Conspiracy Theorists Loving the Unfolding Middle East Internet Drama

If you haven’t been listening or watching or reading the news the past week or so, then you might have missed the news that there have been several internet-cable snaps over in the Middle East. The number keeps growing; first 3, then 4, now its 5! Needless to say, the tin-foil-brigade is loving this!

Last week we were informed that a ships anchor which had been dropped to stabilize a ship during rough weather had cut through two internet cables 5 miles from the port of Alexandria. Soon after that a third cable was reported as being cut, followed by a fourth and now a total of 5 cables have been reported cut, according to the Khaleej Times.

“These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.”

The cuts are causing millions of people to suffer from limited or no internet connectivity. Quoting TeleGeography and describing the effect the cuts had on the Internet world, Mahesh Jaishanker, executive director, Business Development and Marketing, du, said, “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SeaMeWe-4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.”

But just why it has happened is unknown, and continues to deepen in drama every time another cable is cut. The original reports that it was due to a ships anchor were proved false by the Egypt's Ministry of Communications in a statement released two days ago.

"A marine transport committee investigated the traffic of ships in the area, 12 hours before and after the malfunction, where the cables are located to figure out the possibility of being cut by a passing vessel and found out there were no passing ships at that time," said the statement.

The ministry added that the location, 5 miles from the port of Alexandria, was in a restricted area so ships would not have been allowed there to begin with.

One blogger from the ILoveBonnie blog provided a list of possible groups or people that could have done this;

    * U.S. Government

    * Israeli Government

    * Aliens

    * Underwater Monsters

    * The Cloverfield Monster

    * Rudy Giuliani

Still another commenter from Slashdot states: Why can I picture George Dubbya Bush in a scuba suit, holding a giant pair of sheers and screaming "I'll cut off the terrorist's interweb tubes!"

Okay, the funny aside, this really has raised some serious questions. Stepping away from the tin-foil crazies for a moment, whatever or whoever has done this has highlighted a crucial problem in the internet network across the planet. Back in 2006 Taiwan suffered total internet loss for weeks as 7 of the 8 cables connecting that country to the internet were damaged by an earthquake. This recent spate of cuts in the Middle East is only exacerbating a flaw in the design.

Posted by Josh Hill.

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Comments

[Jeb Thurmond]

Obviously this was the work of almighty God, to punish internet users for their obsession with smut, irreverence, homosexuality, and atheism.

If internet users do not repent of their many sins and accept Jesus Christ there will be far worse in store: not just cut cables but viruses (God will send the computer equivalent of AIDS) and worse punishments as yet unimagined.

http://www.landoverbaptist.net

Special forum for TRUE science:

http://www.landoverbaptist.net/forumdisplay.php?f=20

[Purin]

I thought this ^Jeb guy was being sarcastic, but I'm flabbergasted that he's actually talking business.
Go back to your hole please.

[Ian Kemmish]

There is no flaw in the design. The biggest single design goal for ARPANET was to devise a network which survived the loss of any individual link. Thus was born the idea of packet switching upon which the IP protocols are founded.

Of course, if you insist on building a network in which there are topological bottlenecks, then no amount of careful design can save you from sloppy implementation.

Many investors will remember that FLAG Telecom was involved in the "dark fibre" scandal that sparked the last stock market crash. These companies had large amounts of unused and unconnected cable, which they nonetheless put on their books as active and generating revenue. Unused means untested. I'd be interested to know how long this cable has lain idle on the seabed before being used.

[Q]

Jeb WAS being sarcastic- Landover Baptist Web site is a parody. At the Landover Baptist.net site check out their TOS agreement. OMG! ;-)

[ilovebonnie.net]

Thanks for the mention in your post!

I wanted to let you know that I've done another post which covers some more realistic possibilities.

In addition, my latest post explores the split that has been created among people on the internet about this subject. Apparently you either 'wear a foil hat' or you don't.

Anyway, check 'em out if you're interested. Thanks!