Echelon Used to Capture Terrorist

An anonymous reader writes "Echelon was used to track and capture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed." Ahh, bitter sweet victories. The article kind of explains what Echelon is, and pretty much says that those disposable phones really don't have much security at all.

Big brother

[hankwang]

Echelon blocks all attempts to reply to this story, which seems to be on the guardian [guardian.co.uk].

Orwell would be proud....

[buddha1975]

But we have to retitle the book 2004 (20 years off) First Post?

Nobody caught me!

[Khalidz0r]

Because I'm not Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

An advise, make sure not to call your children semi-terrorist names :).

Khalid!

New Verizon Spot...

[EvilTwinSkippy]

(You see a bunch of guys dressed as Al-Queda, wandering through the wilderness...)

Can THEY here me now?

Can THEY here me now?

To Quote Janine Melnitz:

[LittleGuy]

WE GOT ONE! [imdb.com]

heh

[JeanBaptiste]

Looks like mr Mohammed wasn't wearing his tinfoil hat...

We can quibble,

[irving47]

We can argue abou the wisdom of echelon, using it, or even writing articles in the papers about it... (Something I think is really not in our national best interest.) All I know is if I hear one word from the ACLU about this guy's civil liberties or privacy being violated, I'm going to start hoping they turn into cactus fertilizer.

Re:Nobody caught me!

[Anne_Nonymous]

I just say the phrase "kill the president" whenever I talk on the phone. Then *they* have to listen to my boring conversations. It's amazing how creative you have to be to get that phrase into a conversation. My girlfriend thinks it's a slang term for sex, as in "come on over tonight and help me kill the president".

Re:New Verizon Spot...

[Alcohol Fueled]

No no no...

(You see a bunch of guys dressed as Al-Qaeda, wandering through the wilderness...)

Can THEY hear me now?

Can THEY hear me now?

Can THEY hear--*BOOM* (Al-Qaeda guys are struck by missile.)

(Commercial fades to George Bush) Verizon. If you don't use it, the terrorists win.

Re:Nobody caught me!

[GigsVT]

In other news, suspected terrorist Khaled Mardam Bey was arrested late Monday. The terrorist had been assisting other terrorist in communicating over the Internet via a vast crime network known as "mIRC". It is not known whether the Sep 11 terrorists used this network to coordinate their attacks.

Re:Hypocrite terrorists

[anon*127.0.0.1]

If they stuck with the sticks and clubs, no one would be after them. Running a camel into the WTC would not have caused much damage.

Re:Can find you even if your mobile is turned off

[loucura!]

That's why I (as a card-carrying paranoid whacko) take apart my cell-phone every night before bed.

First I was fine just removing the battery... but then I remembered that capacitors carry a residual charge, and if I remembered that, then the Man knows it. So, now I take apart each individual component, except for the LCD...

You don't think they can track me by the LCD do you?

Re:So, is Echelon good now?

[billybob2001]

While this instance proves that Echelon can be used for good, who insures that?

Easy: "Crimson Permanent Assurance", and they'll win!

Re:Not Echelon. COLD, HARD CASH.

[spakka]

$25 million can buy a lot of box-cutters.

Re:We can quibble,

[Dovregubbens Hall]

There's only one thing to hope for: That someone starts pointing their finger at you.

Re:Nobody caught me!

[archeopterix]

I just say the phrase "kill the president" whenever I talk on the phone. Then *they* have to listen to my boring conversations. It's amazing how creative you have to be to get that phrase into a conversation. My girlfriend thinks it's a slang term for sex, as in "come on over tonight and help me kill the president".

Actually, we use "have sex" for "kill the president", so you are safe.

Yours sincerely,

Khalid

P.S. Does anyone actually believe that anyone actually meaning to kill the president would use this phrase over the phone? I'd rather use "dispose of the big kahuna" or something similar.

Re:Nobody caught me!

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> My girlfriend thinks it's a slang term for sex, as in "come on over tonight and help me kill the president".

And then she says, "I'm busy tonight, just kill him youself, ok?" Sigh.

Re:Not Echelon. COLD, HARD CASH.

[guacamolefoo]

What's the going rate for a suicide bomber in Palestine these days? Isn't it something on the order of $5,000.00 or so? That's a lot cheaper than a cruise missle. Paying 25,000,000 simoleons to a filthy, radical muslim who maybe is an Al-Quaida turd burglar seems like it might lead to some of that money going into operations against the US.

Wouldn't that be the ultimate irony? Terrorists turning in each other to fund more terrorism with the reward money... Talk about a viscious circle.

Khalid: "We're running low on funds for new operations because of those imperialist infidels. We neet to raise cash, Osama!"

Osama: "The devil dogs [topsecretrecipes.com] have indeed reduced our sources of funding, but we do have one option remaining..."

Khalid: "Yes, Osama? How can we raise money to fight the imperialist crusad... Urk!"

Osama: "Heh..."

GF.

Re:Can find you even if your mobile is turned off

[n-baxley]

Hah! I smash my phone with a hamer each night. That's starting to get expensive though. I think this guy may have something with taking the battery out.

Re:Nobody caught me!

[DarkGamer]

A friend of mine calls moviefone and makes threats on the president's life... just to see if anyone is listening.

"If you know the name of the government official you'd like assassinated, please enter the first three letters of thier name now."

*beep boop beep*

*You have chosen President Bush... please stay on the line while the secret service breaks your door down. Thank you for using moviefone."

Re:But is it him?

[Highwayman]

I have reason to believe they may have snagged Ron Jeremy instead! Don't believe me, do a side by side comparison of "Mohammed" [cnn.net] and Ron Jeremy [dvdfile.com]. Only one way to know for sure, though.

Why not?

[Omni-Cognate]

Good paper the Guardian. At least it's not:

Owned by a satanic media warlord who eats puppies for breakfast (Times).

Right-wing propaganda for the aged (Telegraph).

So woolly-liberal you have to brush the fur off your sofa after reading it (Independent).

Pre-packaged morality for those too stupid to figure anything out themselves but too proud to read The Sun (The Mail).

Tit-based mind-control for the terminally common (the rest of the tabloids).

Re:Nobody caught me!

[unicron]

That metaphor could lead to some recorded conversations that REALLY disturbed the secret service:

Khalid: Tonight, we will finally strike a blow for our people by having sex.

Khalid's Associate: It will be very difficult, the sex is always surrounded by large well trained men.

Khalid: We have long trained to have sex, the hour is upon us.

Khalid's Associate: We will have sex during the speech at the Little Tyke Day Care Center.

Khalid: Yes, the sex is scheduled to make an appearance there in 2 days.

Secret Service Agent: I have NO idea what they're planning, but these fuckers are going down.

Re:Can find you even if your mobile is turned off

[HaloZero]

If I find my phone turning itself on at night, that fucker is getting thrown into the lot and run over with my car. A few... hundred... times. Yeah. None of that 'come-kill-the-paranoid-teen' crap for me.

Or you could just take the battery out... *looks at crushed and dead phone* *lip quivers* Damnit.

Re:So, is Echelon good now?

[Skirwan]

Tools not have moral

Tools have moral. Fire bad!

Re:Nobody caught me!

[Anonymous Coward]

No hairy knoll for you this evening. You'll have to play the lone gunman tonight.

Re:UK Royal family...

[R.Caley]

But there were reports in the press about it being transmitted repeatedly, and in different locations.

There are reports in th epress about people being abducted be Elvis in his flying saucer.

If the scanners are being run by lonely IT workers

[MongooseCN]

Then you're more likely to have your conversation listened to by saying "we're having sex" than "kill the president".

Re:Hate the tech, love the results

[geronimo87]

911 happened because the FAA had a huge hole in their security. Box cutter knives were legally allowed to be carried on airliners. Without them, those planes would not have been hijacked.

Re:So, is Echelon good now?

[CVaneg]

Please name one?

How about the Necronomicon? That thing causes no end of trouble, or maybe the Artifact of Evil [amazon.com] of course that may be a more Chaotic Evil kind of tool, but I think that it qualifies.

Re:Can find you even if your mobile is turned off

[commodoresloat]

That's why I (as a card-carrying paranoid whacko) take apart my cell-phone every night before bed.

That'll keep them from finding you. After all, they'd never think to look in your bed.