Report: Insurgents years ago obtained U.S. systems used to stop IEDs

[The Straight Story]

Report: Insurgents years ago obtained U.S. systems used to stop IEDs

Insurgents in Afghanistan obtained more than two years ago several U.S. systems the military uses to jam signals that detonate improvised explosive devices, and they might have passed them on to Iran to research how the technology can be foiled, according to a Secret Army document posted on Monday by WikiLeaks.org.

The systems, called Warlocks, scramble signals such as those sent from cell phones that insurgents use to detonate remote roadside bombs, which have been the leading cause of death and injuries for American soldiers in Iraq. The Defense Department has released few details on the Warlock systems, but jammers, in general, emit powerful radio signals to knock out other signals that, in the case of IEDs, are used to set off deadly bombs.

"Intelligence indicates that insurgents in Afghanistan have recovered several Warlock systems," said a private report the Army Counterintelligence Center published on March 18, 2008. "It is possible that Warlock systems captured in Afghanistan were sent to Iran for reverse engineering and for use in developing countermeasures to Warlock."

The center wrote the report to discuss the threat to the military that WikiLeaks.org presents when it publishes sensitive documents obtained from government agencies and corporations. Founders of the small Web site say they serve a whistleblower role to root out contracting fraud and unethical behavior. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that WikiLeaks posted the document on its site.

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100319_1800.php?oref=topstory

[howard112211]

1. Law of unintended consequences. The thing about asymmetric warefare is...

...that all the high tech gear the organized military uses may be stolen or looted at some point.