Impact of Internet/mobile phones on Iraq war?

[UNCjigga]

Has anyone seen any articles, studies or books that analyze the impact of the Internet, SMS, and mobile telephony on insurgents' success in Iraq? We all know that jihadists can post beheadings for a global audience, along with their leaders' decrees and training videos to aid recruiting. This is being done around the world and has been going on for some time--though we really took notice after 9/11.

But right now I'm specifically interested in the Iraq war. I want to know the impact from an operational perspective in helping to coordinate attacks amongst disparate militias and insurgent groups within Iraq. What I'm really trying to get at is whether anyone has published work detailing how insurgents are using the Internet/cell phones to plan and execute specific attacks, and what the Allied response has been (i.e. do we restrict/monitor network traffic at some cost to legitimate business?)

 

[jiggahertz]

I'm not aware of any big picture work, but here is a single high profile example of allied forces using cellular networks to track insurgents.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/...06/09/iraq.al.zarqawi/

 

[jiggahertz]

Insurgents are also using cell phones for other purposes besides communicating with each other.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/...ary/intro/ied-iraq.htm

 

[frostedflakes]

Yeah not exactly related to what you were asking, but cellular phones are very common remote triggers for IEDs.