Thailand: Wireless Wars

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January 26, 2006: Government efforts to control cell phone use in the south appear to have worked. The criminal gangs and Islamic terrorists have responded by attacking the cell phone infrastructure. This means bombing cell phone facilities and destroying antennas. In the last week, there have been over a dozen attacks. The cell phone restrictions consisted of forcing mobile phone card users to register, and controlling cell phone signals crossing the Malaysian border.

January 20, 2006: In the last two years, terrorist bomb makers in the south have made great strides in terms of the size and complexity of their bombs. They have gone from pipe bombs with three or four pounds of explosives, to ones with over a hundred pounds of explosives (and more powerful explosives), with more sophisticated triggers (usually wireless). Most of these technological advances appear to have been obtained from information found on the Internet.