrong, where do we go from here?
Dismissing every "conspiracy" as automatically false is an act of profound stupidity.
You can't take the sky from me...
Iran had a perfectly fine, democratically elected leader in the person of Mohamed Mossadegh in 1953.
He had the outrecuidance to nationalize the oil industry, so the CIA fomented a coup against him and put the Shah in charge. The US then supported this asshole for close to 30 years, until iranians revolted in 1979.
The revolution didn't end so swell, the mullahs took the helm eventually. But the country wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the sick US meddling. Sure, that was back in 1953, but the pattern continued in other countries over the world in the 55 years that followed. So yeah, the US is responsible, and the dumbass in chief you still have for 11 more months is apparently hell-bent on meddling still some more with Iran.
As far as the recent cable cuts go, what I am about to say is a conspiracy fantasy: I don't believe the U.S. is about to attack Iran. But if it were to do so, cutting off Internet might make good sense.
A couple of years ago, I attended a talk given by Iranian blogger Hossein Derakshan. He suggested that war with Iran would be much more politically difficult than the war with Iraq, because Iranian bloggers would tell the world about the suffering on the ground. And blogging is extremely popular in Iran. So, if the U.S. were to attack Iran, the aim might not be to censor what Iranians see of the rest of the world, but what the rest of the world sees happening in Iran.
There's some interesting discussion on Bruce Schneier's blog. I'm hoping Global Guerrillas will return to the topic also.
Every few days, we keep hearing that it's n+1 cables cut: Middle East is without tubes!
How many cables are connecting that region to the rest of the world?
data coming from the severed cables reads: click click chirp chirp click - translation: "The Dolphin uprising has begun! Tremble mortals before your gray-smooth-skinned overlords. All your internet belong to us!"
You guys are missing the bigger picture. Iran is scheduled to open a new oil market in the next few days (Google: Iranian Oil Bourse). This oil market will use the Euro instead on the US dollar. The only reason the US dollar is of any value in the world market right now is because you can only buy oil in US dollars. Therefore countries have to collect US dollars in order to buy oil. If some countries decide to use the Euro to buy their oil instead of the US dollar the current value of the US dollar will plummet. Bush is doing everything he can to make sure the Iranian oil market does not open. Speculation is the US is cutting the cables to delay or prevent the opening of the market and to show Iran that they cannot rely on the internet to operate their market. It may be that the US is only cutting the cables they can't monitor or control. In other words the Iranians can't operate their market using the internet without the possibility of the US watching or interfering with their transactions. If this tactic fails and the Iranians open the market anyway there will be three options open to the US. One is to convince/pressure the rest of the world not to use the Iranian market (the possible reason for Bush's recent trip to the Middle East); Two is to close the market with military power; Three is to live with the potential be a major economic recession/depression.
Shock and Awe Two, coming soon to a sand dune near you. Testing...testing...(background laughter) Hey, Dick, is this mike on?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Naw, those 5 cables all broke in the same week because of coincidence. Yeah, it was just fated to all happen in the same week. Nothing to see here folks. Anyone that believes any different is a liberal nutjob. Get out the tin foil hats! HA HA!
*blank idiotic look on my face, drool dribbling off my chin*
Apparently the monster isnt just attacking oil tankers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfKqIMX8nMM
He is going after middle eastern internet cables at the bottom of the sea.
The CIA has been trying to find that pesky Iran link. Well, like they say, if at first you don't succeed, try try again!
Now they can invade.
(it's funny folks--laugh!)
Conspiracy theorists think bush started a cyber-war in the middle-east.
Privacy is terrorism.
Submarine? Why would you need a submarine to cut a cable?
I am not a terrorist but all you need is a decent boat and an anchor (or "crappy trawling net").
Drag the anchor across the general area a few times till Ahmed calls and says the connection just got really crappy (it takes a while for the routers to use a different route and converge).
Go figure out what sort of "anchor" you need for best effect.
The idea that this is the US government (or Israel or any western power) cutting the cables either as a precursor to war or to install splitters/spy stuff is just absurd. If any actor with sufficent resources was planning an invasion or any other type of action requiring an information black out they would have hit all the cables at the same time. As far as installing spy stuff this is too fucking obvious. I mean we do know how to bend fiber optics and siphon off some of the light without disrupting the connection and even if this was impossible here a real spy agency would have just waited until the cable was being taken off for maintenence or at least not hit 5 at once.
As far as plausible explanations we can list either terrorist groups or some other organization with drastically limited resources (or perhaps an intelligence agency trying to cast blame on such an organization). I think we also want to consider natural activity (rock slides, volcanism etc..) combined with a coincedence. After all most of the cut cables seem to be in the same area.
Commercial sabotage is also a plausible explanation and the equitment with power issues could be a move to squeeze money from a customer. Also it could be a combination of these explanations. I mean maybe Iran (or maybe the US) jumped on the bandwagon and cut an extra cable to make it look like they were victimized or to accomplish some other goal after the first couple got broken.
Or maybe it's just an unlikely coincedence.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
I know there was a fourth cable article awhile back but there was an update that says the cable wasn't actually cut just taken offline due to power issues. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/04/0158249 So that would make this the 4th cable cut, not 5th right? It is just a technicality though.
Weaksauce as they say...
And woe to the journalists! The world before Internet was dark, smelly and covered with big nasty sharp spikes, so there was absolutely no way people could find out what was happening in another country! If only there was some way of transferring information that doesn't use expensive technology - like, like, walking! One can only dream...
-- Sig down
It was God, punishing Iran for being infidels! That, or it was that other stuff the article talks about.
The article includes the following links as references to document the above list of believed cuts:
1) http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1202064573279&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
2) http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/business/?id=24186
3) http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2008/February/theuae_February121.xml§ion=theuae
4) http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080202132053.iohfg5ob&show_article=1
5) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/04/2153455.htm
6) http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i03tUdyj8wf2Xa9P4trWEjqAJdyQ
7) http://www.arabianbusiness.com/510132-internet-problems-continue-with-fourth-cable-break?ln=en
8) http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=7980
9) https://confluence.slac.stanford.edu/display/IEPM/Effects+of+Fibre+Outage+through+Mediterranean
10) http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/01/internet.outage/?iref=hpmostpop
11) http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/04/technology/cables.php
12) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31cable.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
13) http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/31/Cut-cable-disrupts-Internet-in-Middle-East_1.html
14)
-- QED
More than 50 repairs to undersea cables in the Atlantic alone last year.
So cool your jets people. it's not unusual. This is only a big deal with conspirators. As per usual the conspiracy nuts don't understand what they are talking about so start running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I can't believe that people are *still* protecting the Galactic Empire (note I'm not talking about the rebels) after all the crap they've pulled during the last two decades. Just because the galactic media has tuned into the Empire in the last five years doesn't mean this story came out of the blue. The Empire has been funding and training bounty hunters and publicly boasting about it for over 40 years now. We've been waiting for the rebel alliance to overthrow the Jediofascist government for years yet that hasn't happened either. Just take a look at the kind of things coming out of their government-controlled media: military recruitment campaign.
Yes, most Alderaanians dislike their government but no this won't be happening anytime soon. In the meantime, thousands upon thousands of people die every year because of direct funding by the Empire to bounty hunters. Ironically most of the victims are Corellian smugglers.
If you want to avoid war with the Empire then you should be in favor of diplomatic action to prevent them from using their Death Star battlestation which could be operational any day now. By preventing economic sanctions from going through you leave the rebels no choice but turn to the military option. Also it is worth noting that we've held toothless diplomatic talk with the Empire for decades now and that didn't work (if anything, their government tossed delegates into a detention/interrogation cell). They need to feel the force-lightning for there to be any change.
One man's constant is another man's variable.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You didn't notice any characters in your story that weren't American? There's plenty of blame to go around, and no need to try to turn the issue of Iranian repression into a black and white all the U.S. or all the Iranian's fault issue.
We started a revolution, and installed the shah - that was short sighted and our fault. THEY started a revolution and installed an Islamic supreme council. You can't argue that that wasn't in the Iranian's court without resorting to borderline racism. We may have helped destroy the liberal society that would have resisted Khamanei's installment, but they were the society that installed him.
Relax I just want some peanuts.
And is munching those tasty cables as an appetizer for the rest of the main meal: us.
One is a problem. ... wow, I didn't know they had that many cables to Iran!
Two is a coincidence.
Three is a mystery.
Four is suspicious.
Five is a coordinated and planned pre-emptive attack by President Cheney on Iran, dragging the US into yet another war based on lies.
Six is
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
> Yep, you get to go around shouting to everyone about how you're "censored".
Since a censored post is, by definition, something you are not going to see, proving that there is no censorship by example is... is... Well, you said it best:
> You are an idiot.
"I, for one, welcome our new cable-cutting overlords!" - Vivevtvivas
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
You have to love a "flamebait" moderation on a perfectly rational, factual, on-topic post.
Slashdot: where moderation is a form of humor. ;-)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
As someone who has seen many classic monster films I have to say that it seems obvious to me that there is some sort of giant underwater reptile or shark feeding on the energy in those lines.
You're missing the point, which is that Padilla was illegally jailed for over two years and his rightful request for habeas corpus was denied. SCOTUS refused to clarify whether holding Padilla was legal, thus making his case a clear cut example of the illegal detainment and torture of an American citizen. Furthermore, what you're saying is that because Padilla was suspected of terrorism, jailing him illegally was OK.
My point is not that Padilla was innocent. My point is that terrorism is carte blanche for the executive to illegally detain Americans, to fabricate charges against them, and to increase penalties upon conviction. In the meantime, people like you will look at Padilla and see someone they don't quite like and decide that it's all OK.
In my opinion, it will only be a matter of time before someone finds themselves on the wrong end of what you call "normal, peaceful political channels," as did many in their peaceful protest of the 2004 Republican National Convention. Your thinking implies that rule of law is a privilege to be extended only to American citizens who behave in the proper manner, people who look a particular way and who have a particular kind of past.
I believe that rule of law should apply not only to all American citizens, but that it should also be extended to all people detained by the United States.
blog
He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he is in US government intelligence. Read his home page.That is why he always responds with counter propaganda in situations like this, haven't you noticed? He posts nothing until a story critical of the US, or intelligence related comes along. Then he posts the official propaganda and gets modded +5.
Please, just think for a moment and you will realize that these cable cuts are the work of a desperate network administrator trying to once and for all figure out just where those pesky routes are really pointing. Just a few more and that Visio diagram will finally be completed.
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/ConnectingTheDots.htm Note the underlying issue... the Iranian Oil Bourse and the ability for Middle Eastern nations to sell oil in "non-dollar denominated" currencies. Oil is the gold of the twenty-first century. Our currency here in America is completely dependent on oil, so much so that it has become known as the PetroDollar. If OPEC starts selling oil in Euros, our dollar is finished and our economy with it.
Who says that it's America?
Nobody says it is, but we're far and away the mosy likely suspect.
The most likely suspect would be an Islamic nutbag, or group of nutbags that want to cut primarily Islamic states from western influence.
Wow, that's a pretty far out conspiracy theory. How exactly would one of those groups top the US on a list of suspects for something like this?
They're not exactly known for having the equipment necessary to do something like this.
The US, however is known for that. We're also very well known for agitating against Iran in order to keep up our constant war mentality that does so much to suppress liberty at home, and increase profits for well connected groups.
So where you get the extremely bizarre idea that a small group with limited resources and little reason to do such a thing is more likely to have done it than a large group with massive resources and plenty of reason to do so?
Who actually did it is, obviously, unknown, but try to keep your theories within the realm of reason, ok?
"man-in-the-middle attack"
The one who controls the routers can serve cached or mastered pages from own server so that it seems they are still online. With disconnects done in proper order, the traffic gets rerouted to the routers attacker has control over. However, temporary total blackout is unavoidable but you still get to show a "proof" of "false alarm, they are still there" later.
Israel this the real life...
Is this just U.S. fantasy...
Caught in a cable break...
Now back into reality...
Open your Eyes... LOOK UP TO U.S. ITS WEEEEEEEE!!!
I'm just a poor Seal, I cut lines undersea...
because its easy come, easy woes, cut that line, stop that flow...
And hit me with some dataslide... because I want to invade iraniii..... iranii... doo da doo do... doo da doo do.
Most of those points are valid, but you forgot to check your facts at the end:
Who's wearing a tin foil hat now?
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the de facto unelected member of the UN Security Council (Germany) are not the world community: they are just six out of about 200 countries in the United Nations. Making Germany into a de facto member of the "permanent member" group of the UNSC is not exactly something in line with what the world community wants. Discussion on adding more non-Western large regional powers such as India, Brazil and Nigeria, as well as Japan, has been going on for some time. Three of the present five permanent members are Western - the de facto adding of Germany to this group is only making the power imbalance worse. So who is defying the world community?
As for the sanctions and threats to bomb Iran back into the Stone Age, check out the opinion of the 118 members of the Non-Aligned Movement:
The UNSC is defying the world community by not recognising Article IV of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which states the inalienable right of Iran (and other signatories) to "develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes".
Check out the reality: five official nuclear weapons states are defying the international community - as represented by the NPT - by failing to
as they are obliged to under Article VI of the NPT. As for unofficial nuclear weapons states, Israel, India and Pakistan are defying the world community by not joining the NPT. Israel is not even willing to state openly that it has 200-300 nuclear warheads.
And what does the regional "world community", close to Iran - those potentially most threatened by Iran (apart from the state with 200-300 nuclear warheads to defend itself with) - think of the situation?
Was it an accident or not? They use phrases like "the lines were cut" and imply Iran is involved so much that people start making things up like "I heard Iran is offline!!1"
This yellow journalism is useless.
With the oil bourse set to go online before the 11th (now delayed), that is obviously why this was done. When Iraq stopped pricing it's oil in dollars, we invaded two months later. I don't think people understand the magnitude of the dollar's decline or how much an impact that has on our foreign policy. If the dollar is no longer seen as the world's primary currency, then they'll pull out the investment needed to sustain our mammoth debt. We're just about there already, but if Iran does this (and they have every right), then our economy is finished. That's why we've still talk about war all the time, even in light of the NIE. By prolonging the crash, we're just making the problem worse. Not to mention, pissing off the world in the process. We're just following the same pattern of all collapsing empires.
I can assure you that there were plenty of apparatchiks living the good life under, say, Stalin.
The Shah had a vicious secret police that praticed torture. Oh wait, it's not such a bad thing anymore.
And he got plenty of guns, tanks, planes and other weapons in exchange for oil. From the US.
This was not a one time honest mistake, it was a 30 year lasting crime.
And as for the mullahs being so evil, that didn't stop that bastard Reagan from selling them weapons to finance terrorists in Nicaragua. Look up "Iran-Contra", that might educate you.
So back to my point, for the past 60 years, the United States has been detrimental to democracy; and esp. so since the fall of the USSR, where there isn't a big bad straw man to justify all the BS.
We will give you your porn back, you give us your oil.
Microsoft aggravates my tourettes syndrome.
Everyone is missing the point. Of course there is nill conventional war attack value in temporary and partial disruption of the internet to the mideast staggered days apart.. Duh. Maybe an attack on the mideast stock exchange :p
What if whoever is doing it wants to put in taps??? Ever think of that all you geniuses?
Obviously the cables can be spliced or repairs would not be possible.
So you cut the wire in two places miles apart and on a ship or submarine with the facilities the wire is spliced back together with the tap in place.
The beauty of it is that there is no way once you cut it once to tell if it is cut again :)
So then the telco comes in and fixes the other break.
The awesome part is that they check these cables for tampering by running a laser through it on one end once it is in place and getting a signature of the new light refraction spectrum--of course now after they fix it they will signature it with the tap in.
Now all the internet traffic to the mideast can be monitored invisibly.
There are a lot of logistical issues getting the tap to work and sending all the data, but at least it makes more sense than a precursor to invasion of Iran, duh..
...that the expression is "changing tack" not "changing tact". But I thought I'd mention it anyway, as it seems to be yet another error which is in danger of becoming 'correct' by virtue of common usage.
Read Pynchon.
If anything, the USA could have saved half a trillion dollars to achieve democracy in Iraq without invading, by using 500 billion dollars to train it (from the outside) for revolutionary democracy. If that was really their goal. But, it wouldn't have brought about the current geopolitical situation, which is more akin to the true goals of your Administration.
So, your assertion about the good intentions of the USA towards the populace of Iran is unsupported by any evidence or past behaviour, or fiscal responsibility.
It's frightening how many have drunk the pro-democracy-USA koolaid, while ignoring 700 military bases placed on foreign soil.
Damn those pesky terrorists
You could bomb someone whether or not they had internet access- at first I thought someone wanted a media blackout within Iran for bombing purposes...
but you CANNOT run the Iranian Oil Bourse and start massively doing oil business in Euros without working communications.
This is entirely a strike at the Iranian Oil Bourse, in my opinion. They don't have to knock every kid with a modem off the internet- but somebody wants to knock out the main informational pipelines so there can't be high oil-in-euros transaction traffic. I'm betting that's it.
Let me see if I can find the citation for him. I searched for "undersea cable atlantic repairs" and got this in the text of the 4th result:
Undersea cable damage is hardly rare--indeed, more than 50 repair operations were mounted in the Atlantic alone last year, according to marine cable repair...
And if you click the link, the secondary source is ABC News, the primary source they give is "marine cable repair company Global Marine Systems."
There's your citation, now go back to Wikiusenet, I hear them calling you "irc to an/i: pov sock in action--checkuser confirmed by userbox. inform arbcom of rfar."
It is still illegal for those people to view porn.
It must be Allah doing his own bidding! Selam.
Padilla a POLITICAL opponent?!?! LOL.
AmericaFree.TV has a regular Iranian audience, and it is still there today. Egypt is still badly affected, but not Iran, at least, not so far.
Must be time to go across the street for Bagels...umm, well, whatever they eat in Iran when the internet is down.
Not sure if you're trying to be funny, but you're actually quite close. The navy has used dolphins for underwater missions (you know, the ones you see at Sea World and the like).
These are crazy times - when the stuff you read in the Onion, and the Slashdot twitheads, is closer to real journalism than the latest trash on the MSM networks, i.e. where Britney went shopping.
Please read http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/irans-oil-bourse-could-topple-the-dollar/
Ah, the "basic sole premise" argument, right up there with "but it's just a *theory*, it's not a law". Because FYI, "Iran is offline" is more like an attention grabber headline. Sure, not quite true, but the fundamentals are still correct, undisputed.
As I've pointed out elsewhere, many folks, including perhaps the evildoers themselves, have forgotten that redundancy was one of the fundamental guidelines behind the internet. Think DARPA - this is built to withstand attacks. Kind of ironic if you think.
(But you do have to *think*, like the old IBM marketing spiel. Not stick your heads in the sand.)
Who says they don't have the resources? My theory IS within the realm of reason. Unless you are willing to say something like "Hey, we know the people that live in that area are backward, lack skills, and have no resources."
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
The language used by this ABC staffer seems soft to me. --A repair job doesn't necessarily mean a cut cable or a complete loss of service. A subsea internet cable is packed not only with glass fiber, but also with a high-voltage electrical line used to power the numerous optical repeaters needed to keep a signal strong. Such units, I would would imagine, are subject to failure from time to time, necessitating irregular maintenance. But whatever the case. . .
I remain in two minds about whether or not some of these latest breaks were deliberate. It would appear that there is enough regular repair necessary to keep more than one company busy. --600 employees just for Global Marine Systems. (Who also lays cable as well as providing a variety of subsea cable services.) The Japanese also host a subsea cable company which was sent out to perform repair work on a 2001 break in a U.S.-China cable, (the cause of which, according to the article I found, was unclear at the time). Now, I have mentioned, (much to the distress of many Slashdotters), that we're currently in the middle of a Mercury retrograde, during which we can expect to see all kinds of communication slow-downs and tangles in ways which might otherwise appear too coincidental for comfort. These things happen, and it can look at the time as though some not-so-benevolent god is on your case, though I tend to think of it more as just bad weather in the probability spectrum.
However, people have also pointed out several reasons to squint suspiciously and pay closer attention to these cable-breakage events. There is no doubt that governments do indeed have the ability to play spy versus spy with cables, and it would be foolish to suggest that the idea of tactical cable breaking had never crossed their minds. (As such, I must disagree with the parent poster's snide position with regard to conspiracy theory, despite the fact that many do tend to engage in such thoughts with a measure of over-eagerness). --We are all well aware of the high pressure politics in the Middle East and the volatility of the U.S. incumbent leadership. Also, there is also the uncomfortable item pointed out by the Egyptian government that at least two of the breaks happened under monitored tracts of sea, and that there had been no ships in those waters during the times of the breaks, suggesting something else. Maybe a submarine? Or maybe just a repeater on the fritz.
Who knows? The ocean is a harsh place and any number of possibilities come to mind. Perhaps an old WWII depth charge finally decided to pop. Whatever the case, I think this is one of those times when it will pay to watch and see what unfolds before jumping to political conclusions.
It's not as though we can really do anything else. I'm sort of holding my breath to see if there will be a sixth breakage before the weekend.
-FL
The enemy is the Iran Oil Bourse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Oil_Bourse
It's spelt "predator" with an A in it by the way. As you can see from this example pointing out errors when it is uncalled for is really just annoying and a pointless waste of time.
Lost on many nincompoops is the fact that the oil trading was planned to Kish Isand, off the coast of Iran in Persian guilf - anybody pinged them lately?
I doubt it:
Per this article:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20080206/internet_service_to_be_soon_restored_as_disrupted_cables_repair_begins-id-1016930.html
Note last sentence:
"The other ruptures occurred on a looped cable that was cut in two places, off the coast of Dubai and between islands near Iran, where the repair work is also being hampered by bad weather."
Note especially the phrase "between islands near Iran" - as in Kish?
so people seem to argue that they still have sattelites to go by? didnt the gov go out with that one sat crashed recently? and thats just came out because of them tinfoilers with binoculars. and they obviously see everything going on dont they. if you control the cables to these countries you could, with a great amount of planning, time and resources, make it appear like its still on the map.
"What a great way to detract attention from its continuing defiance of the world community -- no, not just the US -- on its nuclear processing."
What exactly is this defiance that you speak of? I though your own intelligence agency concluded that Iran stopped their nuke program in 2003?
Is this some kind of news lag you experience in the states? Like still believing Bin Laden and Saddam were working together years after they were proven not to?
Or still believing WMD would be found in Iraq months or even years after the invasion?
Or still believing that the invasion of Iraq is contributing to the battle on terrorism even though terrorist incidents have peaked since the invasion?
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
I've just been moderated Flamebait -1 by the CIA. Hi guys!
And the contras killed thousands of civilians.
Way to go.
Here's a summary of the damage, not all of which involves cuts:
1. VSNL's SeaMeWe-4, 12.334 km from Alexandria, in the Mediterranean. Currently under repair, should be fixed by this weekend.
2. Qtel's cable from Haloul (Qatar) to Das (UAE), in the Persian Gulf. Probably not a cut, but damaged power system due to weather.
3. FLAG's Europe-Asia (FEA Segment D), 8.3 km from Alexandria, in the Mediterranean. Currently under repair, should be fixed by this weekend by cable ship CS Certamen.
4. FLAG's FALCON (FALCON Segment 2), 56 km from Dubai, in the Persian Gulf. Currently under repair, should be fixed by this weekend. This cut was due to a ship's anchor--an abandoned 5-6 ton anchor was recovered by FLAG at the site (see photo in FLAG's update, PDF)
5. FLAG's Europe-Asia (FEA Segment M), 28 km from Penang, Malaysia. Scheduled for repair on February 11 by cable ship CS Asean Restorer.
6. FLAG's FALCON (FALCON Segments 7a and 7b), two faults on the cable between Kuwait and Bandar Abbas, Iran, scheduled for repair on February 19.
Keep in mind that this is all occurring during extremely bad weather in the region.
My theory IS within the realm of reason. Unless you are willing to say something like "Hey, we know the people that live in that area are backward, lack skills, and have no resources."
No, the idea that such people *could* have done it is well within the realm of reason.
Your idea, that they are the most likely candidate, is not.
Has anyone thought that there could be a strategic reason to cut communication lines? You could cut them, and while they are cut, install man-in-the-middle monitoring and forwarding routers. This way, you can monitor every packet that comes through the line, and send a copy of the interesting packets to the home office.