H. Lally Singh wrote:
So what kind of tools would they use to locate & take out the fiber? Would a snorkel & sharpened boat anchor do the trick?
If you are still on the continental shelf, I guess scuba kit and a suitable cutting tool (or shaped charge) As has been noted previously (perhaps elsewhere; nanog is discussing this too) there was a case where concrete "holdoffs" where placed above a cable to protect it from a natural gas pipe laid atop it; with the weight of the pipe and time, the holdoffs sank into the sea bed and severed the cable in several places. That was poor design; however, similar emplacements would presumably be fairly economic to produce, and would have the added feature of making it hard for the repair vessels to trawl up the cable for repairs if there were still existing blocks pinning it down in the area they are attempting to lift cable. making the downward facing edge deliberately a curved blade is an obvious "improvement" to the design, and could actually be helped by attempts to repair the cable - tug up the cable against the block, and have it severed *again* at the point you are attempting to trawl up (at which juncture, the severed end will slip out of your hook and back to the ocean floor). Given even half hearted timing, you could place the blocks weeks or even months before, meaning nobody could easily trace back your presence in the area to the time of the "event". Still don't see any terrorist benefit to doing so though.