Posted on 02/08/2008 12:51:56 PM PST by decimon
CNN) -- A telecommunications company on Friday blamed a ship anchor for cutting one of three severed undersea cables that snarled Internet traffic throughout the Middle East last week.
FLAG Telecom's FALCON cable spanning Dubai and Oman was snapped February 1 by an abandoned six-ton ship anchor, the company said, and will be repaired by Sunday.
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Another target of the Internet sabotage speculation is Islamic terrorists. "It was a six-ton anchor that took out that cable in the Persian Gulf. Unless al Qaeda has extremely strong frogmen or submarines, I'm not sure how they did it," laughed Beckert.
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(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Interesting possibility.
Nope. The are designed so that they don't move. It's improbable but it could have landed on the cable or slid down a slope the hit the cable.
"Weighing more than 5.5 tons, the anchor has been pulled to the surface. The company did not immediately explain whether the anchor moved and snapped the cable or whether the cable itself was drifting when it was sliced.
It remains unclear exactly how any of the cuts occurred.
It also was unclear whether FLAG knew what vessel the anchor belonged to. Rough weather was reported nearby at the time of the cut, but conditions have improved since."
It’s a Crater Coupler - look it up - interesting stuff.
Thanks E. It does sound like a cover story.
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