Saudi Arabia Gets In on the Blackberry Ban, Claims Trackballs Gave It "Hurty Thumbs"

Et tu, Saudi Arabia?  Not to be undone by its GCC cousin, Saudi Arabia has decided to get itself some of that international media coverage by banning Blackberries as well.  Apparently, Saudi plays for keeps - they have said that they'll be banning email, BBM, and web starting THIS FRIDAY.  For those of you playing along at home, that's about 4 days before Ramadan starts.  Cutting off loved ones from messaging each other over a month-long holiday is a tough call, but if that's what it takes to keep people from blowing up the world, I suppose I can get on board.

I would love to let the Chief IT officers of these countries know that there are tons of other ways to send private messages on a phone, and perhaps blocking a technology isn't the best way to keep a population above the law.  Sadly, they both use blackberries - I tried to both email and BBM them, but there's no response...