  We examine closed timelike curves (CTCs) and "effective" superluminal travel
in a spacetime containing naked line singularities, which we call "wires". Each
wire may be straight-line singularity or a ring singularity. The Weak Energy
Condition (WEC) is preserved in all well-defined regions of the spacetime. (The
singularities themselves are not well-defined, so the WEC is undefined there,
but it is never explicitly violated.) Parallel to the wire, "effective"
superluminal travel is possible, in that the wire may be used as a shortcut
between distant regions of spacetime. Our purpose in presenting the
superluminal aspects of the wire is to dispel the commonly held view that
explicit WEC violation is necessary for effective superluminal travel, whereas
in truth the strictures against superluminal travel are more complicated. We
also demonstrate how the existence of such "wires" could create CTCs. We
present a model spacetime which contains two wires which are free to move
relative to each other. This spacetime is asymptotically flat: It becomes a
Minkowski spacetime a finite distance away from each of the wires. The CTCs
under investigation do not need to enter the wires' singularities, and can be
confined to regions that are weak-field: This means that if these wires were
physically possible, they would present causality problems even in nonsingular,
energetically realistic regions of the spacetime. We conclude that the Weak
Energy Condition alone is not sufficient to prevent superluminal travel in
asymptotically flat spacetimes.
