Cell Phone Trace Led to Bomb Suspect

AP | 5/08/02 | RON HARRIS

[blackdog]

What kind of woman would compel you to tape your cell phone to a truck? ;o)

[goldstategop]

The kind of woman who happens to be upset if you're not home by dinner time. The privilege of being married. :)

[Myrddin]

If his cell phone had the new assisted GPS, they would have had a fix within a 150 ft circle. Using the last cell tower registration was good enough. He was obviously traveling on I-80 from the track of the cell tower registrations. The A-GPS and associated E-911 will nail your location pretty precisely. If you are in need of emergency assistance or just seeking the closest business of a particular variety with your cell phone based web browser, it is very good technology. If you intend to keep your location secret...don't take a cell phone of any type with you.

[hc87]

Robin Gross, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that the technology could be abused. She said cell phone tracking could be used to follow the movements of political dissenters or politicians and other people in power.

Personally, I object to the existence of prisons cells with iron bars. They could be used to restrict the movements of political dissenters or politicians and other people in power.

[coloradan]

All your location are belong to us.

[LibertyGirl77]

A. That the Feds can do this type of thing is kind of scary (deeper implications, unintended consequences, etc.).

B. Thanks to this article, real criminals on the run now know to shut their cell phones off. Brilliant move on the part of this reporter. < /sarcasm >

[Slainte]

If I am ever wanted I am going to turn my cell phone on and tape it to the underside of a truck heading cross-country.

My first thought exactly. I suppose that just shows that I'm and sociopathic criminal just waiting for the opportunity to snap...and take out my frustrations on rural mailboxes? What a weird world we live in.

A long time ago, I toyed with the idea of going to law school, and while considering my next move, I interned at the Hennepin County Public Defender's office right after graduating from college (it's always good to intern after you've earned your degree. You don't make any money AND you don't earn any credits). The interns interviewed the clients, witnesses, victims, etc., and prepared reports, timelines etc. for the PD's to use at trial. Of course, the vast majority of cases pleaded out and never got that far, bu it was incredibly eye opening. Two things that I learned-

1.) If you find yourself in the middle of a gang shooting make sure you are the target, because the odds are the only people who will be hit are innocent bystanders.

2.) None of the clients I interviewed ever thought they would be caught. Every one of them was certain that they were smarter than the police, sherriff, BCA, and the County Attorney combined (OK, to be fair, I doubt any of them actually knew than Minnesota has a BCA...). I found this attitude amazing. How arrogant do you have to be to have that sort of worldview? And how naive? Even if you were smarter than each and every individual in law enforcement, at what point do they start to out think you just by sheer force of numbers? I think that attitude is common among criminals though. On the other hand, I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to be audited, pulled over for speeding, fined for watering my lawn on an even day or whatever. Somehow, I got the sense of guilt drilled into me early on, and it never, ever goes away.

You know, there was a more pertinent point when I started writing that seems to have escaped me at the moment...

[Rodney King]

1.) If you find yourself in the middle of a gang shooting make sure you are the target, because the odds are the only people who will be hit are innocent bystanders.

2.) None of the clients I interviewed ever thought they would be caught. Every one of them was certain that they were smarter than the police, sherriff, BCA, and the County Attorney combined (OK, to be fair, I doubt any of them actually knew than Minnesota has a BCA...). I found this attitude amazing. How arrogant do you have to be to have that sort of worldview? And how naive? Even if you were smarter than each and every individual in law enforcement, at what point do they start to out think you just by sheer force of numbers? I think that attitude is common among criminals though. On the other hand, I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to be audited, pulled over for speeding, fined for watering my lawn on an even day or whatever. Somehow, I got the sense of guilt drilled into me early on, and it never, ever goes away.

Interesting post, thanks.

[Risky Schemer]

"Every time the cell phone is on, it periodically sends a little registration message to the phone company, 'Here I am! Here I am!"' Barker said. That message contains the cell phone's electronic serial number and tells the service provider when the phone has drifted in and out of cell tower range.

That "message" probably requires only a tiny chip. One that, say, could easily and painlessly implanted under the skin. A little mark on the surface would easily identify who has complied and received it or not.

What a boon to law enforcement, or finding and recovering lost or missing children, etc!

< /shudder >

[MarkWar]

>...and take out my frustrations on rural mailboxes? What a weird world we live in.

There's a great thread that has the full text of this kid's letters. It's much longer than the one page excerpt that's been posted already.

The kid's not a frustrated, anti-government type.

The kid is a wacked out, lunatic, energetic Shirley MacLaine type!

Check it out: Herald receives letter from pipe bomb suspect (Full text of 7-page letter with pics!)

Mark W.

[Slainte]

B. Thanks to this article, real criminals on the run now know to shut their cell phones off. Brilliant move on the part of this reporter.

Thank you! that was where I was going before I wandered off into the fog...

Based on the clients I had the pleasure of working with, they won't get the message. As a whole, the everyday run of the mill guys charged with assault, domestics, robbery, hit and run, etc. that I worked with weren't real big on reading the papers or following current events.

Terrorists (thugs trying to advance a political agenda through violence) change that equation as they tend to be more dialed into the news, but everyday criminals will have to have the cell phone on so they can call their pals and boast about the exploit. It's just part of their makeup.

[commandante_zero]

What a Maroon! You gotta wonder about somebody smart enough to build a bunch o' bombs yet this stupid... 000

[kezekiel]

"You talk of this place called heaven. Heaven resides within you. You control your own destiny. You are your own god! Earth is a place where free will resides. You can do anything you want."

That's an excerpt from his letter.

"I will be like the Most High!"

That's an exerpt from somebody else who thought he was his own god.

[snopercod]

...cell phone tracking could be used to follow the movements of political dissenters or politicians and other people in power.

Like Newt Gingrich?

[snopercod]

The press is saying he's an "anti-government" type.

[FreedomFriend]

From what I heard, he is a left winger, yet the mainstream media is calling him a right-winger who is anti-government. This is just another way the mainstream media uses their bias to silence and marginalize patriots, as they are trying to associate Conservative Patriots with insane madmen.

[MarkWar]

>The press is saying he's an "anti-government" type.

[laughs] Remember that scene in "The Life of Brian" when "Loretta" tells his friends he wants to be a girl? "It's symbolic of our struggle against oppression!" one says. "It's symbolic of his struggle against reality" the other corrects...

The only thing this kid was against was rationality...

Mark W.