February 05, 2008

Disconnect

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There was a chilling extraneous comment in an NPR report of an environmental victory yesterday morning. A federal judge overturned President Bush's decree that the Navy is exempt from the sonar ban off the California coast, meant to protect large sea mammals from loud noises. In the broadcast Rear Admiral Larry Rice said that the sonic ban made it difficult to train his men properly without blasting whales out of the water (slightly paraphrased by editor) because:

The Lincoln Strike Group is getting ready to deploy. That's 7000 young Americans that are getting ready to go into harm's way

Oh really. Whyever would they be in harm's way, Rear Admiral?

Well let's take a peek at the internet's undersea world in light of some headlines you that may have overlooked in the past few days.

Mediterranean Cable Break "Internet and telephone communications across the Middle East and India were disrupted after two submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea were cut."

New Cable Cut Compounds Net Woes -"A submarine cable in the Middle East has been snapped, adding to global net problems caused by breaks in two lines under the Mediterranean on Wednesday."

Ships Did Not Cause Internet Cable Damage

World Economics Hang By An Internet Thread

Cable-cutting in Preparation for War - The Historical Precedent.


Operation Ivy Bells- Navy divers effort to alter the Cold War by messing with undersea cables.

Pentagon: The Internet Needs to be Dealt With As If It Were An Enemy "Weapons System"

As Karl Rove said all too cheerfully in his Newsweek column last week

Maybe we are not seeing the crackup of the GOP. Rather, America is more likely to be at the start of an intense and exciting election. The contest will be hard fought, the actions of the candidates each day hugely significant. It's far too early to draw sweeping conclusions about the health of either party; the presidential race, after all, has barely begun. Lots of surprises lie ahead.

And as we know, this administration thinks that the best surprises involve precipitating a crisis then fanning the flames of fear, so that the stupid American voter will vote for someone who will be able to protect him from "the enemy".

Photo note: Looks disconnected to me

Addendum:Cable Cut Fever Grips the Web: Threat Level from Wired.com.

Posted by Dakota at February 5, 2008 06:09 AM