http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2243193,00.html

The Times (UK) June 26, 2006

Soldiers' wives receiving death threats from Iraq
By Rajeev Syal
::nobreak::WIVES and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have
received telephone death threats from insurgents.

Their numbers were obtained by Iraqi hackers from soldiers' mobile
telephones using an electronic device.

Disclosure of the threatening calls emerged after an investigation by
the Royal Military Police into complaints from soldiers.

The threats range from claims that a husband or son is dead or will be
killed in Iraq to verbal abuse, according to reports.

Many of those who have received the calls say that they were made by
people with a poor command of English or with a Middle Eastern accent,
it is alleged.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, said yesterday that the matter would
be fully investigated by his department.

"Some of the families of those who are serving in Iraq have been
receiving what has been described as nuisance calls," he said.

"If there is some underlying malicious intent, that will be
investigated," he told BBC Scotland.

The extent of the problem emerged at the weekend in a restricted Army
document issued to soldiers of the London Regiment, a Territorial Army
unit that has soldiers in Iraq.

The document is said to warn soldiers preparing to take part in
operations that insurgents have managed to obtain home telephone numbers
of soldiers using an electronic intercept device that can hack into
mobile telephone systems.

There have been "many instances in the last weeks of relatives and
friends of personnel serving abroad on operations getting nuisance phone
calls" from Iraq, the document states.

"Investigations indicate that the callers of these nuisance calls have
acquired the numbers from personnel using their own mobiles to phone,"
the document continues.

"This is fairly easy using today's technology. It makes no difference
whether the mobile is of United Kingdom origin or sourced abroad. The
Ministry of Defence is keen to establish the extent of these nuisance
calls to determine if there is a pattern to them.

"All ranks are to be aware of the possibility of receiving nuisance
calls if using mobiles to phone home," it adds.

Troops in Iraq are allowed limited use of secure satellite phones to
call home. They also have access to the internet to send e-mails as well
as traditional airmail letters.

With communications improving in Iraq, British mobile phones can be used
in most of the main cities. Soldiers are increasingly turning to them as
a way of contacting friends and family at home.

Since the start of the war, a number of high-profile soldiers have
received death threats from opponents of the war.

Corporal Mark Byles, who won the Military Cross in 2004 after leading
members of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment in a bayonet charge,
received a death threat after his story was reported in the
international media.

Abu Bakr Mansha was later sentenced to eight years imprisonment for
plotting to kill the soldier.

An MoD spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that nuisance telephone calls had
been received by Army personnel.

"There have been reports of nuisance calls to the families of service
personnel. To our knowledge, nuisance calls have been just that -
nuisance calls."

The spokeswoman declined to comment on the Territorial Army document.