Journalist Tricked Captors Into Twitter Access

itwbennett writes "Kosuke Tsuneoka, a Japanese freelance journalist held captive in Afghanistan since April 1, was released over the weekend. His freedom came a day after he sent two Twitter messages from a captor's phone. 'i am still allive [sic], but in jail,' read a message sent at 1:15 p.m. GMT on Friday. It was followed a few minutes later with a second message, also in English, that read, 'here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.' The message referred to the Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz where he was being held. On Tuesday, speaking in Tokyo, Tsuneoka revealed how he managed to convince his captors to give him access to the Internet. 'He asked me if I knew how to use it, so I had a look and explained it to him,' said Tsuneoka. 'I called the customer care number and activated the phone,' he said."

Comments

Jedi-ish

[swanzilla]

FTA:

"I don't think they realize they were tricked," he said.

The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded.

Re:Jedi-ish

[lewko]

Spaceballs-ish.

Evil will always triumph over good. Because good is dumb.

Re:Jedi-ish

[c6gunner]

So Japanese journalists are evil, and Taliban soldiers are good?

I don't think you thought this one through .....

Re:Jedi-ish

[lewko]

I don't think you've watched Spaceballs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7XVcqZodAM

Re:Jedi-ish

[c6gunner]

I did. I don't think you read my comment.

step 2 missing

[punkmanandy]

Step 1: Tweet
Step 2: ???
Step 3: FREEDOM!

Re:step 2 missing

[adwarf]

Per this article (http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6698137-how-abducted-reporter-kosuke-tsuneoka-used-twitter-while-in-captivity) they released him because was muslim... So his tweets had nothing to do with anything....

Re:step 2 missing

[hansamurai]

Well, it says "in part" because he was a Muslim. Probably more in part due to the Japanese government knowing exactly where he was being held so they could apply pressure accordingly. It's not random that a guy goes missing on April 1st, makes a few help me tweets on September 3rd and is then released a day or so later.

Re:step 2 missing

[Evil Shabazz]

Except, you see, to provide more tweet porn for the media-masturbation cycle. Nothing gets a journalist harder than a twit.

Re:step 2 missing

[antifoidulus]

I hope his experience taught him something about Islam. I know for a fact that pork and booze is plentiful in Japan, I suggest he consume both to excess.

Re:step 2 missing

[Solandri]

It's not random that a guy goes missing on April 1st, makes a few help me tweets on September 3rd and is then released a day or so later.

Maybe we're mixing up cause and effect? Maybe they decided they were going to release him, and one of the captors said, "Hey, he seems to know a lot about this Internet stuff. Before we let him go, can I see if he can get the Internet working on my phone?"

Re:step 2 missing

[Heed00]

I hope his experience taught him something about Islam.

That not all Muslims are the same? Yeah, that must be it.

Re:step 2 missing

[N1AK]

That they kept him for 5 months. I'm pretty sure he take that over being kept in Gitmo for ~8 years living in a steel cage. I won't defend the acts of terrorists, I do find it amusing when people condemn them while supporting the similar policies of others.

Re:step 2 missing

[interkin3tic]

I hope his experience taught him something about Islam

That they just imprison you, as opposed to raping and killing your whole village as the christian crusaders did? Or that they aren't the evil geniuses one should be worried about?

Re:step 2 missing

[stdarg]

Kidnapping journalists you explicitly know are "innocent" (indeed not even accused of anything) because you want a ransom, and kidnapping suspected terrorists who may be innocent because you want information and/or to get a terrorist off the streets... I don't see how they're similar policies. Can you explain what you mean by policy? I mean with your analogy it seems like legitimate law enforcement arrests would also be a similar policy.

Re:step 2 missing

[hansamurai]

I thought of this after my post, this is also a good possibility.

Twitter, instead of

[Some.Net(Guy)]

Twitter, instead of, you know, email. Because it's more likely to be real.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Anonymous Coward]

twitter, because if they havent heard of it, they probably wouldnt realise it was a bad idea to let him have it.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[jpapon]

Twitter, instead of, you know, email. Because it's more likely to be real.

Or maybe, and I know this may be hard to realize for those of us who have had smartphones for years and years, it was just a standard, plain vanilla cell phone capable of only sms and phone calls.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[amicusNYCL]

According to TFA, it was a Nokia N70.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[sumdumass]

Is a nokia N70 a plain jane cell phone?

Re:Twitter, instead of

[the linux geek]

The E70 is an early smartphone. And he had demoed the internet to the Taliban guys. I am assuming, however, that you did not RTFA.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[digitig]

Does it matter, if the account doesn't support email? I could put my company SIM into a smartphone but I still couldn't send emails.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Some.Net(Guy)]

TFA said that the guard didn't know what the internet was. i'm pretty sure that that could extend to email as well. i'm not saying it wasn't clever, but i feel like if i am captured by the taliban and have internet access for a small window of time, i'm going to send an email to someone like my parents or a close friend.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Cwix]

Or to every address in my contact list.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[TaggartAleslayer]

Beyond the obvious fact that he may not have a web mail account, Twitter is a pretty smart choice. He was trying to broadcast to the world that he was alive. If he quickly sent an email to one or two people, it could have been lost or overlooked in a dozen ways. By getting a tweet through he was assured that all of his followers would see it.

I'd say he may have found the one instance where tweeting is actually a really good idea.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Goaway]

Yes, when you get a hold of some guy's phone for a couple minutes, you are going to set up your email account, log in, remember the email addresses of your friends, and send them mail.

Or you can go on twitter and leave a message that all your followers will see. And no, if you have been missing for months and suddenly post a message, they are not going to think "nah, this is twitter, it's probably fake, we'll just ignore this".

Re:Twitter, instead of

[arth1]

If you can browse the web, you can send e-mail. There are enough of web-to-mail gateways out there, many of which only requires you to enter a captcha in order to prove you're not a spam bot.
Not to mention that lots of government agencies have web forms for providing feedback. Even the Japanese government, I'm sure.

Plus, there are plenty of services that allow you to post without logging in, and far more than SMS length messages too. This would be one such place.
(Never mind that a real cry for help here would probably be modded into oblivion, and not acted on.)

The guy probably used Twitter because that's what he was familiar with, not necessarily because it was the best choice. After all, why would he expect that someone monitored the feed? But good for him that it was seen.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Anonymous Coward]

Is a nokia N70 a plain jane cell phone?

I guess it's a jail cell phone.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[mjwx]

Twitter, instead of, you know, email. Because it's more likely to be real.

Twitter, instead of email as it needs to be sent via SMS rather then GRPS/WAP which likely does not have coverage in Afghanistan's southern cave region. Yes, they are services by AT&T too.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Dark$ide]

By getting a tweet through he was assured that all of his followers would see it.

I'd say he may have found the one instance where tweeting is actually a really good idea.

There's an interesting use of the word "assured". It's a good job his followers weren't using Tweetdeck or he'd still be in jail. Tweetdeck has an amazing ability to hide tweets from the user there's no "assured" about Tweetdeck.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[daniorerio]

And you know, get marked as spam and reach nobody in the end

Re:Twitter, instead of

[dintech]

Oh come one, SOMEONE is bound to have hotmail.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[digitig]

If you can browse the web, you can send e-mail.

But I can't. The phone supports it, the account doesn't.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[pyrosine]

Ive never used it [twitter] but couldnt he have just sent a sms message to update it?

Re:Twitter, instead of

[Abstrackt]

From the article:

"But if you are going to do anything, you should use Twitter," he said he told them. "They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, 'try it'."

"I don't think they realize they were tricked," he said.

I think he either thought Twitter had the highest chance of success based on his circumstances or he just saw his window of opportunity closing and said the first thing that popped into his head.

Re:Twitter, instead of

[sorak]

Good explanation. I could imagine his family's spam folder being filled with

X Not Spam -- Get fr33 v1@gr@ n0w!
X Not Spam -- i am still allive, but in jail
X Not Spam -- She w@nt your r0d!
X Not Spam -- here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.

bad move by captors

[spartacus_prime]

I thought prisoners were only allowed one phone call in jail!

Re:bad move by captors

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought prisoners were only allowed one phone call in jail!

1 phone call = 2 tweets + 1 al jazeera vizit

Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't think they realize they were tricked," he said.

Please explain the trick. The story summary states "he managed to convince his captors to give him access to the Internet."
There is no information in the article that indicates that the Internet access was gained by "a trick". The journalist asked.
Furthermore, there is no information in the article that indicates that the Twitter access had ANY role in his release.

If I ask you for your userid and password, did I get them by tricking you? NO.

The Slashdot summary AND the story is another example of journalistic idiocy.

Yours In Novosibirsk,
K. Trout

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[NiceGeek]

I don't think his captors were aware of the tweets he made.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA. He told them Twitter was a way to reach more Japanese journalists.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[rsborg]

There is no information in the article that indicates that the Internet access was gained by "a trick". The journalist asked.

It's not spelled out, but it's in the article:

The soldier had heard of the Internet, but he didn't know what it was. When Tsuneoka mentioned it to him, he was eager to see it, but the phone wasn't signed up to receive the carrier's GPRS data service for accessing the Internet. "I called the customer care number and activated the phone," he said. Soon after he had the captor's phone configured for Internet access. "Once I told them I was able to access, they said 'how do you use it?', 'can we see Al Jazeera?'." Tsuneoka said he explained they just needed to type "Al Jazeera" into Google search to access the Qatar-based TV news network's website. "But if you are going to do anything, you should use Twitter," he said he told them. "They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, 'try it'."

Simple social engineering, he befriended the guard, and showed the guard how to better use his "keys".

All that said, I agree it's still a leap of faith to conclude that the Twitter access freed the journalist... for all we know, he was already on the way out by way of negotiations with the captors, and the Twitter incident was ... incidental to the real release reasons. Poorly written article indeed.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[treeves]

"...his captors were [not] aware of the CONTENT OF THE tweets he made."

They thought he was helping THEM. He was helping himself.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[DeadboltX]

The low ranking soldier that he managed to trick did not know how to use his fancy new phone; had only heard of the internet and didn't know how to use it or what it was capable of; and had certainly never heard of twitter before. The low ranking soldier had no idea that the prisoner just sent messages to the entire world while showing him "how to use the internet". The low ranking soldier was probably instructed not to let the prisoner make any calls, and as far as he knew he didn't.

You could say "how is this trickery if he did it right in front of the guard?" and to you I would say "the best magicians do their tricks right in front of their audience"

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this a subtle joke that went over my head? And if not, who modded this garbage "insightful"?

The "trick" is explained in the story (note: while slashdot summaries are often atrocious, summaries are not expected to contain all of the information.) He didn't trick them into giving him access to the internet (nor does it say anywhere that he did) but rather tricked them into letting him use twitter.

Twitter was how he communicated that a) he was alive and being held captive, and b) where he was. If that had no role in his release, this was a remarkable coincidence after more than 5 months of his disappearance.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[FunPika]

*waves hand in front of someone* I am the rightful owner of this userid and password. Now THAT would be tricking someone if it worked. :)

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Chris Burke]

If I ask you for your userid and password, did I get them by tricking you? NO.

Well that depends. If you said you needed it to fix a problem with my fstab (or clean up my registry for winxp users or whatever), but actually what you did was install a rootkit, then yes, you tricked me into giving you my password.

If a journalist says they're just going to help their jailer activate their phone, but then uses it to send for help, then they tricked their captor.

The real Kilgore Trout would have a more expansive definition of "trick" than the needlessly narrow one you are using, and especially not one that presumed it can't be a trick if the one being tricked would have to be dumber than a box of rocks to fall for it.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

I agree it's still a leap of faith to conclude that the Twitter access freed the journalist...

How much VC funding has twitter spent? $50M or so? Gotta get some good press out there in order to recoup that investment.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't think they realize they were tricked," he said.

Please explain the trick. The story summary states "he managed to convince his captors to give him access to the Internet."
There is no information in the article that indicates that the Internet access was gained by "a trick".

That depends on what you consider a trick. Exploiting someones ignorance can be considered a trick (like a magic trick, where the magician has more information about the deck of cards than you do). The more common way (at least on /.) is to work around some limitation by fooling a system/using it in a way it wasn't designed to be used. By that definition, this wasn't a trick.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[RenderSeven]

Tricking his captors into letting him send a Tweet is nothing compared to tricking VC's into giving twitter $50M.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

You have a gift for stating the obvious - you must practice quite a bit.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[bliz1985]

"If I ask you for your userid and password, did I get them by tricking you?"

If I gave them to you when you asked, you did not get the password and username by tricking me. But if I wasn't aware of the potential consequences of doing so, I am tricked into doing something I shouldn't have done.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[lineswine]

Gee yeah! So Star Wars is real, right? (Get out of your basement more, sparky)

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[shutdown -p now]

The guy says in TFA that he quite explicitly explained what the effect of him posting something on Twitter would be:

"They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, 'try it'."

So then, where's the trick, again?

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

The point I was making is that the reason the article's logic, what rsborg called "a leap of faith," is so poor is that twitter needs to be seen as something more than just a bunch of twits - that the article may even be the result of pay-for-play to promote the company as something more important and valuable than it really is.

It's like saying "Suits are back!"

Funny thing, your oddly moderated woooosh! of a post would fit in twitter's 140 character limit.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[dzfoo]

Ah, reasoning and deduction from the Twitter generation.

          dZ.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[interkin3tic]

Tricking his captors into letting him send a Tweet is nothing compared to tricking VC's into giving twitter $50M.

You're right: his captors had guns.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[interkin3tic]

"They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, 'try it'."

So then, where's the trick, again?

The part where he used twitter to do something useful. That was quite a trick.

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Abstrackt]

The guy says in TFA that he quite explicitly explained what the effect of him posting something on Twitter would be:

"They asked what that was. And I told them that if you write something on it, then you can reach many Japanese journalists. So they said, 'try it'."

So then, where's the trick, again?

Making reaching many journalists seem like a good idea to his captors without shitting himself or getting shot?

Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story

[Cro Magnon]

If I ask you for your userid and password, did I get them by tricking you? NO.

That depends. If you ask me for my banking ID & password so you can deposit money, and instead you clean me out, then you tricked me.

Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[kurokame]

That is some Odysseus-grade cunning right there. You've done your species proud. Please have lots of grandkids and then tell them about this repeatedly.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[Sonny Yatsen]

Let's hope all terrorists/insurgents are as gullible or as stupid as these guys.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[Bigjeff5]

Ignorance makes you much more gullible.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[timeOday]

Well, you probably don't know how to butcher a goat, either - "gullibility" and "stupidity" are largely contextual.

I say, let's hope more of them get exposed to the Internet and the wider world in general because that tends to (though not always!) curb extremism.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[X0563511]

The guard did something under the pretense that the prisoner was doing something helpful for him.

That is stupid and/or gullible.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[shutdown -p now]

I say, let's hope more of them get exposed to the Internet and the wider world in general because that tends to (though not always!) curb extremism.

Not really, it doesn't. If you remember those studies in UK, the second generation of Muslim immigrants was both more outwardly westernized (clothing, behavior, use of modern tech), and much more radicalized than their parent (I think it was 25% saying that they support al-Qaeda?). The Net may expose you to a multitude of opinions, but people are very good at ignoring all but those that tell them what they like to hear; and Islamic extremism has mastered the art of propaganda very, very well.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[SakuraDreams]

The Internet makes you stupid. Most opinions on the internet are from clueless wannabe experts and philosophers.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[Eivind]

It does both.

Some people embrace the new, the foreign, the unknown, and eagerly incorporate it into their own identity. At least partially.

Others see it as threatening, dangerous, a temptation to be resisted, and react by withdrawing, becoming more fundamentalist.

I tend to think isolation and failed integration is the largest enabler for the latter. Too many may live -in- the west physically, but nevertheless have a parallell society with little actual integration. Live in their own areas, go to their own schools, shop in their own shops, have friends mainly from the region they come from, rather than the region they live in.

On the flipside, there's many people who live -in- the middle east, but nevertheless *do* have friends and contacts in other cultures, I am certain, that serves as a pretty good vaccine against extremism. It's one thing to say "death to America!", it's another thing to say "death to my friend John, with the part-time job and 2 daugthers that started school last month."

It works in reverse too. I've got a much more nuanced view of the middle east now that I've got friends there. I'm much less inclined to knee-jerk along the "they're all the same" lines. Because guess what, they're not.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[ArsenneLupin]

Well, you probably don't know how to butcher a goat, either

Fortunately, there are web sites that teach you that...

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[hitmark]

The youth have always been radical in one form or other. It may seem contraditionary, but it is simply them trying to findd their own place in a very confused world.

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course the studies also concluded that this radicalism hadn't been fueled in any way by the on-going war and the nationalist propaganda we had to sit through for the first 5 years of it - hearing Blair say things like "Islam is the most dangerous faith ever" - and that "Muslims have a responsibility to pay for what their brothers have done" (despite the fact that no-one ever asked catholics/protestants to pay for what their brothers had done in Ireland).

It's all down to Islam - we share none of the blame for losing their hearts and minds....

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[interkin3tic]

Please have lots of grandkids and then tell them about this repeatedly.

Tsuneoka: "Back in my day, we only tweeted when we needed rescuing from being a POW!"
Grandkids "I'm looking at your twitter archive right now. '1/1/2010 LOL, so drunk right now, I can't believe I signed up for TWITTER!'"
Tsuneoka: "Right. Drunk. Clearly an effort to ward off being captured by islamic militants."

Re:Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san.

[c6gunner]

Well, you probably don't know how to butcher a goat, either - "gullibility" and "stupidity" are largely contextual.

Butchering a goat isn't exactly rocket science - if I picked a random person off the street and gave them a knife, they'd at least achieve the desired result even if they displayed poor technique. Getting tricked into letting a prisoner contact the outside world, on the other hand, is both gullible and stupid. In the extreme.

On the other hand, since they apparently released the guy the next day, they may simply not have cared who he contacted. The summary only seemed interesting at first because I assumed that he had been rescued as a result of the tweeting - once I RTFA (I know, sacrilege) it became apparent that there's really no interesting news here.

Please help

[Anonymous Coward]

GPS Position: 1031'6"E, 4155'2"N. My captors only let me access to slashdot, saying that would be harmless.

Re:Please help

[MichaelSmith]

1031'6"E, 4155'2"N.

You've got me going around in circles...

Re:Please help

[Anonymous Coward]

They were right. Good Luck!

Re:Please help

[dlgeek]

Depending on whereslashdot's failed to distinguish UTF-8, that's either in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Italy or on a glacier near the Chinia/Mongolia border. Either way dude, slashdot's a US-centric site, so don't expect us to be much help.

Re:Please help

[Anonymous Coward]

TL;DR

Okay, but...

[bynary]

...how was he actually rescued? I see correlation between his tweets and his release but no causation.

Re:Okay, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

If Wikileaks has taught us anything, the answer is most likely that the person holding him was bribed.

Re:Okay, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

How he was actually rescued is left as an exercise for the readers' imagination, you insensitive clod!

Re:Okay, but...

[hex0D]

there was no direct causation mentioned specifically in the article, but if you apply Occam's razor to the problem the simplest and most likely solution seems: no one had heard from him (probably even about him) and had no way of knowing who he was with or where. Given that specific information it's easy to make the treats or promises to obtain his release.

And yeah, I know what they say about assumptions but there is such a thing as a safe one.

Re:Okay, but...

[hex0D]

of course I meant to type 'threats' above, but I kind of like the humor of my mistake seeing it now

Re:Okay, but...

[bucktug]

Will you shoot the blue earth down?
In the space station
Polishing the ray gun
You say correllation is not causation .... I know your a supra genius.

Re:Okay, but...

[aiht]

You say correllation is not causation .... I know your a supra genius.

No, your a supra genius.
*shudders* Now I feel dirty.

Re:Okay, but...

[listentoreason]

Once his captors were connected to Twitter they would simply freeze motionless for several hours, two or three times a day. He merely had to wait for one of these moments and then just walk away.

Re:Okay, but...

[darkmeridian]

He really shouldn't have disclosed the Twitter connection. Now the terrorists won't let anyone touch a phone!

Re:Okay, but...

[dzfoo]

Perhaps his twitter friends did not know where he was, but another article mentions that there had been already five months of negotiations between the government and his captors for release. It also mentions that he was released due to being a muslim.

In light of that, Occam's Razor suggests that the simplest possible explanation is that those more reasonable and actionable events lead to his release.

          -dZ.

Please stop

[Sarten-X]

Mr. Tsuneoka, the last thing we need is more confusion about the Internet, especially amongst new users. Please stop spreading misinformation, and apologize to those you've misled! In the future, give only meaningful, accurate information to help users understand what's going on. Explain that Twitter is a social network that allows users to reach many the general public, rather than just journalists. Help educate the world!

Re:Please stop

[mattack2]

You first, when you get kidnapped.

Re:Please stop

[black3d]

Woosh!

RTFA - it was a Symbian smartphone

[SuperBanana]

The phone, a Nokia N70

That's a Symbian smartphone. Disclaimer: this info was based off what the journalist said.

There seems to be a lot of doubt spreading 'round. I'm not sure what motives there are, however. The Afghani scumbag certainly didn't have any motive to play along with the stunt.

ooOK

[Anonymous Coward]

As warm and fuzzy as all this sounds, I'm a little more interested in how he managed to "trick" them into not decapitating him and/or releasing him.

Twitter is now the tool to use

[DrData99]

Who knew that if you are having a heart attack or in a Taliban prison that Twitter is now the only thing you need.
Thanks Slashdot!

Another jailbreak on another smartphone...

[Anonymous Coward]

And to think so many people devalue the benefits of jailbreaking...

Re:Another jailbreak on another smartphone...

[teh kurisu]

In Soviet Russia, phone jailbreaks you!

...would have been a really good joke if it had been anywhere other than bloody Afghanistan.

And they say Customer Service isn't any help...

[rickb928]

Oh, and you losers in Gurgaon...

Thanks! Good job! We love ya!

Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

How many more journalist will you get killed by putting these stories on /.?

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Abstrackt]

How many more journalist will you get killed by putting links to these stories on /.?

FTFY. If your concern is this information getting out in the wild you probably shouldn't focus on the second-hand portion of it.

Hawiian Good Luck Sign

[Anonymous Coward]

That is almost as funny as the crew of the USS Pueblo giving the Hawiian Good Luck Sign for a North Korean propaganda photo.

http://www.headlife.net/2008/01/23/the-origins-of-the-hawaiian-good-luck-sign/

Ha!

[pspahn]

Yes, I find it humorous that some Taliban soldiers don't actually know what the internet is.

It makes me wonder about all the other modern advancements they are unaware of. Space craft? Aircraft carriers? Oprah? No wonder they are so willing to fight a war against enemies who have such vast amounts of technology at their disposal. If they knew how disadvantaged they were, maybe they would just stop.

Re:Ha!

[shutdown -p now]

If you have an absolute, unwavering belief that God blesses your fight and guides your hand, and whatever shiny toys your opponents may enjoy are poisonous gifts of Satan that can only lead one to destruction and hell, why would you ever stop, even if it's an AK vs an aircraft carrier? For one thing, if God is with you, then surely the AK is good enough to win - when the time is right - and for another, the worst-case scenario is that you die and end up in heaven (and the bastard that killed you is stuck here with Oprah!).

Re:Ha!

[lwsimon]

Luckily, soldiers with this line of thought also don't think much of using the iron sights on their AKs. After all, if Allah wills it, the bullets will find their targets.

Re:Ha!

[shutdown -p now]

Ah, if only it worked that way.

I've heard a story about Chechnya, that local Wahhabi terrorists consider underwear un-Islamic because it was not worn in Prophet's times by him or any of his followers. So, they take it, there might be no harm in it, but they cannot be sure - so they don't wear it. And then one Russian journalist noted that Prophet's army didn't have AKs, either, but somehow that doesn't make a connection.

Re:Ha!

[doubtless]

except that his captors weren't Taliban but a group of corrupt local warlords trying to stir the taliban government.

this is from his tweet - http://twitter.com/shamilsh/status/23085559558

Re:Ha!

[Dexter Herbivore]

Yes, I find it humorous that some American soldiers don't actually know who Allah is.

It makes me wonder about all the other parts of the Koran they are unaware of. Ramadan? Muhammad? The battle of Yamama? No wonder they are so willing to fight a war against enemies who have the vast resources of Allah at their disposal. If they knew how disadvantaged they were, maybe they would just stop.

Re:Ha!

[pspahn]

At least you didn't include a FTFY. It is terribly annoying when some stranger assumes they understand your train of thought when they clearly only understand the opposite.

Truth be told, nothing had garnered more insight into Islam than the current wars of ideology, at least as far as the West is concerned.

Do I know more about Islam than I did on that fateful morning in September... of course I do. TBH, I recently transfered to a Jesuit university because it was the most distinguished and accepting of the institutions I was considering. I don't often defend any kind of religion, but in this case, I was impressed by their insight into what I was looking for. A school that accepted me for me (I'm an agnostic theist) and wasn't there to simply make a buck or evangelize.

Re:Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet they are winning.

Re:Ha!

[pspahn]

If both sides played by the same rules there would be a much different outcome. As it stands, you have to realize, we are fighting people who don't even know what the internet is. If I was in charge, I would saturate their world with digital knowledge. As devoted as they are to a cause, it seems to me they would make great IT drones.

Re:Ha!

[Mr_Miagi]

Good thing the journalist didn't introduce the captors to WoW...

Re:Ha!

[laejoh]

An AK vs an aircraft carrier, no problem... But Oprah???

Re:Ha!

[interkin3tic]

Yes, I find it humorous that some Taliban soldiers don't actually know what the internet is.

I would guess that if all Islamic fundamentalists were on the internet and could access the vast wealth of porn contained therein, we'd have less Islamic fundamentalists.

Re:Ha!

[stdarg]

There are a few interesting articles on homosexuality in the Islamic fundamentalist world, like this one: http://www.globalgayz.com/country/Afghanistan/view/AFG/gay-afghanistan-homoeroticism-among-kabul-s-warriors

Point being, they already have access to sex, visual entertainment, etc. Taliban commanders are going around raping and having forced marriages. Fighters sleep with young boys. I see that soft core porn may be pacifying to some degree, but there's also porn that appeals to extremists. Hell I've seen porn of Jewish girls with Arab guys (at least that's how it was titled) and I wasn't even looking for it. If you want anti-infidel porn you'll find it, just like racists can find porn that humiliates a particular race.

Re:Ha!

[c6gunner]

Except that the ransom demand was received from the Taliban. You think they've given up the jihad and started a courier business?

Why are we losing?

[unixguy48]

Remind me again why we are losing this war?

Tweet had no influence on release

[perpenso]

...how was he actually rescued? I see correlation between his tweets and his release but no causation.

Its just a coincidence that someone who was released had previously sent out a tweet. My understanding from reading elsewhere (yahoo news) is that the ransom was *not* paid. However since the victim was a muslim the kidnappers felt they could not kill him, so they let him go.

Breaking News

[rshxd]

Twitter was used for something useful! Stop the presses!!!!

Re:Breaking News

[M. Baranczak]

Don't worry, it won't happen again.

Re:Breaking News

[interkin3tic]

Twitter was used for something useful! Stop the presses!!!!

First 4chan does something nice, now twitter actually helped rescue a POW... what other weird things is the internet going to do this week? A comment thread on youtube produces lasting peace in the middle east?

Who tricked who?

[echucker]

The Afghani soldier just got a Westerner to activate an internet-enabled Symbian smartphone for him.

Re:Who tricked who?

[BBTaeKwonDo]

If it was the soldier's phone, wasn't the soldier going to figure out how to activate it? If it was the journalist's phone, then the journalist can call customer service again and deactivate it, no?

Weak minds....criminal minds

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeez. What idiots.

Minions... whatcha gonna do?

[macraig]

Good minions and henchmen are SO hard to find these days....

No one ever said Muslims were smart...

[Anonymous Coward]

No one besides Obongo, that is. NASA's new mission: to boldly proclaim common myths about how many great things the head-chopping parasites have contributed to civilization.

Are You Saying we should turn Oprah on them?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that would truly end this war on terrorism ... yes no?

after all, it would be more progress then the other O

cheers

That One Phone Call...

[H3xx]

Twitter has too many prerequisites for it to be useful in a situation like this; you need a cell phone whose number is not linked to a previous Twitter account, with MMS capabilities and a network that supports it, or a computer with access to the internet, a usable keyboard and a browser/email client. It's actually just short of a miracle he was able to use a cell phone while in jail—most jails will only allow you access to one POTS call, and many times you do not have access to the keypad while you are using it.

There needs to exist a service that will accept incoming vocal transmissions, transcribe them, then post them on Twitter.

Ha Ha Ha

[AliasMarlowe]

I find it humorous that some American soldiers don't actually know who Allah is.
It makes me wonder about all the other parts of the Koran they are unaware of.

That all sounds nice and sensitive and empathetic, but how many other stone age mythologies should they study? Should they be knowledgeable of the differences between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam? Or the peculiarities of the Wahhabists or the Druze?
FYI, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Guru Granth Sahib, and Kitab Al Hikma are all sacred texts of large religious groups in Iraq/Afghanistan and their immediate vicinity (apart from the Torah, Old and New Testaments, and Koran). And this does not include other religions of the region which either lack canonical texts (Jainism) or for which multiple canonical texts exist (Buddhism). Also, the study of certain other ancient texts (e.g. Avesta, Book of Breathings) should be avoided, since knowledge of their content would prevent sympathetic attitudes towards some of the above-mentioned texts. American forces are posted in several states in Central Asia - how much do you know of the religions of that region?
IMHO, knowledge of local religions and their vitriolic schisms is as likely to harm as to help in soldiering.

Help!

[Anonymous Squonk]

I'm being held in the castle Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh!

Scene from Sci Fi ?

[Timtimes]

The alien grabs the laser pistol from hip of Captain America. "What is this strange device?" the alien mutters as he clumsily attempts to inspect it. "It's for cleaning your teeth", replies Captain America. "You point it towards your mouth and pull on the little lever." Profit. Enjoy.

More steps

[Mr2cents]

Step 1: Download gay porn to phone
Step 2: Accuse phone owner of homosexuality.
Step 3: Volunteer to clean up the phone while your captors stone the phone owner.
Step 4: Read up on slashdot, dilbert, check facebook, solve an online sudoku, you have plenty of time (stoning is damn slow).
Step 5: Tweet your location
Step 6: ???
Step 7: FREEDOM!

In other news

[SmallFurryCreature]

Youth is more radical then their parents... youth just tend to the get confused about what radical means.

Radical ain't limited to the right... or even the left. Radical just means being extreme in your views. Unable to see the others point of view, convinced your point of view is not only the right one but everyone who disagrees is therefor wrong and unworthy of being listened to.

Youthful muslims are indeed more radical then their parents. BOTH ways. Some are strongly against the culture they got from home, others lean far more strongly towards it. Just as a young white person may be strongly socialist or strongly capitalist when their parents hover somewhere in between. Kids try to find their own identity and lack the capacity to moderate this. See german kids from well to do families joining the rotte armee faction (sorry for mispelling). Or young people hating environmentalism after it had an increase in popularity some years ago.

Go to any university and you will find plenty of extremes and very few moderates. It is the passion of youth. Radical young muslims has nothing to do with the qualities of Al Quada's recruitment. It is young people seeking their own identity without wisdom of the years to see the danger in extremes. Any extremes. I remember well the hippies who idolized India and completely forgot to implement the kast system of their beloved new faith/world view.

No difference between some holier then thou muslim youth and some vegan fanatic who protests outside KFC or an anti-abortion nutter. All these groups bring forth terrorists.

Re:In other news

[stdarg]

Go to any university and you will find plenty of extremes and very few moderates.

I've had experiences with 3 universities. One of them, a very expensive private women's college (Wellesley) was as you say, more radical than moderate in many political respects. The other two (state schools) were by far more moderate than extreme, unless you're counting irrelevant things like "how much do you support your team vs. Duke". For the 500 people who go to various political events on the quad and are screaming and shouting about some nonsense, there are thousands and thousands who don't even live on campus and are fairly mainstream in their political views. That's my experience anyway.

No difference between some holier then thou muslim youth and some vegan fanatic who protests outside KFC or an anti-abortion nutter. All these groups bring forth terrorists.

There's certainly a difference in degree between those groups! Just count the news stories.

Not that anybody remembers what it means

[Anonymous Coward]

but it is pointless to use "(sic)" when reprinting a Twitter message. Bcuz (sic) ur (sic) wsting (sic) ur (sic) 140 chrctrs (sic). OMG (sic), LOL (sic).

I would not want to own that phone

[Anonymous Coward]

A phone that can be location tracked and, hopefully, might meet with the business end of a high-explosive rocket real soonish.

And there's a red under my bed...

[Heed00]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBbAZVw3_7A

Why is that good?

[JSBiff]

Heck, if they're playing WoW 18 hours a day there won't be any time left for them to plan to blow people up or kidnap them.

From a Japanese web site

[smooth wombat]

I'm a bit late to this story (read it yesterday), but here's a link to the Mainichi Daily News which has an article on the same subject. I did not read the IT World article so I don't know how much overlap there is.

Mainichi news article.

First useful twitter message

[FreekyGeek]

Wow, it's a historic moment - the first actually useful message ever sent on Twitter. And the first one anyone ever cared about.