Another cablecut - sri lanka to suez Re: Sicily to Egypt undersea cable disruption

Sat Feb 2 19:39:29 UTC 2008

Gentlemen, 

This is my last comment on this subject. 

Paranoia is not a virtue. And security establishments are notorious for exaggerating threats (Soviet Union's economy and hence ability to wage war was  half of what the CIA estimated). They are interest groups just like the rest of us ... They pursue their self interest as General Eisenhower noted about a certain's military establishment. 

:)

If you know the undersea cable industry, you know that several cables can be down at the same time without malice playing a role...

Last year both undersea cables into Pakistan were severed. The two cables were laid within several feet of each other along a stretch of shallow water. 

When a ship sank, it crushed both cables.

In December of 2006, three Irish sea cables went dead. One was cut in twenty feet of water. One was cut on land and a third damaged in the middle of the Irish sea.

It happens all the time.

Terrorists are clearly looking for more high profile events than disrupting unmanned undersea cable systems. It doesn't make for great television shots ... It is really to get shots of an undersea severed cable ...

Have a good weekend. 

Regards, 

Roderick S. Beck
Director of European Sales
Hibernia Atlantic
1, Passage du Chantier, 75012 Paris
http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com
Wireless: 1-212-444-8829. 
Landline: 33-1-4346-3209.
French Wireless: 33-6-14-33-48-97.
AOL Messenger: GlobalBandwidth
rod.beck at hiberniaatlantic.com
rodbeck at erols.com
``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.'' Albert Einstein. 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanog at merit.edu on behalf of Robert Bonomi
Sent: Sat 2/2/2008 7:20 PM
To: nanog at merit.edu
Subject: Re: Another cablecut - sri lanka to suez Re: Sicily to Egypt undersea cable disruption

> Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 14:21:00 -0800
> From: "Scott Francis" <darkuncle at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Another cablecut - sri lanka to suez Re: Sicily to Egypt undersea cable disruption
>
>
> On Feb 1, 2008 6:37 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <ops.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/third-undersea-cable-reportedly-cut/story.aspx?guid={1AAB2A79-E983-4E0E-BC39-68A120DC16D9}
> >
> >  "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.
>
> this (3 undersea cables in about a week, serving the same geographic
> area, with two of the cuts happening on the same day!) is leaving the
> realm of improbability and approaching the realm of conspiracy ...

  "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence"
  comes to mind.

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