The UAE and Saudi Arabia have banned certain communications services available via Blackberry devices in their countries, simply because the data leaving the device is encrypted and this makes the data difficult to perform snooping on.
This to me defies logic, if were using any Internet connected device for illegal purposes, i would certainly be using encryption, i would certainly be using strong encryption on any magnetic media i was using (like my hard disk) and of course i would be very
sure my actual messages were encoded so if decrypted, the contents would not be of much use to the viewer, just like the old world war 2 radio broadcasts to Resistance groups to in occupied France.
I think this ban is really a pointless and obtuse muscle flexing by these countries and their allies. Any savvy illegal user would not be hampered by these rules and certainly in all likelihood not be using a blackberry anyway given the difficulty in encrypting
data within the device if confiscated.
Also i think any REAL threat would be using a satellite phone with a data connection linked to a laptop, rather than a blackberry......just like the Western security services would.
Osama Rim Laden i think not.