[IP] Phones stolen in Iraq used for sex chatlines
-------- 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@xxxxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
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@xxxxxxxxx PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
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