Comments on: If You Can’t Build a Wall

By: MaxDamage

MaxDamage — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:28:44 +0000

The Times is reporting another cut, 3 of the 4 cables linking Asia to the USA.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2008/12/is-the-internet.html

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:06:16 +0000

SMS Emden had fun cutting cables and fitting terminations of carefully-calculated restistance and inductance to the stumps, in 1914. (so they couldn’t tell where the cut was)

Oh, and Neil Stephenson recently wrote a right thick novel which had to do with submarine cables, and other considerations.

Which reminds me; why are Filipinas considered so ultimately universally sexy, everywhere and at all times? I just don’t get that.

By: Taxi1

Taxi1 — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:09:48 +0000

I googled on the topic, and it turns out that a cable gets cut every three days somewhere on the planet, and that they are repairing Atlantic undersea cables 50 times per year, for example. In other words, they break all the time, and being a cable repairman is a steady line of work. Surprised me. The Middle East has little redundancy, so they get screwed royally when theirs break. Cool wiki on it…

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

And this is a cool animation on how they lay them down and repair them in the middle of the ocean, in case you want to buy one for your own use.
http://www1.alcatel-lucent.com/submarine/how/index.htm

By: Mongo

Mongo — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:19:03 +0000

Ya know what really bugs me about this? Cutting comm cables on the seabed is no mean feat. I know the Med isn’t all that deep, but going down to whack a cable in two isn’t a matter of ‘Hey, let’s you and me put on tanks, go blow bubbles for a bit, and see if we can’t screw with a whole bunch of folks’ telephone systems’.

As the NYPD bubbas on ‘Law and Order’ would say “I’m likin’ Ivan for this one.”

To pull off an op like this in multiple deep water sites is pretty sophisticated business. I don’t see Jihadists of any sect having the wherewithal to do this, no matter how much money they throw out. There are only a small handful of countries on the planet that have the proper means with which to surreptitiously cut such cables, and escape without being noticed.
Oh, and we happen to be one of them…

By: Mongo

Mongo — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:16:12 +0000

Gotta be a Tom Clancy novel in this.

Or Lex Novel Part Deux

By: Buck

Buck — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 20:28:54 +0000

Well… the cable cut has affected on our guys/gals in the AOR. I got a (VERY short) note from SN1… currently at Balad AB… this morning saying e-mail and access to non-military web sites has been suspended pending repair of the cable cuts.