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I have it on good authority that the U.S. military uses similar technology overseas for monitoring terrorists.

tomjen3 16y ago
For a month in the spring my route to work took me by bicycle past three of the embassy in Copenhagen. You could see some radio antennas on one of them (I think it was the Russian one, but I am not entirely sure) - it didn't take that many brain cells to figure out what that was being used for.
rdl 16y ago
Systems like these (tactical SIGINT, vs. the kind of strategic collection of everything. like NSA does) have been part of war pretty much ever since radio was invented. Most of Rommel's awesomeness in North Africa was due to his superior radio directing finding units. No need to necessarily translate enemy communications if you know where they are and when they're sending. The premier tier-1/special mission unit in the US military (Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), aka "the Activity", Gray Fox, Torn Victor, Cemetery Wind, Centra Spike, ... they have a lot of code names) was basically the key piece in killing Pablo Escobar (the book "Killing Pablo" is a pretty good account). They're obviously extensively involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the major reasons the military was more effective in 2005-now in Iraq, vs. 2003-2004, is that cellphones spread out to cover the whole country, and insurgents and their friends used cellphones (although this is more "strategic" vs. tactical/field gathering like this system). I'm just waiting for the first fully autonomous weapon which combines signals intelligence and killing -- flies around listening for a specific IMSI, then drops down on the target and blows up.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  > I'm just waiting for the first fully autonomous weapon which combines signals intelligence and killing -- flies around listening for a specific IMSI, then drops down on the target and blows up. The road to Skynet is paved with these kind of desires.
crocowhile 16y ago
According to the italian anti mafia police force, mafiosi use skype to communicate to each other via voice. (http://www.google.com/cse?q=Mafia+skype http://www.google.com/cse?q=Mafia+skype) I would be surprise if terrorists weren't.
- stretchwithme 16y ago
  I'd be very surprised if most terrorists were 1/10 as clued in as the Mafia when it come to avoiding attention from law enforcement. Most Mafia bombs work and they don't run around setting their underwear on fire.
qq66 16y ago
Which means that some government agency is most likely using it right here for monitoring "terrorists."
steveplace 16y ago
I developed some of the tech used for cellular exploits and I can confirm this claim.

For a month in the spring my route to work took me by bicycle past three of the embassy in Copenhagen. You could see some radio antennas on one of them (I think it was the Russian one, but I am not entirely sure) - it didn't take that many brain cells to figure out what that was being used for.

rdl 16y ago

Systems like these (tactical SIGINT, vs. the kind of strategic collection of everything. like NSA does) have been part of war pretty much ever since radio was invented. Most of Rommel's awesomeness in North Africa was due to his superior radio directing finding units. No need to necessarily translate enemy communications if you know where they are and when they're sending. The premier tier-1/special mission unit in the US military (Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), aka "the Activity", Gray Fox, Torn Victor, Cemetery Wind, Centra Spike, ... they have a lot of code names) was basically the key piece in killing Pablo Escobar (the book "Killing Pablo" is a pretty good account). They're obviously extensively involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the major reasons the military was more effective in 2005-now in Iraq, vs. 2003-2004, is that cellphones spread out to cover the whole country, and insurgents and their friends used cellphones (although this is more "strategic" vs. tactical/field gathering like this system). I'm just waiting for the first fully autonomous weapon which combines signals intelligence and killing -- flies around listening for a specific IMSI, then drops down on the target and blows up.

mkramlich 16y ago
> I'm just waiting for the first fully autonomous weapon which combines signals intelligence and killing -- flies around listening for a specific IMSI, then drops down on the target and blows up. The road to Skynet is paved with these kind of desires.

crocowhile 16y ago

According to the italian anti mafia police force, mafiosi use skype to communicate to each other via voice. (http://www.google.com/cse?q=Mafia+skype http://www.google.com/cse?q=Mafia+skype) I would be surprise if terrorists weren't.

stretchwithme 16y ago
I'd be very surprised if most terrorists were 1/10 as clued in as the Mafia when it come to avoiding attention from law enforcement. Most Mafia bombs work and they don't run around setting their underwear on fire.

qq66 16y ago

Which means that some government agency is most likely using it right here for monitoring "terrorists."

steveplace 16y ago

I developed some of the tech used for cellular exploits and I can confirm this claim.