Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

If you'll pardon the pun, they are kind of 'signalling' their true intentions, aren't they? That, or their leaders are nuts (They can't just talk in code, or turn their phones off when they aren't using them, or employ runners . . .?).

On second thought, they may just be blaming the media for the message. They wouldn't be the first conservative group to do so, it wouldn't even be the first time THEY'VE done so.

The reason that the Taliban are attacking the cell phone infrastructure is not because the insurgents can be tracked by their cell phones. That is easy enough to get around by obtaining one time use anonymous phones or simply turning them off. The problem for the Taliban is that a lot of Afghans don't like them and they use their cell phones to tell the government forces where the Taliban are operating so that the NATO forces can kill them.

Fortunately, the Taliban seem to have a deaf ear for how attacking the cell phones makes them even less popular and more likely to be informed against.