Between this, the word Nazis, the technology we have to turn this country into Farenheit 451, and the Orwellian process of reinterpreting our Constitution away from the author's intended meaning, isn't life going to be fun in about 50 years?

Wake me when the Dream Police get here . . .

Sc

actually do you know the 'secret prison' case (the extraordinary rendition)

One of the ACTUAL breaks in the case occured when the CIA people were tracked around town. They turned their phones off, but they didn't remove the battery.

Any links/more info on this? Sounds hard to believe..

yeah. I call bullshit too. If your phone is OFF its OFF! there is no 'remote turn on' command for any cell phone that I've ever heard of. It would be a trivial electronic fix to implement but why would you ever want/need such a feature? The fact that no source whatsoever for the story is geven doesn't help matters. I suspect that if this DID happen it was a specialized FBI modified phone sold to the suspect being investigated. and then why is that a story any more than Tony's bugged desklamp is?

slipping away? they lost it a loooong time ago, lol

Check out this story for more:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html

gluonium, check your cellphone's alarm settings. most cellphones nowadays have an 'autopower' feature to make the alarm ring even if the phone has been turned OFF. i would be willing to bet that the antenna would also be in a 'standby' state, which means that since everything has power, the mic SHOULD work. thus, insta-bug.

Thanks for the link, Silvercord. Using "roving bug", I was able to find a bit of an explanation for everyone:
http://www.cybersview.com/2007/02/cell-phone-roving-bug.html

Pho3n1x is basically correct. The antenna wouldn't normally be on at all when the cellphone is switched off, but whoever developed this would have worked with the cellphone manufacturers, and if you go in at the OS level it would be surprisingly trivial to implement something like this. One firmware 'upgrade' and you're done. It's possible, though less likely, they would even be able to do these upgrades remotely.