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Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:05:57 -0500
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:52:07 +0000 From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk> To: dave () farber net Hi Dave: It's great to get a news story about the situation in Iraq that provides amusement rather than despair, and very surprising when it emanates from the UK Government's Foreign Office - this is from today's (UK) Guardian, but could have been straight out of "Yes Minister":
Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines David Hencke, Westminster correspondent Thursday March 2, 2006 The Guardian It certainly was not part of Britain's plans to win the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq. But the Foreign Office has been apparently paying for an adult sex chatline in a Baghdad street for 17 months without knowing it. The Foreign Office has had to tell MPs that an investigation into how a diplomat lost two satellite phones in Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism but more to do with a budding entrepreneur and a telephone porn network. FO officials had already admitted that the lost phones had cost them £594,000 in unauthorised phone bills but it is now bracing itself for an extremely critical report from the Commons public accounts committee on how it came to pay phone bills, which at one stage hit £212,000 in one month, without asking questions. Sir Michael Jay, permanent secretary at the FO, told MPs: "All the pattern of usage of these phones ... points to some kind of criminal activity ... It was almost as though they were taken and used as a kind of mobile phone booth at the end of the street where anybody could come along and use them. "After that, they appear to have been used for a couple of scams based on what are known as personal numbers and premium numbers." Sir Michael said the premium rate numbers were used for betting agencies or adult phone lines, and that one of the FO phones had been "on virtually full time with the person who is, as it were, making the call getting some benefit from it." ... Edward Leigh, chairman of the committee, told him: "In terms of this mobile phone being on permanently at the end of a street in Iraq, that gives a whole new meaning to winning hearts and minds in Iraq, but it is quite serious." Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Great Grimsby, whose phone had been swiped and used to dial a betting agency, asked if the FO had tried to get its money back. ... Sir Michael has promised to try to get the money back. But so far the only thing FO staff appeared to have done is to try to ring the premium rate number. Sir Michael told MPs they did not get a reply.
Full story at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1721215,00.html Cheers Brian -- School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines Dave Farber (Mar 02)