Intelligence: The Stolen Satellite Phone

Archives

November2, 2005: Back in 2003, the British Foreign Office shipped a satellite phone to their diplomats in Baghdad. But before the sat-phone could be delivered to the people it was intended for, it was stolen. Somehow, the Foreign Office was not informed that the phone was gone, and those who stole it proceeded to use it heavily to make free calls all over the Middle East. When someone at the Foreign Office finally discovered that the phone they had been paying the bills for, was not being used by their people, service was cut off. But not before the phone ran up usage fees of over $750,000. Hoping to make something of the fiasco, the phone call records (which indicate many calls to Yemen and Saudi Arabia) have apparently been turned over to MI6 (overseas intelligence, the British CIA) to see if any of the parties called are, or were, involved in terrorism, or anything else that MI6 might find of use.



 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close