Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- 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/

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