undersea cable cuts

[Dave Howe]

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.