[Joe Brower]

Interesting bit about the cellfones being remotely turned on and used as listening devices.

I've noticed that my wife's new cellfone, which we leave constantly on, has a habit of "randomly" lighting up when it's connected to the charger and laying on the kitchen counter unattended. Ya think... ?

[Travis McGee]

Yep, they can do all kinds of tricks with your cell phone, I learned about it in "Killing Pablo" the new book by "Blackhawk Down" author Mark Bowden. Killing Pablo is about the CIA, Delta and the Army's "Intelligence Support Activity" (code named "Centra Spike" in 1993) using all of their electronic tricks to help locate and kill Pablo Escobar in Colombia in 1993. As long as a cell phone has the battery turned on, people with the correct codes "on the other end" can do all sorts of things, such as turn it on without any sign at your end in order to use it as a homing beacon for RDF, for example. Or just leave it as an "open microphone". "Killing Pablo" is a must read: if you use any electronics, they can gitcha.

[CJ Wolf]

Joe,

More then likly the charge on the phone has dropped enough to trigger the phone to start charging again causing it to light up. Is it a nokia by chance?

CJ