Weird News Volume 3

Day 188

Unfortunately, a recurring theme in some Arab news media (and even more individuals' points of view), is a tendency to filter some unexplained news events through a conspiracy filter. Not that Western cultures are at all immune to this predisposition either (the continued resonance of JFK and Princess Diana assassination theories comes to mind), but the asymmetrical power relationship that usually sparks this kind of explanation is a remnant of the region's colonial and Cold War experience and a continuing part of modern day political life here--whether the culprit is Israel, America, or some combination of the two in a form pan-Western meddling.

Although these beliefs, when manifest in news media, are almost always confined to the editorial page or the marginal comments of a guest on one of Al Jazera or Al Arabiyya's "talking heads" analysis programs, their presence is a nonetheless regrettable sign of the the media's role in legitimizing and sustaining this mode of thinking. For example, the death of long-time Hizbollah terrorist operative Imad Mughniyeh in a car bomb in Damascus gave rise to a flurry of American-Israeli covert operation theories ("Mughniyeh's Death is a Harbinger for a New War").

However understandable that cognitive connection may be in the Mughniyeh story (given he was a top priority on Mossad and FBI anti-terror lists since the 1980s), this next story still made me laugh. It comes from the editorial page of an English-language daily, The Star, owned by the prominent Jordanian Daily Ad-Dustour:

Middle East Undersea Cable Cutting: A Zionist-Neocon Covert Operation?

"...as of February 1, internet traffic routing through/from/to Iran has been cut to zero. Packet loss is 100 percent...Internet traffic to Israel has been unaffected" and "Lebanon and Iraq have been 'spared the chaos.' So, the sudden, unprecedented round of undersea, communications cable cutting in the Middle East leaves Israel and Iraq still connected, while completely shutting down the Iranian Internet. Funny how that works, isn't it."

--So the author is proposing that the cable cutting was a premeditated act by the Americans and Israelis designed to target Iran. But how? Why?

"As it happens, the US Navy has for decades had special operations teams that go out on submarines and deploy undersea, on the seabed itself, specifically for cutting or tapping communications cables...It may be that this is what the beginning of a war against Iran looks like. Or maybe we are merely seeing a dry run, a practice run, for a planned, upcoming war against Iran. The cables that have been cut are among the largest communication pipes in the region, and clearly represent major strategic targets."

Sounds like this guy should be ghost-writing for Clancy...


**Update (4 March): Looks like the Iranians are already two steps ahead of the U.S./Irsael--

"Iranian Internet users face blockage during coming election"

"The Iranian government might block private access to the Internet for the general legislative election on March 14...Several million Iranians follow political news on the Internet, and political parties have their own active Web sites."