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NEWS
Observations: The Danger of Cellular Terrorism
by V. Mandosh
Local Jerusalem weekly Kol Ha'ir recently reported
that police headquarters is worried about explosive devices
being triggered by citizens and police officers. Concerns
arose following intelligence about the new method
Palestinians organizations might begin to employ, which
consists of placing explosives detonated by cell phone in
cars. A "For Sale" sign is taped to the windshield with the
number of the cell phone that detonates the explosives.
Reporter Arnon Ragoler writes that police officers have been
instructed not to verify the particulars about suspicious
vehicles by calling the phone numbers listed on them, but
rather by checking through police data terminals. Police
heads are concerned that traffic police and citizens
interesting in purchasing the vehicle will dial the number,
thereby causing a tragedy to take place.
The newspaper writes that since the beginning of the
Intifadah nearly all of the car bombs discovered were placed
in cars stolen from Israeli territory, wired in PA-
controlled territory and brought back into Israel.
Investigations of suspects involved in the attempted
bombings showed that this technique was developed following
the lessons learned by the terror organizations themselves,
after many of the car bombs were discovered before
exploding. Terrorist attack planners realized that security
personnel regularly use cellular company computers, which
are sometimes capable of locating the detonators in real
time. The district police spokesman replied that he is
unaware of such an announcement being issued to police
officers.
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