Taliban Demands Downtime on Afghanistan Cellphone Networks

faster_manic writes "The Taliban has demanded that cellphone network providers in Afghanistan cease service between the hours of 5pm and 7am each night of the week, as they believe American troops are able to track down Taliban members using their cellphones."

Comments

It's to disrupt US comms

[Anonymous Coward]

I think a lot of people here are missing the point - they don't want to turn the towers off to stop their cellphones being tracked, they want to turn them off to disrupt US communications during night hours.

They obviously think the army is relying heavily on cell phones for communication since all their equipment is broken, rubbish or missing - they are probably right, so turning the towers off would disrupt operations against them.

Re:Isn't it as easy as

[FrostDust]

I remember hearing how the US government is able to turn on and use a cellphone's microphone, even if the phone turned off, in order to listen in on the converstations being held by suspected drug trafficers. I can't imagine it being that impossible for the military's intellegence agencies to ascertain a phone's general location. Short of the user removing the battery, or securing the phone in a faraday cage, shuting down the phone towers seems the easiest way to keep everyone's location hidden at night.

Re:This isn't about being track by their cellphone

[Frosty Piss]

This demand is about proving the Taliban is still relevant to the population of Afghanistan and capable of influencing their lives.

There is a perception that these are a few dozen or even a hundred guys up in the mountains in caves. But outside the major cities, in the smaller towns, and most of the rural areas, these extremists still wield a lot of power. And, if you watch the news, you know that they still send people into crowded shopping areas to blow themselves and those around them, to where ever it is that martyrs go.

The Taliban is still to this day an active and dangerous group intent on forcing their extreme views on the world. In that respect, they have a lot in common with GWB and his junta.

Hate

[eulernet]

Mod me down, but I'm always surprised by the amount of hate US has against the talibans.

Come on, the talibans try to free their country from foreign occupation, and they believe that their cause is right.
They are warriors, not kamikazes that kill innocent people by exploding themselves.
In France, this was called "Resistance".

BTW, what are the US troops doing in Afghanistan after all these years ?

Re:Hate

[tjstork]

Mod me down, but I'm always surprised by the amount of hate US has against the talibans.

Taliban are a bunch of Pakistani trained people that took over Afghanistan after the Russian withdrawal and turned it into a medieval butcher shop. they publicly gunned down people, censored everything, harassed and abused women, destroyed priceless cultural landmarks, drove their people in backwards illiterate oppression, but other than that, I guess they were ok.

We should have nuked Afghanistan.

Re:obvious answer

[mapkinase]

Well, they consider themselves the legitimate government and they do not recognize Karzai. Makes sense.

W/out American troops, Karzai's government won't last even those days that Taliban gave telecoms in the ultimatum.

Afghanistan never invaded a foreign country. Alas, it's my country (USA) that "prefers others to change than change themselves".

Re:Isn't it as easy as

[Anonymous Coward]

That is being due to all Hindu's comming in.

ISLAM IS THE CANCER! NUKES ARE THE ANSWER!

[Anonymous Coward]

Muhammad's army of madmen rode out of the deserts of Arabia. They
raped/conquered and enslaved the minds of all the people in the area and
to
this day more than 1.2 billion people have been infected with the mental
disease we know as Islam.
I urge my fellow Americans to boycott all Muslim businesses and write your
congressmen to stop the billions of dollars in foreign aid to Muslim
countries, stop all future Muslim immigration, and BAN ISLAM. Now before
you
start ignorantly screaming "freedom of religion", Islam is
unconstitutional,
and let me explain why. Islam is a supremacist political party disguised
as
a religion, which discriminates against non-Muslims, women and
homosexuals.
The main goal of this totalitarian system is worldwide domination under
Islamic law; and Islamic law is a real fun time: Muslim countries are
constantly hanging women for adultery or "honor" and executing homosexuals
just for being gay, and murdering Jews just for being Jewish. Women can't
vote or equally testify in court and millions of Middle-Eastern Muslim
women
get their clitoris cut off by the age of 14. Islam is clearly
unconstitutional, and if we can't ban it, then we need to change our
constitution. The constitution should not be a suicide pact. Don't buy
that
bullshit that liberals try to sell, saying that Islam is in any way
peaceful. People who blow themselves up and mutilate their daughters
vaginas
are obviously suffering from a mental disease. Islam calls for the
subjugation or death of non-believers. Not just Christians and Jews, but
all
non-Muslims are at danger due to this plague on humanity. Christian
schoolgirls get bombed/decapitated in Indonesia, Christian nuns get
stabbed
and churches burned in Egypt, Buddhists get their heads cut off in
southern
Thailand, Hindus beaten to death in Kashmir, black Christians castrated
and
put into slavery in Sudan... the list goes on forever.
Muhammad means The Praised One in Arabic. The Praised One was under the
control of demons for 23 years of his life. Although nobody knows his real
name, he is called the Rasool or Prophet. He is also referred to as
al-insan
al-kamil, meaning the perfect man. According to the muslims, their idea of
a
perfect man was one who raped little girls and decapitated Jews.
According to the demon worshippers, "Allah" is the one true God. Now
Allah is pretty much Satan, but Muslims have been convinced that he is
God.
The pedophile and mass murderer known as Muhammad (may pig shit cover him)
was a completely delusional psychopath, and Allah was his alter-ego who
revealed the Koran to him in a series of revelations. So when Muhammed
heard
voices in his head, it was the word of God. And the way they eventually
wrote it down is said to be the literal words of God. Changing a comma
would
be blasphemy. Here are some examples of what Muslims consider the actual
words of God:
* Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion
shall reign supreme." (8:39)
* "God revealed His will to the angels, saying: 'I shall be with
you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of
the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their
fingers!' " (8:12)
* "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you
find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for
them.
If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to
go
their way. God is forgiving and merciful." (9:5)
* "Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and
deal
rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home a

moderation system is broken

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, you were punished for being smarter and funnier than the average moderator. Since higher IQ posts tend to get moderated "Troll" unfairly, too, eventually you'll be thrown out of the mod points eligibility pool altogether. It's amazing this place has not yet degenerated to Digg level, but that day is coming.

Re:Isn't it as easy as

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you can let the racists on /. conduct their virtual genocide of the Muslims!