Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.
Posted on 04/24/2008 4:12:17 PM PDT by jazusamo
"The number you have called cannot be connected."
Ever heard a recording like this on your telephone? On Sept. 11, 2001 messages like that were commonplace in New York and Washington and incredibly frustrating for first responders trying to coordinate rescue operations and families attempting to contact loved ones. Now think about that kind of message being heard by virtually every cell phone subscriber in an entire country. That may be about to happen in Iraq. If it does, it could well derail progress made in recent months and have long-term adverse consequences for U.S. interests in the region.
In December 2003, less than eight months after the liberation of Baghdad, two new Iraqi telecommunications companies, Atheer and Iraqna, boldly began erecting cell-towers and selling commercial cell phones and service in central and southern Iraq. In short order, everyone who could get his or her hands on a cell phone was buying one. Most had never even seen or used a "hard-wire" telephone. For Iraqis, cell phones quickly became vital to commerce and security. It was, in the words of an Iraqi soldier I interviewed, a "cellular-revolution."
But of course Iraq is not exactly a "tranquil environment." As Atheer and Iraqna built more than 1,300 cell towers and installed generators and satellite transceivers, the facilities became targets for Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic terror groups. To protect their expensive installations, the communications companies hired an independent security contractor with armed guards — more than 7,000 of them. As is commonplace in Iraq, the security contractor negotiated with local Sheiks, tribal, political and religious leaders to enhance protection for the towers and equipment — and it worked. The cellular companies flourished and in January this year the companies merged and were acquired by Zain, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mobile...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.
I thought I’d read someplace that the cellular system in Iraq isn’t targeted by the insurgents mainly because they depend on cell phones for comms just like everybody else. So the towers pretty much get left alone.
But at any rate, this sounds like a fairly pedestrian contract dispute, and with 7 million customers in the balance they’ll figure it out and come up with a new contract. That’s a lot of money at stake, even in Dinars.
Yes, there was a thread here in the last several weeks (I believe) to that effect.
It sounds to me like Ollie is trying to bring attention to this dispute to insure a possible disaster doesn’t take place.
Sounds like it. And yes... it would be a catastrophe if their system went down. But I’ll bet they get it settled.
Seems to me that within the last couple of weeks or so there was a thread on the topic, but it was Afghanistan. I note in the article that Oliver North touches on it. It was my understanding the Taliban destroyed some of the towers and then realized they cut their own communications as well. The Taliban according to that thread (IIRC) said something to the effect of “OOPs”, and “we won’t be doing that again.”
I'm sorry. I'm over the buzzwords.
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