Marlo Stanfield was right

Remember the brouhaha back in January when it loked like Obama would have to surrender his BlackBerry? Most of us assumed it was a public records/confidentiality issue - the White House lawyers being afraid of a device that turned simple Presidential conversations into a documented chain of conversations that now need to be archived and made public. Or maybe they were concerned with someone hacking into his private emails.

Turns out there is also a legitimate personal security issue; the BlackBerry-as-homing-device.

"Thus, as long as President Obama keeps his BlackBerry turned on while he is in China, it is likely that the Chinese government will be closely monitoring his location, as reported by the president's phone to the Chinese government-owned phone company. The same sort of security issues will likely arise in many other countries.

Due to these security concerns, this blogger would be extremely surprised if the Secret Service permitted the President to use his BlackBerry when on foreign trips." via CNet.com