Just a question

The latest Tom Friedman column starts by describing a collection of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) disarmed and collected by the military in Iraq:

It was a table covered with defused roadside bombs made from cell phones wired to explosives. You just call the phone's number when a U.S. vehicle goes by and the whole thing explodes. The table was full of every color and variety of cell-phone bomb you could imagine. I thought to myself that if there is a duty-free electronics store at the gates of hell, this is what the display counter looks like.

Would deactivating the cellphone system put a stop to its use as a murder weapon, or can cell phones operate directly?

The column itself is a welcome sign that someone in journalism's vast wasteland understands the potential of what we're doing in Iraq.