Taliban wants cell phone networks shut down at night

The towers and offices of mobile phone operators in Afghanistan are being pressured to shut down operations at night by the Taliban. The former rulers of Afghanistan and current insurgent group held "talks" with the four major mobile companies in Afghanistan today, and gave them three days to go dark for 14 hours per day-or else.

[squallsoft]

JESUS

[f7ss1]

what does this have to do with gaming?

[Absinthetic]

and this is related to the gaming industry because?

[v1c1ous]

see the one that says "tech"? "mobile"?

if the taliban was banning games (i think they already do anyways), would you object to it being reported?

[Hydrollex]

this news is to be posted on www.FBI.gov

[Bleucrunch]

this has nothing to do with gaming so why is it here. Take it off now I dont come to this site to talk about what is going on in Afghanistan. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[ArduousAndy]

there is a tech link here as well as a mobile sub group. Its not all game related. If this shouldnt be allowed on then neither should blu-ray news.

[danarc]

To be fair, the "format war" was quite significant to the gaming world...
Was Sony's risk worth it?

We all found out it was, and that it helps sell PS3s.

[Azures]

I wish we'd pull out of Iraq and once again go wreck the taliban.

[Gorgon]

You didn't wreck the taliban, the taliban wrecked you.

[Noodlecup]

Lol yeh, the U.S military can't deal with a group of poorly trained insurgents with weapons decades old.

[InMyOpinion]

Funny thing is that the U.S. government actually backed the Talibans.

"Foreign powers, including the United States, were at first supportive of the Taliban in hopes it would serve as a force to restore order in Afghanistan after years of division into corrupt, lawless warlord fiefdoms. The U.S. government, for example, made no comment when the Taliban captured Herat in 1995 and expelled thousands of girls from schools.[64] These hopes faded as it began to be engaged in warlord practices of rocketing unarmed civilians, targeting ethnic groups (primarily Hazaras) and restricting the rights of women."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[Azures]

cause they were opposing the soviets at the time we could turn away from the crap they were up to. now that the soviets are gone we gotta deal with them.

[ErcsYou]

@ Gorgan.. the Taliban didn't do anything special... Americans kill more Americans than any terrorist fraction in the world
@ CupNoodle.. The insurgents live in a Dirt hole , they are paranoid and they probably had Dog and a big glass of mud water for dinner last night.. they have been dealt with...

[Gorgon]

Jenzo is right. Actually the US didn't back only the taliban. They also backed Sadam in the 70's and 80's when it was in their interest. Interestingly, it seems he wasn't a murderer and dictator at that time in the view of the US...

Funny how things change when interests change. Nothing new under the sun...

[travelguy2k]

This should actually make the job of tracking these people easier, because they still need to communicate. With all the "normal" communication shut down there will be allot less to listen to and anything in the airwaves will be easier to spot and track. Its only bad for the people and for the companies as they will lose revenue, unless the have free evenings and then its great.

[Vip3r]

I'm sure the coalition troops will something to say about that in the form of a 1000kg bomb.

[InMyOpinion]

If you're not intelligent enough to solve conflicts using words, kill anyone who opposes you.

[Vip3r]

Pretty much sums up why we're there.

[socomnick]

Why do we now have so many daam hippies. I hate hippies that oppose war no matter what. I say pepper the mountains with thermobaric bombs that should kill the people hiding in the caves and we should see a decrease in terrorist activity for a while.

[08_CiViC_Si]

Sure, that works fine as long as both parties are intelligent and willing to listen to eachother.

But that does not happen. They resort to arms, because there are no words that can be spoken to please the insurgents/terrorists/extremis ts/something-else-than-a-label - created-by-the US State Dep. I mean really. If they could 'talk', they would. Isn't that why diplomats talk with other diplomats? Ohhhh yea...insurgents don't use diplomats. They choose a hot-wired artillery shell to get their message across.

And they're message is clear as day. That's why I agree with socomnick. Nothing will end until one group is gone from this earth, as it's a very old conflict. I'd prefer to stay if I had a choice.

Seriously though, what can Americans say? We submit to your ancient traditions that make no sense in contemporary societies?

Sure our gov't could be less imperialistic. I agree with that. Honestly hate the way our gov't conducts business.

[InMyOpinion]

Wouldn't it be better to stop trying to play the role of world police? The U.S. have no real reason for being in Iraq. The only reason I can think of is oil money. And to have satellite countries in the middle east, just like the ones you have in South America.

If it was about doing the right thing, the U.S. government would instead have sent troops to Darfur a long time ago. They have a genocide going on there. What have the U.S. done to help? They have acknowledged it as a genocide, nothing more. If there's nothing to gain for the U.S. like money or power, they don't bother. I'm not saying that it's up to the U.S. to send help to Darfur(the U.N. should) but if you are going to invade a country at least pick the one that calls for help.

@socomnick - Let's not label each other. That's were it all starts. You haven't learned anything, have you? If you try to kill terrorism it tries to kill you. Go on, bomb away, but don't come crying when the terrorists retaliate.

@Civic Si - I respect your opinion and agree with some things you say. I feel like religion is becoming a disease in the U.S. Fundamental christianity seems to be accepted and sometimes even required(if you want to become president). Politics and fundamental religion does not mix well, be it christianity, islam or whatever.

[Pain]

Do they have any good games coming to PS3?

[InMyOpinion]

But there's 'Bush & Bin Laden at the Olympics' for the Wii.

[Tempist]

Oh man, willing to bet that the Canadian troops will probably have to be told to do something about this. No way are they going to give up their nightly cell phone calls home.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

News for gamers?....

[ar]

Well actually "news for gamers" doesn't say it has to be gaming news. Just that it is news for gamers. Gamers aren't only interested in games (at least I'm not).

[OC_MurphysLaw]

If you look at the "about this site" link:

"N4G is a social game news site that covers the game industry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our large community of gamers, journalists and industry professionals have made N4G one of the most up-to-date and visited game news sites on the web."

So...actually this site is supposed to be about "gaming" news.

CNN is just a click away if you want general & world news.

[TheMART]

NEWS 4 GAMERS?????

My God this site is becoming a nonsense blog spamming site...

[mintaro]

huh?

[Noodlecup]

Some of you people may be too blind and a little too patriotic to see it. It's nice to be supportive of your military but in respect to that the US military is quantity over quality, most of these poor guys are shipped over there as green as grass and it shows when they blow eachother up by mistake.

[pegger24]

First of all, I thought the fanboy slap downs were about the dumbest thing that I have seen on this site, unfortunately comments like this "LOL YEA, the U.S military can't deal with a group of poorly trained insurgents with weapons decades old.- noodlecup" Really? cannot deal with them? I think that freeing the country from the oppressive regime of the Taliban and marginalizing them to the mountains was pretty effective. I cannot tell if you ever served but if you had I imagine you would have a little more respect for the people who give up their lives for you. I am not saying you have to agree with the US Politics behind the war or the act of war itself, god knows I don't, but to say something that stupid just doesn't make sense. Like I said, you don't have to agree but to laugh about people dying in a war seems disgusting. Also, they are not poorly trained, they are the same group that fought off the Russians, they pretty much only train, Looks like the only thing poor was your choice of words

[sak500]

Forget Talibans, Osama ws one of the CIA's main guy, trained to fight war in afghanistan against the soviets. Then just like that they dropped him like a used toliet roll. So then he and talibs went against the USofA, rest as they say is history.

On the other hand Sadam was fully backed by USA during the 80s Iran / Iraq war to counter the rising islamicism in Iran. They gave him money and weapons. Then they saw that some kind of aggreement was being done between teh 2 countries, they decided to let him take over kuwait, and so began the Gulf storm War.

Zia, one of the dictators of pakistan ws fully supported to provide resources to afghans against the soviets and pak was used as a base to attack Afghan. After soviet ran out with thier tail between their legs, USA thought the zia must go as well cuz he was becoming arrogant and non-cooperative. Although zia knew somtethign was up and was very careful and on one flight even took US ambasador with him so that he remains safe, but US dint bother bout their ambassador and blew up his plane. Thats just tip of iceberg of what US has done in a small part of world.

So now most of the world is against USA, wonder why?

[Gorgon]

Not to mention that the reason for the rising totalitarian islamism in Iran was caused by a coup d' etat conducted by the US in Iran in 1980. Iran was actually a pretty avant garde country as far as islamist countries go, but thanks to the US the ayatolas got to power. Now the US is paying for that and the rest of us too for bowing to the US external politics. Thanks guys! At least keep the games coming.

[TwissT]

Even though this is irrelevant to anything gaming, this is a very good find of news.

[Gamingshouldbefun]

haha you are a fine example of unintelligent brainwashed American.

'I imagine you would have a little more respect for the people who give up their lives for you.'

I dont understand were they threatening US to nuke or attack US? nope
how did they give their lives to protect you? on other hand they destroyed millions of lives in US by removing taliban and allowing drugs production. 80%worldwide drugs are made in Afghanistan and when taliban came they forced it to stop. thats what hurt US government pockets and that one of the reasons US went to war there. not helping woman go to school.... so before you talk take ur facts and knowledge somewhere else besides CNN and FOX news.

[pegger24]

Read my whole comment. I said I could care less what his politics were, just that to laugh about people dying seems pretty strange and disgusting. SO I think you need to read the comment before you call me a unintelligent brainwashed American. I cannot stand what the Bush administration has done in the middle east, I am extremely intelligent, and take major offense to you completely ignoring my comment and making something out of it that it wasn't. I said don't laugh at people dying in war, you then called me brainwashed. Notice I didn't say US soldiers, for all I know he is on the other side, I couldn't care less, but the people actually fighting the war (both sides) have no say in what they are going through, they just have to try and survive, and it is not funny to watch someone die for a war they didn't start. I never watch Fox News and I never let someone tell me how to think, I am not, repeat not, a blind patriot,
I like how you talk about facts but then claim the US went into Afghanistan to start up the opiate production again. Nice, really nice. Seems as though you need to get your news from somewhere other than the conspiracy theory Journal

[BSigel81]

When you say American you might offend some people, if you have to talk trash just refer to it as the "American government" not the working class citizens. That is is how flame wars are started I respect everyone equally, I know it is your freedom of speech, but what about the next man you are sh!ting on, when they didn't have anything to do with the situations the "American government" put people in.

[Dragonopolis]

First of all the enemy (Americans) isn't using their network.

Second - Why shut down the cell phone stations when you can just put heavy penalty on your soldiers who use cell phones during operations.

Third - Sorry Mr Taliban, unless you go old school wire we can pretty much track any transmission (its decrypting it that can be a problem although I don't think Taliban have such technology yet)

Fourth - you continue to alienate yourself from the Iraq people by harassing them which helps us out as they begin to see just how anti-Iraq Taliban are.

This is nothing but a bully tactic that is an attempt to restrict the people of Iraq from information - i.e. censorship! Same thing China does with the internet but China is much much more civil about it (if you can call censorship civil).

This has nothing to do with the United States and we have other means of tracking other than communication.

But of course is an excuse to implement their extreme control over the people.

However its up to the Iraq people to decide how much is freedom worth to them. If they don't care and bow to the pressure then it is their fault. Freedom isn't easy and people can and will die to enforce it.

Islamic teachings can work in a free society just as easily as in a repressed one ( I believe better less hypocrites as those who don't believe don't fake their way as a believer because they are free to be a non believer - in the end its God who will decide the fate of man - not man). Of course there will always hypocrites just in less numbers, but now nobody is force to be one and puts less strain on the community.

The Taliban have made their move. Now it is Iraq's turn to do stand up (or down) to the Taliban

[aaron5829]

This has got to be one of the weirdest thing i ever heard...