Jim, you almost seem bitter that the US has a larger military budget than the Iraqis.

No, I just wanted to question the notion that the Iraqui military has some things at their disposal -- like a pervasive, dedicated, secure phone network -- that we take for granted as part of our military capability. I expect they have *something*, but wouldn't try to guess how extensive it is.

If I cynically harp on the new "$75 billion" number, its is just to point out what kind of funds we routinely spend to have these kinds of capabilities. Jeez, I'm turning into a peacnik.

I also assume that the US government has more tools at its disposal than SprintPCS. It has to be easier when you're tracking just 100 or so phones in something the size of Texas as opposed to Sprint being asked to track millions of subscribors throughout the whole USA.

Yes, I expect that there are significant NSA and ASA units sitting in Iraq, Turkey, or Jordan or loitering overhead and, for all I know, can pick out cell calls and triangulate.

Which cell phone company came forward after 9-11 and said they'd help find bodies and survivors based on whether or not they had cell phones with them?

Verizon. My memory was that this was a crude exercise -- ringing up phones. Actual triangulation would seem to be a more complicated exercise -- need to get RF people sitting in a mobile switching center to measure signal strengths in multiple cell sites. I could be wrong.