back to article Train crash knocks out fibre cables, delays 9/11 hearing

A 9/11 pretrial hearing at Guantanamo Bay was postponed on Wednesday after a coal-train crash that killed two women in Baltimore, Maryland, disrupted internet connections to the 45-square-mile US naval base in Cuba. The whole thing was later altogether abandoned due to a tropical storm. Fibre optic lines were damaged in the …

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  1. ElNumbre
    Black Helicopters

    Comms Disruption Ahoy

    And now, provide Alan Quaida and his mates have a few braincells between them, they'll see where the accident happened on the news, know that there is major infrastructure running by there and get the spades out and start digging.

    Even if they don't tap the pipe, they can certainly cease the service.

    NB - This is not an incitement to dig - don't do it - its very naughty. And no black helicopters please!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Luckily

      They didn't panic and press the nuclear option.

      1. g e

        Re: Luckily

        Nukular, surely ;o)

    2. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Comms Disruption Ahoy

      It's fairly obvious that the huge Quantico Marine base and the NSA HQ is not too far away. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

      Note that SPRINT used to be "Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications" - a lot of network infrastructure runs alongside railroads nowadays.

      1. Rukario
        Go

        Re: Comms Disruption Ahoy

        Intercontinental. Southern Pacific Railroad Intercontinental Network of Telecommunications. And yes indeed there is a history of telecoms infrastructure with railways. Anyone remember BRT (British Rail Telecommunications) before it was gobbled up by Racal?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In such a context

    Shouldn't words like pretrial and trial appear in quotation marks?

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: In such a context

      Fortunately the cancellation of the hearing didn't affect the verdict

  3. Cameron Colley
    FAIL

    If only the US had access to US technology.

    It's a shame the US don't have access to that technology called "the internet" that the US invented to allow communications systems to divert around points of failure. Aren't the US friendly enough with the US to have access to their technology?

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Re: If only the US had access to US technology.

      Aye. I came to say "arpanet" and "survive nuclear attack" but you beat me to it.

      Dumb as a box of chocolate hairpins

    2. Psyx
      Facepalm

      If only the US had access to US technology.

      "It's a shame the US don't have access to that technology called "the internet" that the US invented to allow communications systems to divert around points of failure. Aren't the US friendly enough with the US to have access to their technology?"

      Gee, that's a genius plan: Have a bunch of sensitive pre-trial information about terrorists available online. Maybe the US military should just keep everything online, so the Chinese can get at it a little bit more easily. /rolleyes.

      1. Cameron Colley
        Facepalm

        @Psyx

        I realise not everyone here works in IT but I would expect most to know what a VPN was. The internet is not just the World Wide Web you know.

  4. Chris Miller

    Baltimore train crashes

    Have a poor history of effects on the Internet.

  5. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Facepalm

    The Obumbler didn't make that promise.

    "....despite President Barack Obama's pre-election pledge to shut the whole operation down...." IIRC, the Obumbler promised to close the detention center at Gitmo, not the whole base, and it is the rest of the base that will benefit from the proposed Internet link. Whilst Obambi is being held to task over some election promises that have not actually made it to reality (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/12/republicans-tally-obama-failed-campaign-promises-as-november-nears/), it's a bit harsh to start claiming he said he'd de-Yankify the whole island!

    1. PassiveSmoking
      FAIL

      Re: The Obumbler didn't make that promise.

      You cite Faux News as a reliable source? Oh dear oh dear.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: The Obumbler didn't make that promise.

        "You cite Faux News as a reliable source?...." Oh, so you want to contend that the Obumbler DID say he would close the whole Gitmo base? I guess we can see how just how reflexively blinkered your viewpoint is.

    2. E 2

      Re: The Obumbler didn't make that promise.

      Obama had to find prisons, thus state gov'ts, that would accept the Gitmo prisoners.

      Nobody was willing to accept them.

      Obama cannot force a state governor in this matter. So he could do nothing.

      1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: The Obumbler didn't make that promise.

        "Obama had to find prisons...." So what you're saying is either Obambi made a promise he knew he couldn't keep, or he made one without first checking into the practicalities? I don't mind which option you go with, either makes him look a pretty stupid politician, and those voters that fell for the promise even stupider.

  6. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
    Coat

    I *told* you ..

    .. not to use Google Docs for that..

  7. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    "Train crash knocks out fibre cables, delays 9/11 hearing"

    A LIKELY STORY.

    How's that Obamamamma "closing of GITMO" coming along, btw?

  8. Christian Berger

    There used to be a troposcatter link to Cuba

    The BBC reported in one of their Engineering Monographs about it. In a nutshell they used frequencies aroung 820 MHz and insane amount of power to hope to refract a bit of signal in the troposphere.

    They wrote about the problems of making sure nobody gets into the insanely powerfull beam. The solution was simple. On the cuban end the transmission site was right at the sea so they could close down the land area around it. On the Florida site they had swamps all the way to the sea, so the danger of being eaten by a crocodile was seen as the higher problem.

  9. P. Lee

    $40m for broadband?

    That'll teach you to use AT&T for your iphone!

    No-one really minds that you put people in prison, they just mind that you don't apply US law to the proceedings.

    Put the $40m towards a new prison and house them on the mainland where there is no argument as to what law applies.

    Then you can shut down the base and recoup the rest of your build costs and deliver on the promise to shut it down.

  10. DM2012
    WTF?

    9 years?

    Hang on a minute.. It's nearly 11 years to the day since the attacks, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed was arrested in March 2003 - over 9 years ago.

    Now, I'm all for justice - but how does it take *9 years* since an arrest to not even have had a pretrial hearing?!

    1. Purlieu

      Re: 9 years?

      It's also usual to have actual evidence before arresting someone. But hey ...

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