Vandalism, or rehearsal for attack?

Yeesh...Arab News is just full of great news today.

After a couple of depressing articles on life in the kingdom, there's this tidbit about the destruction of an underwater scuba diving platform. I wouldn't have even noticed it if the phrase "Scuba vandals" hadn't struck me as so odd.

Two submersed diver-training platforms at a popular beach north of Jeddah have been destroyed in an apparent act of vandalism that is believed to have been committed by a team of divers.

Divers using underwater pipe-cutters reduced the 10-year-old scaffolding structures off Palm Beach (formerly Al-Nakheel Beach, north of Jeddah) to little more than piles of scrap metal.

[ ... ]

“There must have been a team of experienced divers with special cutting equipment,” said Bedenham who was consulted on the extent of the damage. “This is a result of a planned and focused exercise.”

The divers interviewed estimate that, based on the number of pipes cut, the operation took a cumulative of 10 man-hours, underwater — the more divers used the less time it would have taken — and the team believes that this would have been a job for about four divers.

So, let me get this straight. Something like four people, trained in scuba diving, using special underwater cutting tools, spent approximately 10 man hours on an act of vandalism?

That's not vandalism...that's a dress rehearsal for an underwater attack operation.