Truth is stranger than fiction, reality is weirder than any drug induced Hunter S. Thompson fairy tale, and sometimes obvious facts are so bad that the mind chooses to ignore what the eyes see right front and center.

In 1985, FBI agent Robert Hanssen began spying for the USSR, just 6 years before its collapse. One of the secrets he sold to them was the fact that a special ops submarine managed to tap the most important USSR military undersea cable in existence. The sub did this not once, but repeatedly, coming back to pick up the recorded tapes, and to replace, even upgrade the tapping equipment.

The exact dates of tapping and the results of that spying are murky, but by the few, reliable accounts that discussed that op, it was incredibly successful.

In 2001, after the attack by Saudi, Yemeni and other extremists, Iran initiated contact with the US, attempting to coordinate and deal once and for all with the Taliban and the hated Al Qaida. Iran had as much distaste for AQ as the US did.

Bush, with the vainglorious advice of Dick Cheney, and the truly inane insights of Condi Rice, rejected all contact. Bush followed up that rejection by labeling Iran part of the Axis of Evil.

Iran was understandably chagrined. The moderate leaders, who had pushed for more contact and cooperation, lost face, and worse, because of the US moves, they also lost control, allowing the more conservative forces to extend their power.

Iran decided to do more than simply react, they decided to take other steps to limit the damage that America could do to Iran. Their first step? Cutting economic ties. However, they were not the first to try.

The man that actually did demand Euro for his oil was Saddam Hussein in 2000. At first, his demand was met with ridicule, later with neglect, but as it became clearer that he meant business, political pressure was exerted to change his mind. When other countries, like Iran, wanted payment in other currencies, most notably Euro and Yen, the danger to the dollar was clear and present, and a punitive action was in order. Bush’s Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam’s nuclear capabilities, about defending human rights, about spreading democracy, or even about seizing oil fields; it was about defending the dollar, ergo the American Empire.

http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html

This month, Iran was supposed to open its own bourse, trading oil and oil futures in Euros and other currencies, but not the dollar. Delinking oil from the dollar would protect Iran from Bush's spendthrift invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the resulting collapse of the US dollar.

Being a high tech project, the tubes of the internets would play a vital role in this new market. And behold, four major cables linking the Middle East to the rest of the world were severed, all within one week. Some ignorant US sources dutifully tried to blame it on "ship anchors", but even the Egyptians refused to go along with that bogus spin. Not only were two cables away from any shipping lines, no ships had passed through there at the time of the disruption.

Looking at the flotsam and jetsam that used to be the ancient and proud country of Iraq, replaced by a Green Zone which now sits next to the world's largest open sewer, one might suspect that decoupling oil from the dollar might incite a strong reaction by certain elements deep within the US power structure.

US submarine technology has not stayed static since the 1970s. To the contrary, it has improved, along with other military technology. As we learned last year from AT&T, tapping every single communication within a phone company is not all that hard, not for the NSA, CIA, and with the tacit support of your DOJ and White House.

How much of a stretch is it to add 2+2? Either the Israelis or the US, severed the intertubes providing Iran with internet access, and in the process, tapped the lines with hi-tech links, either before or during the repair process.

He who controls information flow, controls pretty much everything. And if the US managed to tap into the entire middle east's net connections with these "accidents", well I suspect our lives have just gotten a whole lot more complex.

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