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Taliban Threatens to Blow Up Cell Phone Towers

by Terrence O'Brien on February 25, 2008 at 10:22 AM

Taliban Threatens to Blow Up Cell Phone Towers

Taliban militants are threatening to blow up the radio towers of cell phone companies in Afghanistan if they don't shut down their networks for ten hours, starting at 5 P.M, according to the Associated Press. Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, has said the networks have three days to comply with the demands.

The Taliban believes that the U.S. military is using the cell phone signals to collect intelligence about insurgent locations and plans. In the past, leaders have even accused Afghanistan's four cell phone companies of conspiring with the American forces.

But while the complicity of the cell phone companies would certainly be of aide to the U.S., it is not necessary. U.S. intelligence agencies have satellites and other technologies that would allow them to intercept cell phone signals without the assistance of the companies themselves.

The only people who would suffer, alas, from a post-dusk cell-phone-network-shut-down, are the Afghani people (and, presumably, the cell phone companies).

So far none of the mobile operators have agreed to the Taliban's demands.

From AOL News/AP

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Tags: afghanistan, attack, breaking+news, cell phone, CellPhone, intelligence, military, mobile, taliban, terrorism, top, war

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