Boats held after damaging undersea cables
Two ships have been impounded in Dubai after satellite images indicated that they may have been responsible for the damage to undersea cables which left large parts of the Middle East without proper internet access. Reliance Globalcom, which owns the cables, used satellite photos to identify the MV Hounslow and MV Ann as being the most likely culprits and stopped the ships in Dubai. One of the ships has now been released after the Korean owners agreed to pay compensation. But two sailors on the second Iraqi-owned ship may now face trial. “The matter has been brought to the notice of appropriate authorities which are taking necessary action,” a Reliance Globalcom official told The Hindu.
The loss of the cables caused internet access in some countries to slow by as much as 80 per cent, and harmed performance at call centres in Egypt to the extent that the state telecoms company asked ordinary users to stay offline. Egyptian authorities said initially that ships were not responsible for the outages which led the United Nations to investigate whether the cable had been damaged by saboteurs. However, it is claimed that the two ships were travelling in a forbidden area and dropped their anchors during a storm, where they snagged on and then broke several vital cables. A press statement issued by local service provider Etisalat stated: “This was an extremely difficult period for the region’s telecommunications industry. “The cuts were extremely serious as many of the Gulf countries rely on submarine cables to provide access to international markets and internet content. Accordingly, telephone and internet services were seriously degraded.”
Source: Vnunet
Looks like the attack on Iran has been delayed. Again.
Hahah, cables can cause so much fuss nowadays.
It was the Bush Admin I tell ya!
The net is a breeding ground for terrorist activities.
Go Bush!!!
They had Xbox live for 1 day in the middle east.
I was wondering what happened.
yeah i remember those days !
it was a mess
What Happened to the terrorist sharks with mounted laser beams on their backs?? I thought they were the cause for the damaged wires????
@1
iran ? attack ?
iranian ppl:
common BUSH and help us
2 ships of different countires just hppen to weigh achor in the same place the cables are located? I don’t think so.
forbidden part of the sea??? wheres that then, and how do you warn people off put up big signs saying ‘they’re be monsters’… however if the sign thing works may i suggest we start funding a line of signs around the north american continent
this is old news
Hey you can’t park here!
The USA should immediately have launched preemptive strikes on these 2 boats from Iraq.
We can’t take any chance and we need to send the message that we are now firmly etablished there and any attempt at disrupting or creating chaos in the middle east will be answered with the full might of our glorious military.
We need the region to be stable to finish the job we started in Afghanistan , Iraq and soon Iran and we cannot accept vile acts like those
Peace through strength and superior firepower !!!!
this is just the beginning phrase of World War III
The End is near! *shiver*
It’s all a crock - secret navy submarines placed undsea taps on this cable so we could “listen” in on the ME.
Yeah..cool..I wish the whole MFing middle east would move to Mars and let the rest of of live in peace
Armitage has it right it was terrorist sharks. they have been planning this for a while now and im glad to see they have succeeded.
yoohoo u think if the middle east all moved to mars they would let us live in peace. come on its the middle east. they are the reason their will never be peace. to many ignorant people live their and all they do is spread hate. they would plan terrorist attacks while on mars.
itt, moronic americans spouting brainwashed mumbojumbo
@ 17 I sort of agree
That’s why the Pentagon should soon invest billion of dollars into the creation of Inter Galactic Ballistic missiles
We need to be ready to face any threat that come from outer space whether an alien terrorist race coming to invade us or a godless asteroid heading in our direction.
Prevention through strength !!!!
National.Treasure.Book.of.Secret.2007.TS.Xvid.INT.BitN
has been released!!
“alquida and Koreans working together.!!” - Harold & Kumar II
Let’s send the Middle East to Mars then blow it up. Let’s send Africa too while we’re at it.
Yeah, and while were doing that, let’s move U.S. to Mars, too. That way we’ll have world peace in no time. United States of Mars. As intelligent as the “opposite” and still so similar suggestions. Harharhar…
Phukin yanks, think they own the place,,
I saw a clip of the movie of harold and kumar escape from that long ass base name.. It looks badass.
Man, next week I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about new Osama video tape where he praises Allah and telling everyone how it was gods will to eliminate “porn pipe” of the west.
guys come on the middle east isn’t our actual problem ,
I believe that the USA is the one that should be banned from earth
all what they do is causing problems and wars around the world , they also supply outlaws in some countries with weapons and equipment in order to cause problems in those countries .
and who on earth gathered Jewish ppl in the middle east and gave them the power and force to kill women and children , while no one can say to them No , or use power to stop them .
I believe that the USA & Israel are the disturbers of peace and blaming the Muslims instead .
and some of U guys are really brain washed and know nothing about whats going on ,
thanks to the media and those who R running it .
What’s really going on S.M.A.6? What’s going on is survival. We have overpopulation. We have a Global Food/Energy/Enironmental collapse on our hands. Don’t just blame amerika. Blame all countries.
Blame humans. We are hardwired to reproduce. And everyone screams, we have a basic right to pass our genes to the next generation. Problem is there is not enough room for everyone to continue at the rate we’re going. So the rich countries have the power to keep the poor countries down. That’s evolution baby.
Deal with it. If you happen to be in the third world, I pity you. But I’m not going to loose sleep over it. I’m going to give my single child the best life I can. Sinple. And I’m going to vote in anyway possible to keep the “unwashed” masses from taking my job and resources away.
nuff’ said!
1# Haha, yeah. It was the states’ invasion force that tripped on the wire and had to cancel.
-27-sorry to bust your bubble mate, but in terms of world history, the States lags far behind every other region and nation, when it comes to starting wars. to be put in context, I know it may be hard for most here to swallow but the truth is this Iraq or Afghan war that the US is leading, is basically one of the lowest casualty “major wars” in world history. Actually it cant even be said it’s the worst wars being fought at the present, considering the armed conflicts/genocides that are happening all over africa, at a much higher human loss.
btw, no one gathered jews in the mideast, they’ve been there longer than any other people besides the african migrants some 5500 years ago.
it sounds like you’re the one brainwashed. when i visited the states, their ppl have access to the true internet, with no bars on sites. if you walk to the local newspaper stall, you can get about any nation, language available. Also americans can order and watch programming from virtually any nations via cable or satellite tv. unlike from where I assume you’re from, they get to pick their propaganda. let me guess you’re from an arab nation or your ancestors are?
@30 ROFL clap clap clap! Cheers!
@30
Thanks for saying what needed to be said
@13- n00b with attitude
World war III is already happening, and has been for a while.
@27- S.M.A.6
Any chance of you removing your head from your a$$ :p
@30- Tito
You be da man. Well said!
There stopped teh internet, come on!
I say cut their balls
CHINA WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD
if all those countries go to mars.
YEA!
I’m with number 8.
What a total load of BS.
This could not have been the
“accidental” damage by 2 ships.
This smells of a total scam
COVERUP. Who or Why?
Anyone got a reasonable guess?
It was me I tell ya…..Dr. Evil….in my aim to take over the world once again! I was just cutting off Austin’s server!
heheh…. poor ol taliban couldnt contact there cells in other countries ahahhaehhe….
waaah…
give the guys who own the boats a medal aheahehahea
might download this tomorrow, I smell a nuke
(scared at my own joke lol)
Even though I’m not particularly fond of Korean or Iraqi history in politics, I must applaud anyone purposefully responsible for cutting the middle east off from the internet. Way too many companies have taken the easy road, and transferred technical jobs overseas. Leaving thousands of Americans without jobs. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of unhappy customers who are now forced to attempt communication with an American company through foreign conduits. Just cause the person on the other end of the phone can speak English, does not mean communication is occurring. I very honestly hope this happens again. If the middle-east, especially India, get cut off from the internet again, there is a potential for the American job market to improve.
I think its covert operations by America. Just my thought.
@41 Do ya think? Nawwwwww really! Of course it was.
@41 Capitalist systems need to make a profit meaning they will always get some stuff done by those willing to do it the cheapist. And as others have already mentioned the cables were cut so monitoring equipment could be inserted, not improve the American job market.
I meant @40 friendlyInfo. Posts seem to be evaporating…
Being a restricted area means there probably isn’t a whole lot of boat traffic. Sounds like the perfect meeting spot if I were going to sell arms to Iraqis. Then again, it could just be good fishing there, since over-fishing likely isn’t taking place. You decide.
PS: Love the Harold and Kumar references. Couldn’t have been more perfect with what I was thinking when I first read this article lol.
Some people…
Yeah I read a lot of dumb $hit in these comments, and I hope most of it’s not really viewed this way.
I think that the U.S. would have done this to cut off the middle-east from seeing the truth, and from being able to speak the truth.
It seems like the perfect plan for them. They don’t want people to see what’s really going on in the world, they just want to keep everyone believing their lies.
Personally when I first heard about sub-marine internet cables the very first thing that came to mind was “what idiots”! I mean, really I just can’t see it being worth it. Thousands of miles of wire are spread under the sea, and your telling me that nothing is going to collide with these? What ever happened to satellites? Are they just too expensive for the middle eastern countries, or is there someone keeping them down for a reason?
Why do all you other Americans talk so much $hit? We are going to see a day when America gets punked down by a bigger bully! I am scared to live here, and worse yet ashamed.
Why do we only think about whats best for ourselves?
[I may have never met you, but I want you to know that I love you.]
@46
i completely agree 100% word for word, no doubt about it.
it would be very nice if USA send all of us non-Americans to Mars ’cause then we will finally have peace… - there on Mars.
finally the real cause… i was wondering who dunnet
@46: Undersea cables are actually quite commonplace, and not limited to the middle east at all. Both America and the UK us them for example.
Satellites are indeed very expensive to launch and maintain, but the bigger issue is the latency issues you get when beaming a signal up into space and then back down again.
Fiber optic cable on the other hand is relatively inexpensive, and has mind-boggling speed and bandwidth with very little latency. We’re talking upwards into the terrabits per second range when you start bundling lots of strands together and use various amplification/multiplexing techniques.
As for America cutting the cable as a preemptive strike against the middle east (notably Iran most paranoids say), well it just doesn’t make any sense. After all, what good is a preemptive strike when it isn’t followed by any war-like action, such as a primary invasion? We all know that didn’t happen.
The internet is ok now on Egypt