Deja Vu All Over Again: More Undersea Cable Cuts

Internet and telephone traffic between Europe, the Middle East and Asia was hampered today after three major underwater data lines were cut.

The cuts occurred between 07:28 and 08:06 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) (2:28 a.m. and 03:06 a.m. Eastern) on lines in the Mediterranean Sea that connect Sicily to Tunisia and Egypt.

Undersea cable cuts disrupt Internet access

Ok...I said it once and I'll say it again. It would be completely implausible to believe that three cuts were made in these lines completely by accident.....AGAIN!

If you recall back in January this same scenario played out where three lines were cut simulteneously and it was blamed on ships dragging their anchors. It seems extra suspicious that it has now occurred again and it has severed service to almost the same geographic region. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but there has to be a lot more to this than has been reported by the main stream media.

This has to be a part of some criminal enterprise or perhaps some kind of espionage either corporate or from the intelligence agency of another country. Twice in a twelve month period? No way does that kind of coincedence occur twice in less than a year.

It will be interesting to see if this story gets buried in the media the way it did last time. I'm sure if there is something nefarious going on, the powers that be would want to keep it quiet. Incidents like this, if done intentionaly, could seriously undermine the integrity of the internet as well as the financial and credit markets that depend on a secure environment to transact business.

We'll have to keep our ears open for any more on this story.

Are Undersea Cable Cuts a Coincidence?

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--A third undersea fibre optic cable running through the Suez to Sri Lanka was cut Friday, said a Flag official.
Two other fiber optic cables owned by Flag Telecom and consortium SEA-ME-WE 4 located near Alexandria, Egypt, were damaged Wednesday leading to a slowdown in Internet and telephone services in the Middle East and South Asia.

Third undersea cable reportedly cut between Sri Lanka, Suez - MarketWatch

I hate to be one to fan terrorist paranoia, but it would seem highly implausible that three undersea cable cuts in two days are mere coincidence. When one considers the areas these cable are laid and the areas they serve, one has to wonder if this is an act of terrorism designed to "cut off" the Islamic world from the west. As the Taliban did in Afghanistan, many of these groups view modern technology as an evil afront to radical Islam. It would make sense to wreak havoc by disrupting modern communications if this was your goal.

In fairness this sort of activity could be used to further any number of criminal activities. The finacial implications alone could rise into the billions. The variety of "reasons" given for this happening, leads to many different scenarios playing out in the court of public opinion. A reasonable person should have a hard time swallowing that three seperate cable cuts were caused by ships dragging their anchors. Why hasn't this happened more frequently before now? Why would it happen on three seperate occasions in the span of two days?

It will probably be quite some time, if ever, that we find out all the circumstances around these incidents. In the mean time it certainly makes one wonder....