If you thought you might be able to use your cellphone to communicate with your loved ones during a terrorist attack . . . think again.
The New York Police Department is looking for ways to disrupt cell phone calls and other forms of electronic communication among terrorists in the event of another terror attack in New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says.
The need to disrupt communications is one of several conclusions that the NYPD has drawn from studying the November attack in Mumbai, India, a three-day rampage by machine gun and grenade-wielding Islamic militants in which at least 165 people were killed and 304 were wounded.
Kelly is scheduled to discuss this and other “lessons learned” in testimony Thursday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. A draft copy of his statement was shared with FOX News in advance of his appearance.
Kelly stressed the need for law enforcement to be able to disrupt cell phone calls and other communications during an attack, pointing to threats posed by the media when they disclose law enforcement tactics during live coverage that can get passed back to the attackers.
Kelly says that in the Mumbai attack, the terrorists’ handlers used cell phones and other portable communications devices to order the killing of hostages and to adjust other tactics while the attacks were underway.
It’s not clear from his testimony 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 Manhattan.
There’s lots more at the link.
I can see how, for security forces, it might be a viable objective to shut down communications systems that the enemy might be using – but they obviously don’t consider families of any importance in their security equation. If you’re relying on a cellphone to communicate with your loved ones in another 9/11 situation, guess what? You may be out of touch for days!
I’m sure New York isn’t the only major metropolitan area considering such measures. This bears thinking about, right now, so that you can establish alternate methods of emergency communication in a worst-case situation.
Peter
disturbing.
Authorites at Reagan National Airport in DC have had this function for quite a while. In DC – directly across the river from the airport – there are more cellphones than the transmission system can support, evidenced by connectivity problems whenever there’s a snowstorm during rush hour.
In emergencies, when fire, police, etc. at the airport need cell communications they can apply access restrictions temporarily for “regular” users to ensure emergency services, some of which are across the river in DC (such as additional fire/rescue units) have communications during the emergency. I’d wager that this is not unique to Reagan National.
Landline telephone companies have done things like this this for decades by putting a delay on getting a dial tone when demand far exceeds system capacity.
No one builds a network, be it landline, data or cell, to meet all possible service levels; you determine normal usage levels, add a fudge factor to accommodate some degree of variance, and – hopefully – design in an easy way to add capacity as usage grows.
This in NY, however, seems like the next level of that by seeking to control terrorist communications by controlling everyone’s communications. Who, if they live up to their nefarious billing, have developed more than one means of communication. Maybe we could designate a specific area code just for terrorists’ phones….
Maybe it’s time to renew my amateur radio license
Tom Clancy covered this to good effect in one of his books. I agree with Leadchucker; time to finish mine.
Jim
Anon said it correctly. There are ways, and Leadchucker is right, ARL is about the ONLY guaranteed way to communicate. Each cell tower is max’ed at 240 calls, so figure the odds in an emergency of actually getting on one…
They did this in London actually. Networks were down for a day or two after each attack. Forget about contacting people that way…
While they’re worrying about information getting in to the terrorists, they’re also preventing information from getting out.
Let us also not forget that the passengers’ use of cell phones on Flight 93 is the reason they decided to fight to take back the plane.