NY Police Eye Disrupting Cell Phones in Terrorist Threat
January 10, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The New York Police Department is looking for new methods to disrupt cell phone calls and other forms of electronic communication among potential terrorists — part of what the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies say are the “lessons learned” after the deadly November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly told federal anti-terror officials that the NYPD must have the ability to disrupt cell phone calls in the event of another planned attack on New York City.
Fox News reports that a draft copy of Kelly’s statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security says the NYPD believes the Mumbai attacks could be a model for other low-tech attacks. It was not clear whether the NYPD has the means to disrupt electronic communications for a small group of terrorists without shutting down cell phone service to a large part of New York City.
Kelly said that in the India attacks, the terrorists had handlers who used cell phones and other portable communication devices to order the killing of hostages and adjust tactics during the siege of Mumbai.
The 10 attackers, who Indian authorities say came from Pakistan, fanned out to locations such as hotels and buildings, taking and executing hostages and holding off Indian security forces for several days. The attacks left more than 170 people dead and some 300 wounded.
via Source – msnbc.com.
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The means to jam all cellular communication in a small area has been around for 10 years now. The Israelis came up with it first. A cell jammer is a suitcase sized product that jams frequencies in the paging and cell phone ranges for up to a 2km radius, or smaller if needed. Some churches in the US have applied to the FCC for licenses to use said devices, to keep people from interrupting holy services.
And please…. no 1st amendment rights comments. The device is used for the purposes of blocking communications when needed…such as hostage situations, terrorist attacks, ect.
I wish them luck. Using pinpointed jamming techniques is very complex. The jammer will ALWAYS make errors and thus jam friendly traffic frequently. Trained military communicators know how to deal with enemy jamming. Highly doubtful that the Feebs and locals would do anything other that try to shout louder into their screwed up radios. They did it during 9/11, as proven by the taped records from call centers. A Mumbai terrorist attack will be just as bad if not worse. Got secure redundant comms? At the end of the day The Terrorists will find away around this jamming threat — now that they officially know about it thanks to news stories like this. They will use messengers, hand-signals, coded prayers to allah at the local terror center and worship place .. special combinations or colors of clothing, remember that while the muslim terrorists may be one generation removed from the stone age, they are no less stupid than the rest of us. Jamming cell phones on a blanket basis over a small geographic area is a Good Thing, if the Law has an alternate means of commo, which they usually do not. Oh, and you all do know that the usual government trunked and cellular communications system (secure or not) are very easily jammed by common Radio Shack Items, right? Let’s not even get into the civil liberty and the FCC regulartory areas of this jamming plan, OK?