The March of Technology cannot be stopped by Natives of any Species. ...... but IT can be Built with them in Mind too.

Canut was trying to demonstrate that he wasn't all-powerful.

Secondly, this has nothing to do with trying to stem the tide of progress. It's about controlling what's currently around.

Try again.

Hey, if my main concern is intimidating the locals without fear of swift reprisal, taking out their only means to call the Afghan and Coalition armies or the police sounds like a pretty good way to start. It sounds like the main reason here is that the Taleban doesn't want the rest of the country to know about an attack until the next morning.

Oh come on, when amanfromMars actually manages a coherent sentence, surely he deserves praise simply for that? Coherent *and* relevant might simply be too much to ask.

I must say, I really enjoy your new commenting style, in the last few weeks. You're still keeping the same multilayered puns / (eso|exo)teric wisdom that you always had, but the message content is a lot more relevant.

Have you dropped the obvious Markov chaining, and are just relying on a bit more post-processing? Have you given up the crack-cocaine? Or are you just assimilating in to terrestrial brainwaves better?

@Everyone Else: Yes I think I know who/what I'm talking to. It just seems to have improved. Or I've taken up crack too...

@El Reg Hacks: Any chance of an anonymised interview / weekly column with our non-terrestrial friend, or at least the guys who feed the Martian Internet into our Earthly one?

Oh, we're talking about the Taliban? Interesting, but not sure of their motives and / or rationalisation behind this. Carry on.

The Taliban and friends want to move about at night without having locals ringing up the occupying forces looking for a reward.

I mean if the Taliban is being located by phone, then they obviously have phones... So they probably want to be able to communicate. Unless they have some nifty sat phones or something (or tin cans + string?) it looks like they're cutting themselves off.

Plus I imagine that the Colalition could spot just about any wireless comm devices and pinpoint them (probably from space...) so unless theres some large wired comm network, or all the Taliban people are in the same place... There probably isn't any safe way to communicate.

actually, this is WAY better for locating the talibans

As everyone that is at least somewhat familiar with how GSM networks operate will tell you, a mobile phone will adjust its output power depending on the quality of the network signal it receives.

If you are very far from a GSM mast or the network is unavailable then YOUR telephone will switch to full broadcast power, trying to reach the network and maintain its connection.

This is GREAT for the military, all you need is a dumb taliban that doesn't turn off his phone at night, as that phone effectively becomes a beacon that identifies itself with a unique ID and can be used by a missile from EXTREMELY FAR away now that it's broadcasting at full power and the airwaves are clear of interference from the phone masts or from most other phones in the area that have been turned off for the night.

Also, the military doesn't care about the local GSM coverage, the norm over there are satellite phones.

/cue the black helicopters

Or maybe they got fed up walking about at night and having a phone ring in their pocket mid-silent-stalk!

Guys, press and hold the # key, thay'll toggle most modern nokias at least!

...Reminds me of how things are done in the west. They say jump, we say how high. They say cancel the Dakar rally, we cancel it. They say to cripple our freedoms with paranoia, we do it.

In Afghanistan, they hardly have a choice; there are real threats to the entire infrastructure - which is very small, anyway.

In Europe and the US, we kindly oblige the terrorists' every whim by canceling our celebrations, cowering in our airports, crimping our architecture, and starting a paranoid mindset where we do the terrorists' jobs for them. Why bother blowing stuff up when we'll terrify ourselves far more efficiently?

It boggles my mind how, at least in the US, we stand up with bravado and proclaim that we will never fall - while simultaneously showing that our cowardice has already put them in complete control.

Agreed - and also to stop people from ringing for help at night when they invade and kill locals who don't do what they want them to!

They don't have GCHQ to contend with.

bin ladin just got pissy when the work experience jihadi's phone started blasting crazy frog out in the middle of a vid shoot....

Let the cell operators shut down at night. Issue parachute flares to the local populace; they're cheap, and impossible to "shut off" once used. The locals who spot a Taleban operation at night can launch a flare, which will be spotted both by forces on the ground and by satellite, and the idiots who forced the towers to shut down will be exposed by the brilliant white light of the flares.

Maybe they should shutdown for prayers throughout the day as well.

Give me that old time religion/racket/despotism/.....

Pure and simple it doesn't have any practical use other than to cow the population and prove who's in charge. I wouldn't suggest it was a good idea to go against their wishes until they are properly killed so Taliban win one welcome to the real world.

I suggest the taliban take out the battery, then wrap the battery in tin-foil, making sure the foil touches the battery's little metal bits.

The coalition forces have their own tracking electronics systems. So if the Taliban have their phones with them, and the batteries are in the phones, then phone turned on or off, regardless of whether the local cell providers has its masts off, the coalition forces can track them.

Ignorant goat eaters who use technology thousands of years more advanced than their own are always at a disadvantage trying to use that technology against the civilization which produced it.

Blimp Cell Service - hard to hit with an RPG

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/08/71625

Don't you mean "the Tele-ban", Shirley?

My Nokia N80 doesn't do crap when when I hold the # key :(.

I can't really understand why the Taliban are doing this, it makes no sense any way you look at it.

Oh well.

Mines the terrorist putting a bomb in his jacket

"Ignorant goat eaters who use technology thousands of years more advanced than their own are always at a disadvantage trying to use that technology against the civilization which produced it."

Unless they kidnap a GSM/radio contractor and torture them for information on how to avoid tracking.

But I'm sure the taliban would *never* do something so nasty.

I doubt if tracking is the agenda TBH, but still, that doesn't stop the above comment from being about as intelligent as a small currant bun.

"Ignorant goat eaters who use technology thousands of years more advanced than their own are always at a disadvantage trying to use that technology against the civilization which produced it."

I'm sorry, but that is probably the worst piece of blind bigotry I've seen in a while - The Russians also had a low opinion of the ability of Afghan natives to wage a technological war. Those of us who live in the West need to keep our eyes open and not underestimate the ability of these people to beat us at our own game if we let them...

As for a reason to turn off the cell towers - who knows, perhaps they have decided that the radiation emanating from the towers is interfering with the development of their opium poppies and just want to knock it back a few rads per day?

That's a nice idea in theory, but the second some poor villager fires off a flare to let the world and its uncle know where the Taliban are, it also lets the Taliban know where the person trying to alert the world to their presence is.

After the first few people trying to help out the military are tortured and then killed, I doubt the practice would continue much longer.

...and ours, is that WE were backing the Afghanis back in the 80's. We supplied them with all those sweet RPGs and AKs we'd bought from other countries, and training.

Now we've killed most of the a-holes we'd trained back then (except for the biggest a-hole- although the jury's still out on that), and the poorly trained schlubs that are trying to resurrect their idiotic fundie government are getting stomped every time they show their faces.

"...and ours, is that WE were backing the Afghanis back in the 80's. "

Where do you think all that heroin that US citizens feel compelled to shove into their veins comes from? And who do you think benefits most from its sale?

Nearly three quarters of the worlds opium/heroin trade comes from Afghanistan - paradoxically production has INCREASED since the US lead invasion. The warlords who oversee the trade are supported and protected by the US Military and most of the profits go into US owned companies: see http://opioids.com/afghanistan/herointrail.html

or (for a less biased view try the United nations)

http://www.unodc.org/pdf/publications/afg_opium_economy_www.pdf

When they were in power the Taliban were actually accused of trying to manipulate the price of heroin by trying to outlaw the growth of opium poppies...

Now, probably as a reaction to their ouster the Taliban are also actively exporting heroin. Poor Afghan farmers certainly only get a small slice of the pie, the rest of the vast pile of money being generated probably makes its way into the coffers of US and Russian arms dealers across the globe.

If the US wants to beat the Taliban in Afghanistan, it first has to curb its own desire for the principle product of the region. While US dollars are pouring into the country in the form of drug money, US soldiers will continue to be killed by weapons and explosives stamped 'Made in the U.S.A'

"Secondly, this has nothing to do with trying to stem the tide of progress. It's about controlling what's currently around.

Try again." ..... By Steve Posted Wednesday 12th March 2008 16:21 GMT

Inextricably linked, Steve. And the Future/those Pushing the Tides of Progress, Control IT.

"Have you given up the crack-cocaine?" ...... By Dave Posted Wednesday 12th March 2008 16:47 GMT Hmmm.... A Direct Sensitive Question which is best Truthfully answered No, I never took it up ..... a Double Negative showing a Positive.

However, Dave, that does introduce the very Real Possibility that the Neural Processes in crack-cocaine users/abusers may be recognised in ours....... which is a novel convenience if you are in Full Control of your Faculties/ Marbles. :-)

"Hello, this is Ahmad, how may I help you?"

"Well, you can help by turning my service back on, and not pretending to be in Afghanistan. And come on, that accent isn't fooling anyone - I bet you're called 'Tracy' or 'Sandra' aren't you. Where are you really? What's the weather like there."

"We're in Kabul, sir. It's a bit drizzly this morning, but they say it'll clear up later."

"Drizzly? Admit it - you're in Guildford, aren't you? God, I hate these overseas call centres..."

Sneaky suspicion: "amanfrommars" is as foamy-mouthed and -brained as ever, but an imitator of quite a lower (blood chemistry) level has registered "amanfrommars " as a login: enough silent characters to be Registered as "different", but not visibly different on the comments page.

Give them Vista - thx Bill

During the Malaysian campaign, the Brits used "hearts and minds" to win over the local Malays. What is not so well known is that they also had a strategy of provoking the insurgents into making statements and acts that undermined their relationship with the locals. As the insurgency was mainly led by Chinese rather than the indigenous Malays, it helped drive the Malays to the British side when tales were put round of Chinese geurillas disrespecting traditional Malay customs and beliefs. This sounds like the same - some clever bod in the CIA or MI6 has fed the Taliban the idea that they are being tracked by mobe masts, now the Taliban are p*ssing off the locals, hence making them more likely to cooperate with us. It also has the added benefit that whilst the Taliban believe it's their mobes giving them away they won't cotton on to the real tech or COIN measures that are actually leading the Reapers to their hideaways.

Wait, I hear you say, could our own security forces be that smart? Well, actually, yes! The most well-known case was during WW2 when - to hide the effectiveness of the new airborne radar sets that were starting to take a heavy toll of the Luftwaffe nightbombers - the Brits insisted they had a special diet of carrots that was helping their nightfighter crews see in the dark.

A funnier example is from Sixties, when the CIA convinced the Chinese and hence the NVA that they could accurately track NVA smuggling through Cambodia by U2 spyplanes sniffing for buffalo methane! The NVA switched to using more trucks rather than the locals' buffalo carts, which had two benefits - firstly, it made it easier for the USAF to track them down the Ho Chi Mihn trail; secondly, the South Vietnamese Army stopped shooting the poor peasants' buffalos. The US Army did have some helicopter-mounted cehmical detection kit ("Sniffer" flights) which looked for concentrations of ammonia, but it was virtually useless and often led to carpetbombing of monkeys!

"If the US wants to beat the Taliban in Afghanistan, it first has to curb its own desire for the principle product of the region. While US dollars are pouring into the country in the form of drug money, US soldiers will continue to be killed by weapons and explosives stamped 'Made in the U.S.A'"

surely you mean "Made in China"?

the US gives a lot of money to china, some people had a problem with this so they instead decided to give it to terrorists, who would then forward it on to china in arms sales - a great way to mess up the statistics for funds being sent to china

of course we won't mention the IRA collection tins in "irish bars" in the US several years ago when i was there, because of course it wouldn't be politically correct to point out who funds these terrorists that get used as an excuse to take away peoples rights