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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
R.L.M. @ Feb 26th 2008 12:28AM
Good; maybe the afgannys won't be able to contact their street dealers in the west when their poppy farmers want to sell; Maybe it will slow down the heroin trade just a little. I wish we would have completed the war there instead of going into Iraq. I wish we were fire bombing the poppy fields now putting an end to the Talibans source of income.
Jay @ Feb 26th 2008 5:54AM
For your information, poppy and heroin were banned during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. These drugs were brought back AFTER the USA invaded Afghanistan and took the Taliban out. The Americans were the ones that started this trade all over again. There have even been numerous reports on the news on how US military officers were smuggling it themselves.
Daniel Gaunt @ Feb 26th 2008 7:58AM
yes it's not just the oil that interests america, but in the end it all comes down to money!
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