Telling Coincidences

UPDATE: 02/04/08 - AFP - ABC.NET.AU - Ships did not cut internet cables: Egypt - Ships are not responsible for damaging undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean, Egypt's Government says. A fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday causing yet more disruptions, telecommunication provider Qtel said. Egypt's transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged.

"The ministry's maritime transport committee reviewed footage covering the period of 12 hours before and 12 hours after the cables were cut and no ships sailed the area," a statement said.

Iran has apparently been without internet connectivity for over 24 hours, according to the Internet Traffic Report shown above. The Internet Traffic Report monitors the flow of data around the world displaying values between zero and 100 to major routers. Higher values indicate faster and more reliable connections.

Curiously, it seems one can still access Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s blog (Hugo Chavez is likely operating a mirror site in Caracas).

Three as yet unexplained disruptions to separate internet cables in the Middle East have stoked suspicion that the outage is a precursor to strategic actions in the region. There have been unconfirmed rumors of damage to a fourth cable. Speculation attributed the original damage to anchors. But three separate cables? Hmmm!

Israel and Iraq have not been affected by these outages. India unfortunately has experienced some economic setbacks to its famous commercial operations.

Between our preoccupations with presidential primaries and Super Bowl preparations, most U.S. citizens are perhaps unaware of anything fishy in the air. Of course, the Americans are correct. If there has been anything fishy going on, it has been taking place beneath the sea.

Some are implicating submarines in not only repair of the cables, but in the disruptions. Enough time has passed for cause to have been tentatively established, yet there is no news.

Some speculate that Lebanon, Syria and Iran may soon be targets of some military strikes. That is their wishful thinking. The internet outages curtail vital communications between terrorist leaders, Taliban and AQ field units and urban financiers. Secondly, couriers now have to be substituted over longer distances. They can be watched and followed to pinpoint targets with rewards on their heads. Predators and 500-pound bombs could do the clean ups, whether in Pakistan, Afghanistan or Unknownistan.

Submarines are always silent and strange. Who did this?