Posted on 02/25/2008 4:08:29 AM PST by Clive
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban militants are threatening to blow up telecom towers across Afghanistan if mobile phone companies do not switch off their signals for a 10-hour stretch starting at dusk.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed says the U.S. and other foreign troops in the country are using mobile phone signals to track down the insurgents and launch attacks against them.
Mujaheed has told the Associated Press that the Taliban have "decided to give a three-day deadline to all mobile phone companies to stop their signals from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.
He says if the companies refuse, the Taliban will target their towers and their offices," he said.
Communications experts say the U.S. military has the ability, using satellites and other means, to pick up cell phone signals without the phone company's help.
Mobile phones were introduced to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
They have become the principal means of communication and one of the fastest-growing and most profitable sectors in the country's economy.
There are four mobile phone operators in Afghanistan, but employees at the companies would not immediately comment.
Militants have threatened mobile phone companies in the past, accusing them of collusion with the U.S. and other foreign military forces.
Mujaheed said the Taliban have contacted all the companies, but none of them agreed to the militants' demands.
His claim could not be independently verified.
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ping.
Just soooooo many angles to this story :-)
Our sats can detect the if offset signals from a sat at 23000 miles easily....no need to try to make a call...just listening gives u away. :-) So does simply having a GPS device activated...
But the Tallies are ok with the service during the 14 hours of daylight?
“Mr. Taliban” (phone call/comedy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTmKV1-PLkQ
Why don’t they turn off their own phones? Can’t track a phone that’s turned off.
We ain’t killin’ enough of these sand-brained seventh-century automatons of allah.
How can they effectively stage a resistence and coordinate violence if we won’t even let them use their cell phones without blowing them up?
This just isn’t fair for the terrorists.
Exactly. They are tracking the phone transmitting signal, not the tower signal.
Sometimes I am amazed at the stupidity...
uh...stop doing that because it’s working????
Just shaking my head.
How well can we track them if they just turn them off? I don’t understand this story.
You've got that right!
I thought the Taliban was DEFEATED!! OMG!!
the NYT must really be worried about their sources.
I would imagine they are frustrated by the fact that we track them when they turn them on. Even in on but not in use the phone still polls the towers for any incoming calls. (some old style us phone companies use tower triangulation to do their GPS product without the actual satelite.)
It only takes one undisciplined idiot to leave their phone on in order to jeopardise their plans. (waiting for that all important poppy plant deal)
If they are talking on them that is of course easily tracked
If they just have them on they are still trackable.
If everyone in a small area that is otherwise RF active have them off then we can locate this artificial dead-zone and mark it for scrutiny.
If they are out in the middle of nowhere and have their phones off we are screwed.
They probably think the towers are just for tracking thme and aren’t necessary to talk to one another.
SHHHH. Don’t let them know...
It’s still not off. Take out the battery too.
I guess the Taliban never saw that “WKRP in Cincinatti” episode where Johnny Fever breaks the phone and worries that the phone cops will come get him. :)
It’s still not off. Take out the battery too.I did not know that.
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