July 27, 2006

Is This The Party To Whom I Am Speaking?

Warning leaflets are fine, but you've got to keep up with technology:

It was a phone call Ibrahim Mahmoud says he'll never forget.

The woman on the other end, speaking in Hebrew-accented Arabic, accused the appliance store owner of being a member of Hamas and informed him the IDF would bomb his house. Hours later, after he had already moved 20 relatives out of the four-story building, she called back to tell him she had made a mistake.

"Be safe," she said and hung up, according to Mahmoud.

Dozens of other Palestinians have recently received similar phone calls, many of them on target, in a new tactic the army said is meant to reduce civilian casualties in its monthlong offensive in Gaza. Palestinian officials dismissed the army's claim that the phone calls are meant to reduce deaths.

Some folks like their reduction of civilian casualities with a side-order of Psy-Ops.

Posted by floridacracker at July 27, 2006 10:15 AM

   



Comments

Somewhere in the bowels of enormous and inefficient communications companies like Verizon, someone is thinking, "Now how can we set up a way to bill for calls warning of an impending attack?" "Is it an extra service, like call waiting? We'll call it 'Airstrike Waiting'!"

Posted by: tfhr at July 27, 2006 06:11 PM

If it can be defined, it can be billed.

Posted by: Donnah at July 27, 2006 11:46 PM

I am fighting my own jihad against Verizon, a shadowy organization that holds a monopoly on all landline access in and around our part of the Peoples' Republic of Maryland.

It could be reason enough to start a blog.

Posted by: tfhr at July 28, 2006 12:34 AM

There's a lot you could do with a Verizon obsession.

Posted by: Donnah at July 28, 2006 01:20 AM

For the moment I am limiting myself to just ripping out huge chunks of my hair.

Posted by: tfhr at July 28, 2006 02:19 PM

I will never give Verizon another dime. Ever. Seriously.

It's a long story.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at July 28, 2006 07:04 PM

Bill,

It's ALWAYS a long story with Verizon. If you live in the DC area, how are you avoiding Verizon and still using a landline?

I'd happily switch our house off of Verizon if I had a choice but there is none - not even cellular as only Verizon Wireless can function reliably within the house and we've tried them all. And having two Verizon accounts is where the first problems started - I tried to combine the landline and wireless accounts using Verizon's patented monument to inefficiency and ineptitude, OneBillŪ.
(Given your given name, Bill, I'd consider taking action on that slight - I'm sure it was intentional)

But as you said, a long story ensues, and now that my tour here in Korea is nearly over, the account is still not combined and I will return to Verizonland to carry on the battle locally.

Posted by: tfhr at July 28, 2006 11:55 PM