Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Great Pager Detonation: The End of Phones and Computers on Airplanes? | Am

"Israel remaking the world through warfare" (OVA)

Is it ever going to be possible to ban carrying cellphones and/or pagers in the airplanes? I don't think so! It might just be that airlines will hold on to those devices and keep them in a special safe pending arrivals. It might become another complicated process but with the potentials of safety being compromised without doing so, it could be another necessary evil we have to endure.

 

I am intrigued, though, by the brouhahas that have invaded the airspace about the use of remote devices by the Israelis to pummel the Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon. But this is not the first time the world would witness this! Did anyone ever read the powerful 1990 book by Victor Ostrovsky  and Claire Hoy, By Way of Deception? How many individuals were blown up in their hotel rooms in those days as they answered to a telephone call with a simple "Hello" that triggered a complete annihilation of those individuals? The use of electronic devices and parcel bombs as weapons of warfare is popular in the hands of the Mossad. 

If anything, I think it's just the massive detonation and the coordinated effort that seem novel in the whole game. Even up till today, no one has owned up to the parcel bomb that killed Dele Giwa on October 19, 1986 but many, who are not talking, believe it was the technology of the Mossad that was adopted for the deadly operation. It is scary, to say the least, that the age of innocence for those simple electronic conveniences that we once took for granted is long gone, and sadly so!

MOA

On Friday, September 20, 2024 at 05:30:18 PM GMT+1, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

The Great Pager Detonation: The End of Phones and Computers on Airplanes? | American Enterprise Institute

 

www.aei.org

 

 

 

Is "Operation Below the Belt" the End of Phones and Computers on Airplanes?: Earlier today, some entity—presumably Israel—caused 3,000 pagers used by Hezbollah to detonate simultaneously.

 

 

It was a unique operation and demonstrated both Israel's technological capabilities as well as its penetration of Hezbollah and Iranian networks.

 

 

After all, Iran supplied the pagers to Hezbollah just a few months ago.

 

 

The ramifications of the attack, however warranted it was, go far beyond the Middle East, however.

 

 

Wifi has become the norm on passenger planes. Whereas airlines once banned Samsung phones due to questions about their safety after reports that they overheated and still do not allow shipment of lithium batteries in the cargo hold, most passengers today bring laptops, cell phones, and tablets onboard flights.

 

 

Indeed, on most American aircraft, access to the entertainment system requires the passenger to use his phone, tablet, or computer.

 

 

The question for security experts—and certainly one on which Al Qaeda now works—is whether the operation presumably carried out against Hezbollah pagers could be replicated on American or European cell phones or other electronic equipment.

 

 

Put another way, who needs box cutters or an underwear bomb to bring down an aircraft if a signal could overheat, if not detonate a couple hundred tablets or phones at 30,000 feet above the Atlantic?

 

 

For 23 years, air travelers have had to limit their liquids and submit to vigorous pat-downs as the Transportation Security Agency or its European corollaries sought to protect travelers against the tactics of a past attack.

 

 

Today's demonstration in Lebanon should raise red flags: Are water bottles or computers the greater threat? Do computers or phones have to be on to receive the signal that causes detonation? If not, will airlines ever accept such electronics in carry-on or cargo? If Wi-Fi is necessary to transmit the signal, is that the end of Wi-Fi on flights? And if passengers cannot do work on an aircraft, will they even fly or turn to video conferencing?

 

 

Hezbollah might have been today's target, but today's events may have the most profound impact on the aviation industry since 9/11.

 

 

 

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