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When Your Backhoe Cuts "Black" Fiber

Posted by timothy on from the careful-with-that-thing dept.

bernieS writes "The Washington Post describes what happens when a construction backhoe accidentally cuts buried fiber so secret that it doesn't appear on public maps — and what happens when the Men in Black SUVs appear out of nowhere. Apparently, the numerous secret fiber and utility lines used by government intelligence agencies are being dug up with increasing frequency with all the increased construction projects in the DC area. It's amazing how quickly they get repaired!"

5 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Our tax dollars at work. by Celeste+R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are reasons why it's important that public records are kept.

    If they wanted to keep people from knowing where or what exactly it was, they could simply have marked it as something it wasn't.. and beyond that, they could encrypt what goes on that fiber.

    They aren't without options; and ultimately they're currently fighting the system, and putting our tax dollars to work in ways that could be prevented.

    It's understandable that they want to keep secrets secret, but isn't covering it up going to draw more attention than fudging the paperwork?

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    1. Re:Our tax dollars at work. by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

      WTF does stealing plans have to do with scaring people?

      The government can use plans being stolen as an excuse to scare their people with the threat of scaring people? :)

    2. Re:Our tax dollars at work. by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are lots of natural gas pipelines under the ground besides the low-pressure ones that end users tap into to run domestic appliances. The higher-pressure transportation pipelines aren't something you touch unless you want to die a spectacular death, so they'd be guaranteed to be left alone by everyone save the gas company. And if you wanted to protect against that, you could create some sort of paper company that owned it and was responsible for maintenance: I've never met a utility company that would touch something once they got an inkling of a way in which it could be made somebody else's problem.

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  2. Re:Two Ends of the Cable by Roskolnikov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At&t

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  3. Re:Not a new problem by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If that is really what the line was for, then nobody would have told you that's what it was for.