Discussion: Taliban Messes Up Tweet, Gives Away Spokesman's Location

TPM Article Topics
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Discussion for article #228419

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“Remember, once you post something online, it’s out there for others to see.”

Isn’t that special? Thanks, AP.

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I really, really don’t understand how these intertubes and social media work. #ImARepublican

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Not that this guy isn’t a moron, but the Taliban have less reason to acknowledge or care about the Pakistan-Afghanistan border than anyone else on the planet. There are the places where they’re the bosses, and the places where they aren’t, and that bears only a passing resemblance to the lines drawn on maps.

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Somewhere in Sindh, Pakistan, a Taliban intern is about to be blamed.

jw1

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“If anyone was inadvertently offended by my Tweet (which may or may not have been taken out of context), I am sorry.”

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“With full confidence, I can say that I am in my own country.”

I’ve been over the Kyber Pass (44 years ago) and visited several villages along that “border” I can say with full confidence that sometimes I wasn’t sure which country I was in. And the locals didn’t much care.
This Taliban fellow knows full well he was in Pakistan.

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Uh. Geolocation information for things like Twitter (unless it’s actual GPS coordinates from the device) is based on what somebody’s database believes about the location of the IP address you’re posting from. Which can be anywhere from spookily accurate to completely ridiculous. With ridiculous being more likely if you’re using any kind of proxy or VPN or other methods of shielding your connection. Sometimes the sites that report my supposed location have thought I was in the next town over, sometimes 40 miles away, sometimes in the middle of Kansas.

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Get 'em.

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The definition of irony; folks who abide by a 11th century view of the world using Twitter.

They must have decent service there, at least 3G. Still there are many places in the US where it is quite spotty. “Verizon Kabul, now with better service”

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Peccavi!

There should be a squadron of drones following Taliban Tweets just waiting to give them n explosive ‘Selfie’.

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Like the peccavi. A 19th century British general on an expedition to pacify the border region of British India also used the same one-word communique to his superiors to signal his capture of Sind.

Your present nuanced use of the word enriches this pun’s history.

Kudos!

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“… http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=24.870001~67.050003&lvl=18&sty=h&q=Sindh%2C%20Pakistan&form=LMLTCC …”

Quick! Somebody grab him!

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I think the real point is that someone who’s engaged in supposedly clandestine operations should probably disable geolocation.

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I assume by “blamed” you mean beheaded?