Journalist Tricked Captors Into Twitter Access 141
itwbennett writes "Kosuke Tsuneoka, a Japanese freelance journalist held captive in Afghanistan since April 1, was released over the weekend. His freedom came a day after he sent two Twitter messages from a captor's phone. 'i am still allive [sic], but in jail,' read a message sent at 1:15 p.m. GMT on Friday. It was followed a few minutes later with a second message, also in English, that read, 'here is archi in kunduz. in the jail of commander lativ.' The message referred to the Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz where he was being held. On Tuesday, speaking in Tokyo, Tsuneoka revealed how he managed to convince his captors to give him access to the Internet. 'He asked me if I knew how to use it, so I had a look and explained it to him,' said Tsuneoka. 'I called the customer care number and activated the phone,' he said."
Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story (Score:0, Insightful)
"I don't think they realize they were tricked," he said.
Please explain the trick. The story summary states "he managed to convince his captors to give him access to the Internet."
There is no information in the article that indicates that the Internet access was gained by "a trick". The journalist asked.
Furthermore, there is no information in the article that indicates that the Twitter access had ANY role in his release.
If I ask you for your userid and password, did I get them by tricking you? NO.
The Slashdot summary AND the story is another example of journalistic idiocy.
Yours In Novosibirsk,
K. Trout
Welcome home, Tsuneoka-san. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not spelled out, but it's in the article:
Simple social engineering, he befriended the guard, and showed the guard how to better use his "keys".
All that said, I agree it's still a leap of faith to conclude that the Twitter access freed the journalist... for all we know, he was already on the way out by way of negotiations with the captors, and the Twitter incident was ... incidental to the real release reasons. Poorly written article indeed.
Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story (Score:5, Insightful)
You could say "how is this trickery if he did it right in front of the guard?" and to you I would say "the best magicians do their tricks right in front of their audience"
Re:Journalists Trick Slashdot Into Believing Story (Score:3, Insightful)
If I ask you for your userid and password, did I get them by tricking you? NO.
Well that depends. If you said you needed it to fix a problem with my fstab (or clean up my registry for winxp users or whatever), but actually what you did was install a rootkit, then yes, you tricked me into giving you my password.
If a journalist says they're just going to help their jailer activate their phone, but then uses it to send for help, then they tricked their captor.
The real Kilgore Trout would have a more expansive definition of "trick" than the needlessly narrow one you are using, and especially not one that presumed it can't be a trick if the one being tricked would have to be dumber than a box of rocks to fall for it.
Re:Okay, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
And yeah, I know what they say about assumptions but there is such a thing as a safe one.
Re:Twitter, instead of (Score:4, Insightful)
Or to every address in my contact list.
Re:Twitter, instead of (Score:4, Insightful)
Beyond the obvious fact that he may not have a web mail account, Twitter is a pretty smart choice. He was trying to broadcast to the world that he was alive. If he quickly sent an email to one or two people, it could have been lost or overlooked in a dozen ways. By getting a tweet through he was assured that all of his followers would see it.
I'd say he may have found the one instance where tweeting is actually a really good idea.
Ha! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, I find it humorous that some Taliban soldiers don't actually know what the internet is.
It makes me wonder about all the other modern advancements they are unaware of. Space craft? Aircraft carriers? Oprah? No wonder they are so willing to fight a war against enemies who have such vast amounts of technology at their disposal. If they knew how disadvantaged they were, maybe they would just stop.
Re:step 2 missing (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, it says "in part" because he was a Muslim. Probably more in part due to the Japanese government knowing exactly where he was being held so they could apply pressure accordingly. It's not random that a guy goes missing on April 1st, makes a few help me tweets on September 3rd and is then released a day or so later.
Re:Ha! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you have an absolute, unwavering belief that God blesses your fight and guides your hand, and whatever shiny toys your opponents may enjoy are poisonous gifts of Satan that can only lead one to destruction and hell, why would you ever stop, even if it's an AK vs an aircraft carrier? For one thing, if God is with you, then surely the AK is good enough to win - when the time is right - and for another, the worst-case scenario is that you die and end up in heaven (and the bastard that killed you is stuck here with Oprah!).
Re:step 2 missing (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope his experience taught him something about Islam.
That not all Muslims are the same? Yeah, that must be it.
In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Youth is more radical then their parents... youth just tend to the get confused about what radical means.
Radical ain't limited to the right... or even the left. Radical just means being extreme in your views. Unable to see the others point of view, convinced your point of view is not only the right one but everyone who disagrees is therefor wrong and unworthy of being listened to.
Youthful muslims are indeed more radical then their parents. BOTH ways. Some are strongly against the culture they got from home, others lean far more strongly towards it. Just as a young white person may be strongly socialist or strongly capitalist when their parents hover somewhere in between. Kids try to find their own identity and lack the capacity to moderate this. See german kids from well to do families joining the rotte armee faction (sorry for mispelling). Or young people hating environmentalism after it had an increase in popularity some years ago.
Go to any university and you will find plenty of extremes and very few moderates. It is the passion of youth. Radical young muslims has nothing to do with the qualities of Al Quada's recruitment. It is young people seeking their own identity without wisdom of the years to see the danger in extremes. Any extremes. I remember well the hippies who idolized India and completely forgot to implement the kast system of their beloved new faith/world view.
No difference between some holier then thou muslim youth and some vegan fanatic who protests outside KFC or an anti-abortion nutter. All these groups bring forth terrorists.