The Electronic Peacekeeper

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htun/articles/20080306.aspx

The recent Taliban violence against rural cell phone facilities in Afghanistan is yet another example of how much the Taliban depend on a lack of communication in rural areas. The Taliban can afford to give their combat units (of a few dozen to a few hundred armed men) a satellite phone. But in most of rural Afghanistan, there is no quick way to communicate. No landline phones, no shortwave, no nothing. This is great for the Taliban, because it means local villagers, shepherds or whatever, cannot report Taliban movements. At least not quickly enough to have any effect...This has led to some creative thinking on the part of civil affairs and Special Forces troops. One idea is a takeoff on the successful campaign by an NGO to sneak cheap radios into North Korea...A similar plan for Afghanistan is to drop cheap cell phones, that can also receive radio broadcasts, in Taliban dominated areas...