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Ships did not cut internet cables: Egypt
ABC News ^ | February 3, 2008

Posted on 02/03/2008 7:26:10 PM PST by NCjim

Ships are not responsible for damaging undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean, Egypt's Government says.

Two cables were damaged earlier this week in the Mediterranean sea and another off the coast of Dubai, causing widespread disruption to internet and international telephone services in Egypt, Gulf Arab states and South Asia.

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.

"The area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone and it is therefore ruled out that the damage to the cables was caused by ships."

Earlier reports said that the damage had been caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather.

A repair ship is expected to begin work to fix the two Mediterranean cables on Tuesday.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 200802; cables; cabletapping; communications; cutcables; egypt; internet; isolatedincedents; ivybells; maritime; mediterranean; mediterraneansea; operationivybells; opivybells; qatar; telecom; uae; underwatercables
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To: Fresh Wind

You said — “Egypt’s transport ministry said footage recorded by onshore video cameras of the location of the cables showed no SURFACE maritime traffic...”

They can only state what they know from the facts. To state that, and make it out to be more than “just that” (along with the lack of any further information as to the cause of the failure) — is simply feeding into a lot of “conspiracy-nut-theories” (as we can very well see on this thread).

Note that someone has already posted that these sorts of things happen all the time. They are not any big deal, other than a coming together of a couple of events at the same time, which in the course of natural and normally-occurring “failure events” — you’ll always liable to have a couple of those “failure events” — gang up at the same time and make it to be a bigger deal than it would normally be.

Until there is any solid information to the contrary that it is *not* one of the normally occurring failure events — there’s no use in jumping to “conspiracy-nut-theoretical-thinking-processes” in saying that one “knows” what is happening... LOL...

Regards,
Star Traveler


81 posted on 02/04/2008 5:27:35 PM PST by Star Traveler
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To: RFEngineer; AKSurprise
RFe did you read the story? The first ones were in a no ship zone and records indicate no ships. The others were over 1,000 miles away.
82 posted on 02/04/2008 5:30:13 PM PST by mad_as_he$$ (John McCain - The Manchurian Candidate? http://www.usvetdsp.com/manchuan.htm)
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To: Star Traveler

“There’s a difference between reported news and the kinds of conspiracy-nut-theories that come out of too much pizza the night before and the wild dreams that one had...”

Clearly you missed my point and the context intended, but hey, this is a pretty funny post.


83 posted on 02/04/2008 5:44:03 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: mad_as_he$$

“The first ones were in a no ship zone and records indicate no ships. The others were over 1,000 miles away.”

Yes, I read the article. You may not know that nearly all undersea cable breaks are the result of maritime activity, that is why it is odd that Egypt categorically eliminates that possibility - without stating what actually caused it.


84 posted on 02/04/2008 5:51:44 PM PST by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer

My guess is the Russkies. I am still trying to figure out why. If it was Israel then they are about to unload on Iran and have about 10 days to do it. One other theory I have is that it was US. Why? To force internet traffic onto a route that we can more easily control and monitor. Keep in mind this was about the same day we waxed some AQ scumbag in the border region - an attempt to capture reaction? There is also a theory from the ME that it was us because the Saudi’s told W no oil price reduction and it pissed him off (funny)


85 posted on 02/04/2008 5:58:02 PM PST by mad_as_he$$ (John McCain - The Manchurian Candidate? http://www.usvetdsp.com/manchuan.htm)
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To: Star Traveler

“To put in “porn”, “Israel”, “sabotage” and “conspiracies” — when the article did not mention them, or to attribute that to the Egyptians (when they never mentioned it; but supposedly according to you, they were definitely trying to “say that” by the mere absence of them saying it) — is — the *conspiracy-nut theory* in and of itself...”

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

Title: “Conspiracy theories emerge after internet cables cut”

“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’. “

Why are you trying to hide the conspiracy? Are you the “man behind the curtain”? ;^)


86 posted on 02/05/2008 5:59:48 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: RFEngineer

You said — “Why are you trying to hide the conspiracy?”

An excellent example of “conspiracy-nut-thinking”... LOL...

Regards,
Star Traveler


87 posted on 02/05/2008 9:24:54 AM PST by Star Traveler
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USS Carter is designed to replace Parche (which replaced Seawolf and Hallibut) in the undersea special missions (specialized intelligence gathering) role. This includes underwater cable-tapping. According to "Blind Man's Bluff" (p.296 and 297), it was Carter who authorized the highly successful tapping of the Soviets communications cables in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea. 55 posted on ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2004‎ ‎8‎:‎35‎:‎21‎ ‎AM by tanknetter
88 posted on 01/18/2015 9:42:40 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells


89 posted on 01/18/2015 9:45:19 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Fedora

Here’s one I didn’t know about.


90 posted on 01/18/2015 9:50:22 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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