Israeli firm wins public telephone contract in Iraq

[DuctapeFatwa]

Iridium Satellite Israel is supplying Iraq with public telephones worth four to five million dollars. The global satellite voice and data communication provider was authorized last month by the office of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to sell its mobile satellite communications services, subscriber terminals, and related equipment in Iraq.

According to CEO of Iridium Satellite Israel Ami Schneider, the order was placed by a Jordanian company, reported Globes. The company also plans to market several thousands of mobile telephones in Iraq.

http://www.albawaba.com/headlines/TheNews.php3?sid=255621&lang=e&dir=business

[DagmarK]

1. Excellent....they are so good at BUGGING phone systems.........

May as well install that from the get-go, eh? Form the PERFECT society right off the bat to avoid the quagmire in taking over America. It's darned hard to change over the infrastructure here to reflect the new world order!

[scsifreak]

10. American firms are behind this.

They want to basically force the American telecommunications system into Iraq, but they also don't want it to look America. What to do... what to do. Get Israel to be a third-party.

It'd be nice to see the incestuous and revolving-door relationship this company has with the CIA and Mossad.

[ikojo]

2. This will go over well...

with the Arabs. Wow! Talk about insighting the troops to riot. Many Arabs and Muslims around the world see the War on Iraq as having been fought for Israel's benefit.

I do not see it that way (I believe it was fought for OIL) but I think those on the "Arab and Muslim" street believe it was done on Israel's behalf. Giving multimillion dollar contracts to Israeli firms does nothing to counteract this impression.

[teryang]

3. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAH!

Funniest thing I ever heard. I hope this gets broad coverage in the Arab press. This is the kind of PR Newt has been talking about. Now they'll know we are there for self determination and democracy!

[Julien Sorel]

4. I'm not so sure there are many options.

Iridium Israel is a subsidiary of the former Iridium Worldcom, a company that went bankrupt after launching several billion dollars of communications satellites. To build a satellite network requires satellites obviously, and only Iridium and Globalstar, another bankrupt company, have that kind of infrastructure as far as I'm aware. Globalstar has a lot of 'old Europe' companies invested in it, including Alcatel, a French company -- they were obviously out of the running from the start. The upshot here is that I don't think there are any options, although this is still bad PR. Iridium also has some kind of deal with the Pentagon; that, plus some vague memory rattling around in the back of my head makes me think they have a DoD connection, although I can't remember what it is.

Like someone else in this thread, I wouldn't trust an Israeli-run satellite phone system as far as I could throw the phone.

Iridium Israel, by the way, should not be confused with Worldcom, a company that went bankrupt because of shitty accounting practices -- the two companies are not the same, and are not related.

[htuttle]

5. A Bahraini company already HAD cell phone service running in Iraq

But Proconsul Bremer forced them to shut down, since they hadn't bribed him for a contract yet.

In fact, the cell protocol that the Bahraini company used for their network (before we shut it off) was that commonly used in Europe and the Middle East. These Iridium phones are MUCH more expensive (per phone).

Bullshit on this.

[Julien Sorel]

6. I think

we're talking apples and oranges here. This deal is for sat phones; you're talking about cell phones. Sat phones would be (and are) used for things like pay phones in remote areas where there is no cell coverage. I could have mis-read the article, though, it's getting late.

[papau]

8. Mortorola was given the cell phone contract before the war, but

we last month have agreed that 2 other companies will share cell phone monies with Motorola.

This is SaT phone ordered by the CIA's fake company in Jordan.

[Nlighten1]

7. If you don't pay your bill!

We bulldoze your house!

[dArKeR]

9. With the occupants inside.

I cannot believe what's going on! It seems Bush/Sharon want to create as much killing as possible.

[Wonder]

12. Yep!

That is the way it seems. Judeo-Christian Crusade perhaps, or is this the wrong tin foil hat?

[MGKrebs]

11. But, but, but...

We just re-authorized the sanctions against Iraq preventing any business other than humanitarian aid!!?? WTF???

[jpak]

13. Do they really think I-raqi's will use Israeli phones???

This is absurd on many levels...

Bad PR move for the US.

Bad business move for Israel.

How are they going to market this????

Mossad-Phones-R-US?????

[Threaderizer]

14. dumb question here

would the satellite technology be able to listen at will to regular cell phones, or land lines for that matter?

[Wonder]

15. you mean echelon?

yes I do believe Echelon does read cell phones as well as telex, emails, and fascimle.

http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/01/15/010115opwireless.xml

http://www.shire.net/big.brother/echelonsurveillance.htm

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/echelon.htm

I do believe Echelon has been operational for over a decade now. Prior,to 911 it was utilized mostly for corporate spying. I have read bothe Thatcher and Clinton utilized it. Clinton culling info on China, Thatcher I do not recall, what it was she was after, probably France (I am being facetious --- I really do not know).

[rhino91063]

16. Nothing like rubbing salt in the wounds.

First they kick out the Arab cell phone company that was providing the Iraqis with service, and now this! Yeah this ought to win over some hearts and minds.