Cellular phone screensaver

Terrorist attacks spawn tasteless, mindless actions

There's nothing funny about the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, but some people just don't know where to draw the line between opportunity and tastelessness.

Moreover, the events have certainly given rise to a host of high-tech miscues and oddities.

Among the tasteless, a British official who e-mailed a message to all federal government ministers advising them to use the tragedy as a cover for "anything we want to bury".

Jo Moore, a special adviser for Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, sent the ill-contrived e-mail shortly after the hijacked jumbo jets slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington. The e-mail was promptly leaked to the British media, who pounced on the hapless (and clueless) Moore.

Realizing a proverbial beheading could be in the works, Moore quickly apologized publicly for her poor judgement.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman also released a statement from Moore, who again apologized for her faux pas.

Byers told reporters that he had reprimanded the heartless aide, but he added that Moore would not be fired and would remain at her post.

You have a collect call from Osama

The next time your cellphone rings, it could be the world's most wanted man on the line.

Digital pictures of Osama Bin Laden are flying through Pakistan's mobile phone network to become the most sought-after accessory in the country. The United States stated it had hard evidence that Bin Laden is the mastermind behind the terrorist strikes on U.S. soil last September, and that he was involved in previous attacks on U.S. embassies and the USS Cole in Yemen last spring.

Already a religious and political icon among certain Muslim groups, Bin Laden has now become a digital icon as well. The picture remains on the display of a mobile phone in a similar way to a screensaver on a desktop computer.

Bin Laden's face can be manipulated to waggle his eyebrows, move his mouth and, in one particularly graphic rendition, explode dramatically.

Interactive Osama

Finally, a Web site for U.S. paratroopers, which included a game called "Bash Bin Laden," was partly closed down recently after some of its features were criticized as insensitive.

Sections of the Web site for the Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, which included a map of the Middle East with countries renamed after U.S. oil companies, were made inaccessible.

The Web site -- www.173rdairborne.com -- was set up before the September 11 attacks.

The site offered visitors the chance to play Bash Bin Laden, a game involving hunting down and killing the exiled Saudi-born millionaire hiding in Afghanistan.

Rather than use video games to kill Bin Laden, the U.S. is trying to do it for real.