On Fri, 19 Mar 2004 01:32:03 GMT, Spehro Pefhany
wrote:


On a different discussion point, picture the recent Spanish train
bombings (10 set off.) Had the train installed cellphone signal
blocking equipment most of those bombs would probably not have been
set off.

From the fact that few of them went off in the station, where they
would have been far more effective, one may conclude that they were
triggered by simple timers.


Let's say three bombs went off at the station. If the other seven
were prevented from going off that would still have been a significant
victory against terror.

Of course terrorists will always find other ways to detonate their
bombs and the most effective method is still the suicide bomber, no
technology sophistication there. Be forewarned. They will not remain
the technology primitives they are today. In this escalating war new
solutions will have to be found again and again. But in the meantime
I think I have put forth a reasonable proposal that is cheap and
easily implemented, to greatly reduce the opportunities for cellphone
triggered bombs. More important, perhaps to reduce the enormous
effort and costs to provide surveillance in public places.

I like my idea of a built-in transponder chip that can be interrogated
at check-out counters. A portable interrogator can be used to check
abandoned packages from a safe distance without needing to know the
cellphone call number. The Spanish rescue team found an unexploded
bomb laden bag with a cellphone trigger and were very lucky that it
didn't go off.