Cellphone bomb detonator

After three dead and one severely wounded bomb-squad techs, a team in Iraq happened upon this detonator—the one time we're glad a Nokia phone didn't work right; yes, it says "01 Call Missed". Whoever made that call is going to be a little surprised when he gets a call back.

[Thanks, Mario]

[Ben @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

My next care package to my friends in Iraq and A-stan will include sunscreen, magazines, crossword puzzles one of these http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000020032674
and a few of these
http://www.globalgadgetuk.com/Personal.htm

Maybe the USO will start adding these to their cair packages
http://www.uso.org/

[Jnetty @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Wow that's messed up, but i'm glad that didnt explode.

[flynniec6 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Same system was used in Madrid last year to kill 218 people in the train stations. Some of the guys were eventually traced by the cellphones.

[Jake @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

its all a matter of time till you see something like that on an iPod or something.

Do you think a call was placed to detonate the phone, or is it more of a grenade type thing, punch a number and throw the phone?

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Ben,

Good idea. I'm going to send your links to a couple of my Marine buddies.

Cheers!

[MGerlach310 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Ben, that really is a good idea, that the military should pick up on. That photo really sheds light on what is being used to set those off.

[Jay Barnes @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

You see, officer, that's why I have this cell phone jammer.

[nojetlag @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

What a pitty when you only have Nokia's to fight an occupation army. :( Motorola should be more reliable ;-)

[michael @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

i dont know, but if cell phones are being used as detanators, the army should cary a huge cell phone scrabler with each bomb force

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Imagine the load of shit that caller will dump in his/her pants when they come looking for them.

[TheZodiac @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Im going to buy the BT/WiFi/camera jammer so I cant take pictires of myself.

[Fabulo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

#8: they do. But like everything else, they're in short supply.

"Cell phones don't kill people..."

[Jim Hughes @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

The Madrid bombs were set off by phones, but the bombs were not by incoming calls, they used the alarm clock function on the phone to do so (one did not go off because the alarm was 12 hours out).

As for the picture above, frankly it looks badly faked, why on Earth would an Iraqi have English as his preferred language on the phone? And the text and font look wrong for that model of phone.

[Tyler @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I've heard they actually do... a lot of the hummers and convoy vehicles they run in Iraq have big jammers on them. I've heard of them both disabling the bombs because the activator was jammed, and setting them off early because the powerful interference sets them off long before the convoy drives past. They also screw up all the TVs and radios nearby.

[Jake @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

#12: "As for the picture above, frankly it looks badly faked, why on Earth would an Iraqi have English as his preferred language on the phone? And the text and font look wrong for that model of phone."

~No Kidding, that does seem hella stupid, I dont see ANY americans with Iraqi as their language on their phones. LOL, somebody was stupid.
I wonder what they could do with a smartphone? You could fit that circuitry inside it maybe, even more discreet.

[Carmi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Horrifying doesn't begin to describe it.

Carmi
http://writteninc.blogspot.com

[Jake @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

every amazing technology we create can be used against us, our airplanes, cell phones, nuclear energies...

gotta be carefull

~JiGGm
jiggm.blogspot.com

[Doug Thacker @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

"frankly it looks badly faked, why on Earth would an Iraqi have English as his preferred language on the phone? And the text and font look wrong for that model of phone."

Jim, those are interesting observations. Especially the part about the text and font. What model is it? If anyone has this model, it might be really interesting to miss a call on it, take a picture of the resulting display, then post a link to that picture, comparing it to this one. If it is fake, it should then be obvious.

[Ryan gardner @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Anyone else notice that his gloves say "LOVE" on them? I wonder if they come like that when they are issued.

[Doug Thacker @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

"LOVE"? LOL. Anybody got a "G" they can spare?

[Pat @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

As far as font goes, you can actually reflash the operating system on a nokia phone with only a small degree of skill using a flasher cable and some random distro of Maddos or the like. Doing this you can also change the font, the menus, the features.... Which would lend itself nicely to something like where the phone gets a call from a certain number it just sucks the battery dry and when there is no battery left the bomb could go off.. this would also stop jammers because having no further network connection could give the same result.

Pure conjecture on my part though.

Just saying that its not all that hard to modify one of those phones. It is quite scary what you can do with any device now, you could do the same (or similar) with a PDA, maybe even a gameboy.

[Phil @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

You think it's fake because it's in English????
Get a grip. English is the world's language. Have you ever lived in a foreign country where English is NOT the primary spoken language. I have, and you see English all over the place.

[Phil @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

You think it's fake because it's in English????
Get a grip. English is the world's language. Have you ever lived in a foreign country where English is NOT the primary spoken language. I have, and you see English all over the place.

[Jimi @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

English is the world's language? What are you American?

[karebu @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

That phone is not a real Nokia phone. It's probably a dummy phone. Miss calls are displayed as: ' 1 missed call ' on Nokia phones. Note that the reception and the battery is full, which is unlikely, unless it's pasted on (i.e a sticker is used).

[amp @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Yeah, pic definately looks faked. I used to have a nokia phone (5165) and the text was definately NOT that big, and I'd bet the screens themselves are identical. Also, it only has 3 out of 4 bars of reception, but something tells me that in iraq, 3/4 bars is damn hard to find.

But as for the guy being suprised when he gets a call back, I doubt it. He probably knew that it didn't explode before he even hung up (wonder what kind of noise it makes when the phone explodes? Would it send you to voice mail? :P).

[bill hauser @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

i think it relevant to note that more US forces are using an ied jammer or bomb jammer to counter Improvised Explosive Devices detonated by Remote Control or RCIED.

i googled RCIED and saw the site http://www.bombjammer.com come up and there i saw rcied jammers for cars & trucks.

regards, bill