undersea cable cuts

[H. Lally Singh]

Agreed: It seems pretty obvious that it's not an accident.

The question is, who?

On Feb 9, 2008, at 10:07 AM, Tyler Durden wrote:

> Well, those are particularly interesting questions though I haven't  
> given a
> lot of thought to yet.
>
> One of the things to notice is that these are fairly shallow waters in
> general. And while I don't believe a scuba diver went down with a  
> hedge
> clippers, my assumption had been that someone had figured out some  
> relatively
> low-tech way to do it, and is probably trying much more often than
> succeeding.
>
> That said, these cables are not easy to break, not even by large  
> boat anchors:
> The cost of fixing a less engineered design would rapidly make it  
> worthwhile
> to ensure they can withstand a LOT, and they can. So I think it's  
> worthwhile
> considering who has the ability to do this sans clever tactics.
>
> I was actually surprised to hear that two cables in close proximity  
> were
> broken and considered that not a coincidence. After three the  
> pattern was
> becoming clear.
>
> -TD> Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 17:36:30 -0600> From: measl at mfn.org> To:
> camera_lumina at hotmail.com> CC: bill.stewart at pobox.com;
> cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net> Subject: RE: undersea cable cuts> > > Um,  
> thats
> *five* cuts. And not random cuts either - they are specifically >  
> targetting
> both sides of the rings. This is someone who truly understands > the  
> tech -
> they are not just cutting random cables, they are cutting the >  
> right cables
> in the right sequence.> > I have been having an offline talk with a  
> small
> group since this started, > and none of us believed it was "random"  
> after cut
> #4, and I am pretty > certain everyone of us believes it's a pro.> >  
> The
> question is *who*? The parche is in fact decomm'd (one of the group  
> > checked
> on it's pyhsical status); and there are only two countries >  
> suspected of
> having the required type of sub (Israel and Russia) besides > the  
> US. I would
> have thought Israel but for the heavy targetting of > French  
> property, and I
> cant find any reason for it to be Russia other than > there is  
> nobody else. Of
> course, I dont see what the various spook > facilities do, so who  
> knows, maybe
> everyone has sea-floor open to the > water cable subs docking these  
> days?> >
> -- > Yours,> J.A. Terranson> sysadmin_at_mfn.org> 0xBD4A95BF> > > What
> religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion>  
> to occupy
> another country and kill its people? Please tell me. Does>  
> Christianity tell
> its followers to do that? Judaism, for that matter?> Islam, for that  
> matter?
> What prophet tells you to send 160,000 troops> to another country,  
> kill men,
> women, and children? You just can't wear> your religion on your  
> sleeve or just
> go to church. You should be> truthfully religious.> > Mahmoud  
> Ahmadinejad> >
> On Fri, 8 Feb 2008, Tyler Durden wrote:> > > Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008  
> 15:21:26
> -0500> > From: Tyler Durden <camera_lumina at hotmail.com>> > To: Bill  
> Stewart
> <bill.stewart at pobox.com>, cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net> > Subject: RE:  
> undersea
> cable cuts> > > > There's been lots of net speculation about  
> maliciousness,
> but for me the odds> > of 3/4 failures of undersea cables in such a  
> relatively
> small area and over> > such a short amount of time is extremely  
> suspicious,
> particularly given how> > robust such cables are. (ie, there's maybe  
> a dozen
> in the whole world at any> > one time, over millions of route  
> miles).> > > >
> Whether these are JbT-type terrorists is, I think, doubtful given the
> revenues> > traveling over these things and particularly how  
> ineffective the
> cuts were.> > The cuts certainly appeared to me to be attempts to  
> get a
> working+protect> > sides of fiber rings by people who didn't have  
> access to
> that level of detail> > about how the rings are deployed over the
> wavelength/fiber/cable pairs.> > > > -TD> > > > > Date: Mon, 4 Feb  
> 2008
> 22:05:07 -0800e> To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net> From:> >
> bill.stewart at pobox.com> Subject: Re: undersea cable cuts> > > Hadn't  
> heard> >
> this was malicious ... you have a reference?> > The fourth failure  
> turned out>
>> not to be a cable cut,> just some kind of equipment power problem.>  
>> >> >
> Certainly once the third cut happened,> things look pretty  
> suspicious even if>
>> they don't turn out deserve it.> And there are different kinds of
> terrorists> > out there -> the ones that wear government uniforms  
> (or wear
> cheap suits> but> > work for governments) don't always take the credit
> themselves.> > At 07:35 PM> > 2/4/2008, Sarad AV wrote:>  
> >'terrorists' take
> credit and are proud of their> > actions.> >nothing of that kind has  
> happened
> yet.> >I guess that satellite> > communication is another  
> alternative.> >
> Satellites have very limited> > bandwidth compared to fiber.> They  
> may be ok
> for countries that don't have> > useful infrastructure,> like Iraq,
> Afghanistan, and most of Africa,> but they> > don't begin to replace  
> the
> internet or private network connectivity> that was> > on the fiber  
> systems
> that were cut;> I don't know how big the fourth cable> > was.> >
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-- 
H. Lally Singh
Ph.D. Candidate, Computer Science
Virginia Tech
lallysingh at mac.com