Manic Monday - cell

From Wired:

NYPD Wants to Jam Cell Phones During Terror
Attack

By Noah ShachtmanJanuary 08, 2009 | 5:35:22 PM

The New York Police Department wants to be able to shut down cell phones, in case of a terrorist attack.

During last month's massacre in Mumbai, terrorist handlers over micromanaged via mobile phone the assaults on the hotels, train stations, and Jewish center that killed more than 170 people.

In testimony today before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (pictured) said he wanted to take out that "formidable capacity to adjust tactics while attacks are underway."

We also discussed the complications of media coverage that could disclose law enforcement tactics in real time. This phenomenon is not new. In the past, police were able to defeat any advantage it might give hostage takers by cutting off power to the location they were in. However, the proliferation of handheld devices would appear to trump that solution. When lives are at stake, law enforcement needs to find ways to disrupt cell phones and other communications in a pinpointed way against terrorists who are using them.

For now, Kelly said, the NYPD is taking a whole range of measures to stop another Mumbai-style spree -- from working with private businesses to interdicting boats to training recruits in heavy weapons to installing a spycam network across downtown Manhattan.

But Charles Allen, the Department of Homeland Security's top intelligence official, confessed to the Senate panel that "response to a similar terrorist attack in a major U.S. urban city would be complicated and difficult."

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And here I am waiting for cell phone service to get SO GOOD that the next time we have a terrorist attack (insert GOD FORBID here) cell phones will work. Not like what happened on 9/11: cell phones AND land lines in NYC went down completely so that I didn't hear from my husband who worked in the Trade Center until 2 o'clock in the afternoon!

Now the cops want to have the ability to shut down cell service? The hell with us everyday people who would be sick to death because we couldn't reach our loved ones...

Well, all I have to say is you'd better find another way! The phone companies better band together and figure out a way to block terrorists but make cell connectivity available to the public during terrorist attacks. Impossible you say? Nothing's impossible when the powers- that-be consider it important enough.

It's important to have 1080pi HD TVs and HD transmission, right? They figured that out. They realized that people hated the iPhone without a keyboard -- Palm figured that out, right? They invented flag stabilizers to keep flags from wrapping around flag poles. That last one is REALLY important, right?

Listen, NYPD, you can work with private businesses, interdict boats, train recruits in heavy weapons, install a spycam network across downtown Manhattan. But, LEAVE MY CELL PHONE ALONE! Don't leave me and everybody else in this city alone, frightened and out of touch with the ones they love.

Go see Mo at Manic Monday to see the other participants.

maryt/theteach