Third undersea Internet cable cut in Mideast

I am very worried. Son is in Muscat on the Straight of Hormuz - directly across from Iran. No internet or phone service at this time. Another Report:

Quote :

Third undersea cable reportedly cut between Sri Lanka, Suez


Last update: 5:10 a.m. EST Feb. 1, 2008
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.
"We had another cut today between Dubai and Muscat three hours back. The cable was about 80G capacity, it had telephone, Internet data, everything," one Flag official, who declined to be named, told Zawya Dow Jones.
The cable, known as Falcon, delivers services to countries in the Mediterranean and Gulf region, he added.
"It may take sometime to fix the cut but we are rerouting the traffic to another cable in the U.K. and U.S., the bandwidth utilization will go down," the official said.
There are conflicting reports of how the two Alexandria cables were cut.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 01, 2008 05:09 ET (10:09 GMT)

Bizarre. Very Bizarre.

Quote :

Indonesian tsunami detector 'was severed': official
1 day ago

JAKARTA (AFP) — A crucial part of a tsunami detection system placed in Indonesia's busy Sunda Strait has gone missing amid indications that it was deliberately removed, an Indonesian official said Thursday.

The device is one of just four installed off Indonesia so far as part of a regional alert system designed to help predict the kind of killer waves that swept the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

It last transmitted data on December 30, 2007, Ridwan Djamaluddin, head of Indonesia's marine technology research centre, told AFP.

The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) uses a sensor on the seabed to send signals to a buoy on the surface, which in turn transmits the information to authorities on land.

Djamaluddin said he suspected that the cable holding the buoy in place was snapped after being dragged by a passing object, possibly a ship.

"The buoy is attached with a steel line to an ocean floor unit. The steel line was severed at a depth of 150 metres," he said, and the ocean floor unit was moved a distance of some two kilometres (1.25 miles).

He added that the buoy was designed to withstand a pulling force of up to six tonnes.

Djamaluddin said he believed the unit was deliberately pulled out from its place, but did not say who would have done it.

The other three DARTs are currently located off the coast of Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, and at two different points along the western coast of Sumatra.

At least 22 similar devices are planned to be launched as part of the early warning network.

The Indian Ocean region's first DART was deployed off Thailand's Phuket in December 2005.

Indonesia and Thailand were among a dozen nations lashed by a catastrophic earthquake-spawned tsunami in December 2004.

Indonesia, which suffered the highest national death, including 168,000 in Aceh alone, sits on a so-called Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates collide, meaning earthquakes are a regular and often deadly occurrence.

Offshore, shallow quakes can trigger tsunamis, which occur less frequently but can hit coastal areas quickly and claim a large number of lives.

You and your son are in my prayers, Spring. Not being able to reach a loved one when one is used to that regularly, it is very difficult to function even. Are there any other means you can use?

We do live in a time where sabotage, corruption, greed, (I want my piece of pie and will stop at no costs to have and keep it) but we can't let ourselves be sucked into it, either with acceptance, capitulation, or fear and doubt. We all need to "surround our quarters" like security guards, sargeant-at-arms. Draw your son into your circle as a shepherd and his sheepdog would do for his sheep "corral your forces"(You have plenty! powerful ones!), encircle your charge.
We will do the same for you.

Be well, Aho! Willy

I have added you in my prayers Spring and your son. Close your eyes, and you will feel his presence around you. This is the beginning of the imbalance... The Long Dark continues

Always,
LittleFire

Thank you so much for your prayers. I cannot express how thankful I am for all your support. It means the world to me.

I finally spoke with my son. He assures me everything is fine. Of course there is an unease in the area because most there do not trust the U.S. They tell my son it was not like this until Bush took office. Now everybody fears him because they believe Bush to be unbalanced, and if he sets off war in Iran then the entire middle east will be brought into it, and these people do not want war.

These are very unsettled times for all people. The people in Oman are very gentle souls. They are praying that Bush's presidency come to an end without another declaration of war. They fear nuclear fallout with war reigning in the Persian Gulf, of which their livelihood depends on. They have lived in peace for hundreds of years there. They are praying that once Bush leaves office for the U.S. to be raised to a higher consciousness, and returned to its previous state of being based on a higher ideological plane. But for the time being as long as this administration reigns they are very frightened of what the consciousness that permeates this administration may bring.

Spring,

I am so glad that you were finally able to speak to your son. The people in that region have valid reason to feel as they do. I don't believe that Bush will be allowed to start another war though. The forces of light will not allow it. I base my opinion on numerous articles from various sources. There is so much I would like to post but don't know how to unless I print them out and then retype them, which I don't have the time or patience to do. It sucks being technologically challenged .

Spring, I feel there is definitely something hokey afoot.

I'm glad you were able to speak to your son, please let him know he has many people praying for him, surrounding him with love and protection.

Conspiracy theories emerge after internet cables cut
By Simon Lauder

Posted Mon Feb 4, 2008 3:14pm AEDT
Updated Mon Feb 4, 2008 4:03pm AEDT


When two cables were cut off the Egyptian port city of Alexandria last week, about a 100 million internet users were affected, mainly in India and Egypt. (AFP: Ammro Maraghi)

Audio: Third cable cuts 'a bad coincidence' (The World Today) Is information warfare to blame for the damage to underwater internet cables that has interrupted internet service to millions of people in India and Egypt, or is it just a series of accidents?

When two cables in the Mediterranean were severed last week, it was put down to a mishap with a stray anchor.

Now a third cable has been cut, this time near Dubai. That, along with new evidence that ships' anchors are not to blame, has sparked theories about more sinister forces that could be at work.

For all the power of modern computing and satellites, most of the world's communications still rely on submarine cables to cross oceans.

When two cables were cut off the Egyptian port city of Alexandria last week, about a 100 million internet users were affected, mainly in India and Egypt.

The cables remain broken and internet services are still compromised.

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde says the situation demonstrates how interconnected the world is.

"It clearly shows we are talking about a global network and a global world that we are living in," he said.

"So wherever something happens we all get, in one way or another, affected by it."


'Information warfare?'

It was assumed a ship's anchor severed the cables, but now that is in doubt and the conspiracy theories are coming out.

Egypt's Transport Ministry says video surveillance shows no ships were in the area at the time of the incident.

Online columnist Ian Brockwell says the cables may have been cut deliberately in an attempt by the US and Israel to deprive Iran of internet access.

Others back up that theory, saying the Pentagon has a secret strategy called 'information warfare'.

But Mr Budde says it is far more likely to be a coincidence.

"It is absolutely strange, of course, that that happens. At the moment it really looks like bad luck rather than anything else," he said.

Telecommunications professor at the University of Melbourne, Peter Gerrand, says Australia is in a far better position than India to withstand a cable breakage.

"We've got, in effect, five really major separate cables, each with high capacity, most of which have plans for upgrading their capacity in the next few years," he said.

Professor Gerrand does not believe Australia is vulnerable to the types of major disruptions that India and Egypt have seen.

"I gather India has most of its capacity on two cables - one's to its west and one to its east - so when the western cable got cut near Egypt, all this traffic had to then pass through a single cable and that's what's caused these very huge delays," he said.


Australia's protection zones

As it happens, Australia's protection against such incidents was boosted just last week.

Activities that could damage submarine communications cables have been prohibited off Perth's City Beach since Friday.

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) submarine cable protection manager Robyn Meikle says the events in the Middle East highlight the importance of submarine cables to all international communications.

"Here in Australia, over 99 per cent of all of our international communications carried through these cables lie at the bottom of the sea," she said.

"That's why the Australian Communications Authority [ACMA] has played a major role in declaring protection zones over our cables of national significance in Australia.

"Each of the zones, for instance, has restrictions to do with anchoring, which are aimed at preventing the sort of damage that has happened in recent times in the Middle East.

"ACMA declares protection zones over what are considered to be the main cables of national significance, and they're the ones that carry the bulk of the traffic," she said.

"So really, they are the most important cables that the industry relies on to carry all communications in and out of Australia."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/04/2153974.htm?section=world