Internet Cables Cut–Prelude to War or Simply A Warning?

War In Iraq, Feb 5, 2008
By: Mark Glenn on: 05.02.2008

A single undersea fiber-optic cable carrying internet traffic accidentally being cut once in a year’s time is believable. 5 of them however within the span of only a few days resulting in most of the Middle East being left in the informational dark ages cannot be mere happenstance. The odds are too extreme to even contemplate it being anything but a deliberate act of sabotage, and particularly when Israel and US-occupied Iraq happen to be unaffected by it.

As of the moment of this writing, 5 internet cables–buried deep beneath the ocean floor to prevent them being accidentally dredged up by a ships’ anchor–have been cut, preventing most of the Middle East from internet access. The cables provide 90% of the region’s internet service and the countries affected most by this are Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran. They have since re-routed to older, slower lines and satellites, but overall internet service is slow and in some cases–particularly Iran, there is no internet service whatsoever.

The lines–originating in southern Europe and then snaking their way southward to north Africa and then eastward through the Suez Canal and then on to India are the communication, commerce and technology lifelines for these nations. In a world where everything is dependent upon the internet, from government operations to financial markets the devastating effect this disruption could have on these nations is easy to see.

In all the media coverage of this event, it was hinted that possibly an anchor from a ship was the guilty culprit. However, shortly thereafter Egypt released a statement to the effect that video footage of the area where the cuts took place showed no surface ship activity for the previous 12 hours and added that these particular lanes are closed to maritime traffic for the express reason of avoiding damage to the cables. Interestingly, none of the stories covering this event mentioned (or even hinted, for that matter) the words ‘foul play’, and this in an age where everything from global warming to bad breath is blamed on Osama Bin Laden and his merry band of Islamic militants.

Besides the everyday issues of news and information services, telephone communications have been severely disrupted and financial markets have suffered as much as a 70% loss in trading activity. It is estimated that the earliest the problem will be fixed is the beginning of the 2nd week in February, as it takes several days for repair ships to reach the areas where the cuts took place.

Continued . . .