(Un)extraordinary Rendition
by Imran Ali
The time may have arrived to a special achievement category to the Darwin Award - for mobile communication and the War On Terror.
In September 2002, Ramzi bin al-Shibh was allegedly captured after boasting (via satellite phone) that the Americans would never be able to apprehend him. Hours later, tipped off by US intelligence, Pakistani Rangers arrived with bullets and his sat phone bill 
However, Wired’s recent story on the CIA’s abduction of Abu Ammar in Milan has to be the winning event so far in this War On Error. Italian authorities were able to analyse call traffic and locations from agent’s unsecured handsets to reconstruct the pattern of events leading to the abduction. Calls from agents to local USAF and CIA stations led to the direct identification of the individuals involved
Just goes to show, if you’re leaving a trail of messaging metadata - make sure you’re not doing anything dodgy…
