Watch Live: Second House Hearing on IRS Scandal

Check Out Today’s Hot Posts on TheBlaze Blog!

Technology

Syria Pulls the Plug on Internet

Nov. 29, 2012 7:28pm Jason Howerton

In this citizen journalism image provided by the Homs City Union of The Syrian Revolution, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian citizens walk in a destroyed street that was attacked on Wednesday by Syrian forces warplanes, at Abu al-Hol street in Homs province, Syria, Thursday Nov. 29, 2012. Two US-based Internet-monitoring companies say Syria has shut off the Internet nationwide. Activists in Syria reached Thursday by satellite telephone confirmed the unprecedented blackout, which comes amid intense fighting in the capital, Damascus. (Credit: AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — Internet service went down Thursday across Syria and international flights were canceled at the Damascus airport when a road near the facility was closed by heavy fighting in the country’s civil war.

Activists said President Bashar Assad’s regime pulled the plug on the Internet, perhaps in preparation for a major offensive. Cellphone service also went out in Damascus and parts of central Syria, they said. The government blamed rebel fighters for the outages.

With pressure building against the regime on several fronts and government forces on their heels in the battle for the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, rebels have recently begun pushing back into Damascus after largely being driven out of the capital following a July offensive. One Damascus resident reported seeing rebel forces near a suburb of the city previously deemed to be safe from fighting.

The Internet outage, confirmed by two U.S.-based companies that monitor online connectivity, is unprecedented in Syria’s 20-month-old uprising against Assad, which activists say has killed more than 40,000 people.

Regime forces suffered a string of tactical defeats in recent weeks, losing air bases and other strategic facilities. The government may be trying to blunt additional rebel offensives by hampering communications.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned what she called the regime’s “assault” on Syrians’ ability to communicate with each other and express themselves. She said the move spoke to a desperate attempt by Assad to cling to power.

Syrian authorities often cut phone and Internet service in select areas to disrupt rebel communications when regime forces are conducting major operations.

The government sent mixed signals about the Internet outage but denied it was nationwide. The pro-regime TV station Al-Ikhbariya quoted Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi as saying that “terrorists” have targeted Internet cables, interrupting service in several cities.

Separately, state-run TV said the outage was due to a technical failure that affected some provinces, adding that technicians were trying to fix it.

Activists in Syria, reached by satellite telephones unaffected by the outage, confirmed the communications problems.

A young Syrian businessman who lives in an upscale neighborhood of Damascus, which some refer to as part of “the green zone” because it has remained relatively safe, sent a text message to an Associated Press reporter Thursday that said the Internet had been cut in his area and that mobile phone service was cutting out.

He said he was driving Wednesday through the Damascus suburb of Aqraba, near the airport, and saw dozens of rebel fighters for the first time in the area, riding in pickup trucks and motorcycles, and wielding AK-47s.

Their presence so close to the “green zone” may have led to the Internet being cut, said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared government reprisal. He said the military was positioned a few hundred meters away from the rebel fighters and had built large speed bumps to enclose the area.

The opposition said the Internet blackout was an ominous sign that the regime was preparing a major offensive.

“I fear that cutting the Internet may be a prelude to a massacre in Damascus,” said Adib Shishakly, a Syrian opposition figure from Cairo, Egypt. “The regime feels it is being choked off by rebels who are closing in on the capital from its suburbs. It’s a desperate move; they are trying to sever communications between activists.”

Renesys, a U.S.-based network security firm that studies Internet disruption, said in a statement that Syria effectively disappeared from the Internet at 12:26 p.m. local time.

“In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria’s IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet,” Renesys said. It added that the main autonomous system responsible for Internet in the country is the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment, and that “all of their customer networks are currently unreachable.”

Akamai Technologies Inc., another U.S.-based company that distributes content on the Internet, also confirmed the complete outage.

Jim Cowie, the chief technology officer at Renesys, said the abruptness of the outage suggested it wasn’t due to a severed cable. Syria has several cables that connect it to the outside world, and all of them would have had to be cut at once for a complete outage. A power outage or an intentional shutdown at central Syrian telecommunications facilities is a more likely cause, he said.

“We saw everything go in three to four minutes, which looks like a light switch,” Cowie said.

He said the profile of the outage was similar to what the Egyptian government did in January 2011 during the Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Egypt switched off the Internet for five days, halting businesses, banking and – at the height of the demonstrations – the ability of protest leaders to organize and communicate with each other.

Bahrain’s Sunni rulers also jammed cellphones during the military offensive on the protesters’ encampment in the capital of Manama in March 2011. Internet service remained at a crawl when the Bahrain’s military stormed the city’s Pearl Square – the headquarters of the revolt – after weeks of street protests.

Ann Harrison, deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said in a statement that the group worried the communications were cut in Syria “to shield the truth of what is happening in the country from the outside world.”

Thursday’s violence appeared to be focused on southern suburbs near the Damascus international airport, forcing the military to shut the road to the facility. The surrounding districts have been strongholds of rebel support since the uprising began.

At the United Nations, the secretary-general’s office said at least four soldiers assigned to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights were injured in the crossfire on the airport road as their unit was heading out for a routine rotation of forces.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the regime has started a major offensive around the airport where rebels have been particularly active in recent weeks.

Abdul-Rahman, who relies on a network of activists in Syria, said large convoys of government reinforcements were seen heading south toward the airport, which is 25 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of Damascus. The fighting was concentrated in and around the suburbs of Aqraba and Beit Saham, he said.

The Syrian Information Ministry later said the airport road was secure after attacks by “terrorist groups” on motorists, according to state TV. It was not immediately clear whether the road had been reopened.

The fighting prompted both Emirates airline and EgyptAir to cancel flights to Damascus.

Despite months of sporadic fighting and deteriorating security in Damascus, the airport has remained open.

But EgyptAir said in a statement that the airline will halt all flights to Damascus and Aleppo starting Friday, until further notice. EgyptAir head Rushdi Zakaria said the decision was due to deteriorating security conditions in Syria.

Syrian TV also said government forces were chasing “al-Qaida elements” around Damascus, mostly in the eastern suburbs of Douma and the southern suburb of Daraya.

The Observatory said the regime used warplanes to hit districts including Daraya, where fighting has raged for days.

The operation around Damascus comes days after rebels made significant advances in the area. Last week, they captured a major helicopter base just outside the capital.

In the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising began, rebels detonated a car bomb near the house of a senior member of the country’s ruling Baath Party, killing him and his three bodyguards, activists said. Rebels frequently target regime figures and military commanders.

Benghazi, IRS, AP...What's next? Only TheBlaze TV offers the truth from Glenn Beck, Andrew Wilkow, and Real News from TheBlaze. Get instant access and a free trial here.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (32)

ObserverOnTheHill
Posted on December 2, 2012 at 12:47pm
coming soon to the USSA

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- gandalf1g
  Posted on December 2, 2012 at 2:11pm
  No doubt
  
  Report this comment
dumpdabums
Posted on December 1, 2012 at 5:40pm
So let the real slaughter begin it’s all going to be hidden from view. the net is down.. America check it out it’s going to happen here wait and see.. When the government gets ready to put us all in re- education camps.. the net will be the first thing to go down..

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
jaylew
Posted on December 1, 2012 at 3:51pm
Just look at yet another Muslim mess in that picture above…..I swear…..if there is a good decent fine democrat kind gentle Muslim nation anywhere on earth…..can someone please enlighten me on just exactly where that is? The entire Islamic ideology is stuck in a kind of La Brea Human Tar Pit. Nothing but slow murderous destruction and human misery. Here’s a quick shout out to all you muslims worldwide…maybe you should consider a different spiritual path? Try Methodism or heck go hog wild and become a Jehovah Witness. At least your neighborhoods wont be filled with Improvised Explosive Devices and your girls can grow up and become something other than your “breeding holes and sperm banks”

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- gandalf1g
  Posted on December 2, 2012 at 2:16pm
  It would save the world a fortune if they would remove all the Isrealis and just nuke the continent. Make sure all the good muslins are sent home first though. Give them free air fare with a thrilling 30,000 foot disembarkment
  
  Report this comment
TPartyXpress
Posted on December 1, 2012 at 3:19pm
They let you on the Internet from you cell in the nuthouse?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
TPartyXpress
Posted on December 1, 2012 at 3:12pm
Remember when Obama made that quick ‘test run’ by shutting down the Internet for a few seconds? Next time, it will be permanent. Shut down the White House before he does!!! Nuke the WH or die.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
LeadNotFollow
Posted on December 1, 2012 at 2:08am
.
How are the perverted radical Muslims going to survive without their porn sites?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
AbrahamsSheepdog
Posted on November 30, 2012 at 9:22am
And Sesame str. is sleeping. Big bird santa gets his naught wishes fulfilled.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Tickdog
Posted on November 30, 2012 at 8:37am
good.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
YourKidding
Posted on November 30, 2012 at 1:40am
How about pulling the plug on Syria???

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- DMENTED
  Posted on November 30, 2012 at 3:56am
  They’re pulling the plug on themselves. It’s a beautiful thing.
  
  Report this comment
brigott
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 11:49pm
Don’t forget that our own President wants the authority to kill the Internet here at any time the he determines it to be in the interest of public safety.

Surely we all trust him to do such a thing only for our own good.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- 13thCousinOfTheAntiChrist
  Posted on November 30, 2012 at 4:05am
  Sure. Everything he’s done so far has been in our interests, right?
  
  Report this comment
- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on November 30, 2012 at 9:10am
  Ditto. No shopping or porn will get Americans to….. do nothing.
  
  Report this comment
GuruMeditation
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 10:03pm
Inevitably there will be more than a massacre in Damascus. It will surely be obliterated.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Platonician
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 11:15pm
  “Syrian TV also said government forces were chasing “al-Qaida elements” around Damascus, mostly in the eastern suburbs of Douma and the southern suburb of Daraya.”
  
  Al-Qaeda will take over Syria with the help of Obama and his Muslim Brotherhood allies. The massacres of Christians and Jews haven’t started yet. Millions will die.
  
  Report this comment
revelation2012
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 8:41pm
sad – what a waste

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
nzkiwi
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 8:38pm
Syria’s President Assad and his family are no saints – not by any stretch of the imagination. They are better than the MB/al-Qaeda, however.

If they are preparing for a massacre, it will not be the first time. Check “Hama massacre” for details, if you are interested.

“At the United Nations, [...] at least four soldiers assigned to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights were injured in the crossfire on the airport road…”. Get out of the way, you are worse than useless…

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Walkabout
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 9:25pm
  I certainly hated Assad. He was complicit in killing our marines in Beirut in 1983. he was complicit in aiding or allowing jihadis to sue Syria as transit & infiltration point into Iraq
  
  I would certainly like to kick Assad, when he was DOWN, for those past crimes against us & then head stomp him. I would go out to steak house afterwards
  
  But given that he is fighting the Muslim BrotherHood & Al Qaeda, I would rather they bleed each other.
  
  I hate seeing the war. But I know there will be no reconciliation. there will be less diversity. That is no Christians, or other faiths in Syria now. I would as George Clooney to do something, but he pissed into the wind when it came to Darfur. What is he going to do? Did Clooney stop the slaughter in Darfur or did the Sudanese Regime simply run out of steam because they were fighting in South Sudan also & getting their a_ss kicked?
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 9:29pm
  Hezbollah actually fire from UN bases & observation posts in Lebanon. If Israel uses counter battery radar to pinpoint the sources of the fire & fire back, then they will kill UN personnel.
  
  Who would get the blame? Israel.
  
  Who should get the blame Hezbollah & the UN & US officials who would fall for the scam.
  
  The UN is expensive, life threatening overhead.
  
  Report this comment
- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on November 30, 2012 at 9:26am
  Good points walkabout.
  
  Report this comment
Suzy_Rottenkrotch
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 7:59pm
In a totally unrelated news item…downloads of gay porn featuring bearded men with camels has fallen by 72%.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
leftcoastslut
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 7:58pm
Welcome to Amerika, 2013.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
chips1
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 7:43pm
Instead of pulling the plug on the internet, it would have been easier to subscribe to Verizon. It doesn’t work.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on November 30, 2012 at 9:17am
  Agenda 21 is gonna be a joke to them. This and all our troups coming home to unemployement. Verizon must be involved with this true. They hate a good connection.
  
  Report this comment
The_Jerk
Posted on November 29, 2012 at 7:33pm
So what. None of our business. Stop the propaganda.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 7:40pm
  Now now don’t be so hasty,this will give the POS in the oval office currently destroying Amerika an idea to do the same thing.
  
  Report this comment
- Walkabout
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 8:18pm
  It is our business.
  
  The winners have plans for how they will deal with us. None of it good.
  
  If the option is available, then the best option is to let them kill each other. Is that mean? Well the Iranian side certainly wants to kill us. I expect the Al-Qaeda & Muslim Brotherhood side want to convert or kill us also. So I will not apologize to any delusional liberal or moderate. Moderation is not a virtue when it come to causes.
  
  Another option is to proved enough aid so that you keep 1 side in the gamer so they can bleed each other.
  
  The Muslims Brotherhood is entrenched in Tunisia & Egypt. they have their sights set on Syria, Jordan, Palestine & Saudi Arabia. if they go those they would go for Yemen, UAE, Oman , Kuwait & more. That many countries under Muslim Brotherhood rule would be dangerous. They would use asymmetric warfare. Against such 10 carriers, nuclear bombs & such are useless. Against such a threat people like Encinom & Moderation is Best become liabilities. They will propose policies & support candidates that get us killed.
  
  About our only hope is that the countries that the Muslim Brotherhood try to unites under their rule fragment form such a coalition nearly as fast as they are added to it. I don’t know about you but I don’t like cliff hangers in real life. That is for movies.
  
  Report this comment
- nzkiwi
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 8:41pm
  Good comment, Walkabout.
  
  Report this comment
- GuruMeditation
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 10:04pm
  @The_Jerk: Speak for yourself fool. I will make what I wish my business.
  
  Report this comment
- GuruMeditation
  Posted on November 29, 2012 at 10:05pm
  Piss on moderation.
  
  Report this comment

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.