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What is interesting is that this system basically exists to catch the most petty criminals, since the actual baddies do not use it at all. Bin Laden didn't have a cellphone. FBI only cracked the sinaloa cartel cellphone network by managing to flip its architect, not by their own technical expertise, their partnerships with telecoms, or any surveillance technology.

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In fairness, almost all of this is pure conjecture aside from Bin Laden which has had documents and accounts on record released/declassified.

We don't actually know how these entities do certain things because they don't have credibility, and it is well known that they lie to protect tradecraft.

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