MONTERREY, Mexico - It was the reporters who noticed first. Unable to call their editors while covering the weddings of the rich and famous, they asked the priest why their cell phones never worked at Sacred Heart. His reply: Israeli counterintelligence.

In four Monterrey churches, Israeli-made cell phone jammers the size of paperbacks have been tucked unobtrusively among paintings of the Madonna (news - web sites) and statues of the saints.

The jarring polychromatic din of ringing cell phones is increasingly being thwarted — from religious sanctuaries to India's parliament to Tokyo theaters and commuter trains — by devices originally developed to help security forces avert eavesdropping and thwart phone-triggered bombings.

The Indian parliament had jammers installed after politicians ignored requests to turn off their cell phones and legislative sessions were constantly interrupted.

In Italy, universities started using the blockers after discovering that cell phone-savvy teenagers were cheating on exams by sending text messages or taking pictures of tests.

The four Roman Catholic Churches in this northern city began using the devices, from Tel Aviv-based Netline Communications Technologies Ltd., after an insurance salesman imported them as a personal favor for a priest.

"There are still many people who don't understand that being at Mass is sharing a moment with God," said the Rev. Juan Jose Martinez, a spokesman for archdiocese. "Sadly, we had no other choice but to use these little gadgets."

Purchased for about $2,000 each, they can be turned on by remote control and emit low-level radio frequencies that thwart cell phone signals within a 100-foot radius.

Users get a "no service" or "signal not available" message on their cell phones.

Although Mexico has no law against the devices, the private use of cell phone blockers is illegal in the United States and most Western countries.

But the tide is turning.

Japan allows public places such as theaters and concert halls to install jammers, provided they obtain a government-issued license. And last week, France's industry minister approved a decision to let cinemas, concert halls and theaters install them — as long as provisions are in place so emergency calls can still be made.

Canada had considered allowing blocking in similar situations. But Industry Canada, which regulates the country's telecommunications, decided against it, saying the devices could infringe on personal freedom and affect public safety by crippling communication with law enforcement and security agencies.

Officials at Netline, which sold its first jammer in 1998, say they are selling thousands of jammers a year and have expanded their business throughout the world.

They're far from the only manufacturers. The devices are sold the world over, with dozens of suppliers selling them on the Internet.

Tokyo-based Medic Inc. sold thousands of its Wave Wall jammers before the government stepped in and regulated their use to venues with live performances. Commuters still buy mobile jammers to shut up chatty train passengers, even though their use is illegal.

In Scotland, businessman Ronnie McGuire, owner of Electron Electrical Engineering Services, imported Taiwan-made cell phone blockers and sold them to hotels, restaurants and bars until a local newspaper reported his activities, which were illegal in Britain.

McGuire has said he will still import the Taiwanese devices but sell them for export only to countries where they are allowed.

Loreen Haim, the director of marketing and sales for Netline, wouldn't say how many devices the company sells per year or what country buys the most.

In Mexico, the main clients have been banks looking to stop would-be robbers from communicating with their accomplices and the Mexican government, which is planning to use them at prisons, Haim said.

In Monterrey, the Sacred Heart church, a baroque temple favored by Mexico's elite for weddings, church officials acquired their blockers two years ago.

"Whenever there was a wedding, cell phones would ring every five minutes," said Bulmaro Carranza, a parish clerk. "It was a real problem because there were times when even the groom would forget to turn his cell phone off."

For months, the devices went unnoticed until reporters covering the weddings began complaining that their cell phones never worked.

Since word of the jammers went public, priests from around Mexico have been calling to find out how to get them, said Carranza.

At Sacred Heart, a device at the entrance to the church and another by the altar are turned on right before every Mass. Still, priests remind parishioners to turn off their phones before beginning the services, hoping good cell phone etiquette will eventually catch on.

The other Monterrey churches with the devices — The Rosario, San Juan Bosco and Our Lady Queen of the Angels — are also frequented by wealthier parishioners, Martinez said.

"For a lot of them, the cell phone is a necessity. But that shouldn't prevent them from having good manners and remembering that one must respect sacred places," Martinez said.

Margarita Escobedo, a Catholic who goes to church at least twice a week and volunteers at the San Genaro church, says she would welcome the jammers in her parish, where cell phones are becoming a nuisance.

"Those who bring cell phones to church are not committed to God," Escobedo said. "It's very distracting to be praying and suddenly hear birds chirping or techno music."

___

AP writers Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and Kate Brumback in Paris contributed to this report.

ASIDE: GOOD.

The Global Media Giants

The nine firms that dominate the world

Time Warner selected holdings

• Majority interest in WB, a U.S. television network launched in 1995 to provide a distribution platform for Time Warner films and programs. It is carried on the Tribune Company's 16 U.S. television stations, which reach 25 percent of U.S. TV households;
  
• Significant interests in non-U.S. broadcasting joint ventures;
  
• The largest cable system in the United States, controlling 22 of the largest 100 markets;
  
• Several U.S. and global cable television channels, including CNN, Headline News, CNNfn, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, The Cartoon Network and CNN-SI (a cross-production with Sports Illustrated);
  
• Partial ownership of the cable channel Comedy Central and a controlling stake in Court TV;
  
• HBO and Cinemax pay cable channels;
  
• Minority stake in PrimeStar, U.S. satellite television service;
  
• Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema film studios;
  
• More than 1,000 movie screens outside of the United States;
  
• A library of over 6,000 films, 25,000 television programs, books, music and thousands of cartoons;
  
• Twenty-four magazines, including Time, People and Sports Illustrated;
  
• Fifty percent of DC Comics, publisher of Superman, Batman and 60 other titles;
  
• The second largest book-publishing business in the world, including Time-Life Books (42 percent of sales outside of the United States) and the Book-of-the-Month Club;
  
• Warner Music Group, one of the largest global music businesses with nearly 60 percent of revenues from outside the United States;
  
• Six Flags theme park chain; The Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Braves professional sports teams; Retail stores, including over 150 Warner Bros. stores and Turner Retail Group; Minority interests in toy companies Atari and Hasbro.

Disney selected holdings

• The U.S. ABC television and radio networks;
  
• Ten U.S. television stations and 21 U.S. radio stations;
  
• U.S. and global cable television channels Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNews; holdings in Lifetime, A & E and History channels;
  
• Americast, interactive TV joint venture with several telephone companies;
  
• Several major film, video and television production studios including Disney, Miramax and Buena Vista;
  
• Magazine and newspaper publishing, through its subsidiaries, Fairchild Publications and Chilton Publications;
  
• Book publishing, including Hyperion Books and Chilton Publications;
  
• Several music labels, including Hollywood Records, Mammoth Records and Walt Disney Records;
  
• Theme parks and resorts, including Disneyland, Disney World and stakes in major theme parks in France and Japan;
  
• Disney Cruise Line;
  
• DisneyQuest, a chain of high-tech arcade game stores;
  
• Controlling interests in the NHL Anaheim Mighty Ducks and major league baseball's Anaheim Angels;
  
• Consumer products, including more than 550 Disney retail stores worldwide.

Bertelsmann selected holdings

• German television channels RTL, RTL2, SuperRTL and Vox;
  
• Part ownership of Premiere, Germany's largest pay-TV channel;
  
• Stakes in British, French and Dutch TV channels;
  
• 50 percent stake in CLT-Ufa, which owns 19 European TV channels and 23 European radio stations;
  
• Eighteen European radio stations;
  
• Newspaper and magazine publishing, including more than 100 magazines;
  
• Book publishing, with some 40 publishing houses, concentrating on German-, French- and English-language (Bantam and Doubleday Dell) titles;
  
• Major recording studios Arista and RCA;
  
• Leading book and record clubs in the world.

Viacom selected holdings

• Thirteen U.S. television stations;
  
• A 50 percent interest in the U.S. UPN television network with Chris-Craft Industries;
  
• U.S. and global cable television networks, including MTV, M2, VH1, Nickelodeon, Showtime, TVLand and Paramount Networks;
  
• A 50 percent interest in Comedy Central channel (with Time Warner);
  
• Film, video and television production, including Paramount Pictures;
  
• 50 percent stake in United Cinemas International, one of the world's three largest theater companies;
  
• Blockbuster Video and Music stores, the world's largest video rental stores;
  
• Book publishing, including Simon & Schuster, Scribners and Macmillan;
  
• Five theme parks.

News Corporation selected holdings

• The U.S. Fox broadcasting network;
  
• Twenty-two U.S. television stations, the largest U.S. station group, covering over 40 percent of U.S. TV households;
  
• Fox News Channel;
  
• A 50 percent stake (with TCI's Liberty Media) in several U.S. and global cable networks, including fx, fxM and Fox Sports Net;
  
• 50 percent stake in Fox Kids Worldwide, production studio and owner of U.S. cable Family Channel;
  
• Ownership or major interests in satellite services reaching Europe, U.S., Asia, and Latin America, often under the Sky Broadcasting brand;
  
• Twentieth Century Fox, a major film, television and video production center, which has a library of over 2,000 films to exploit;
  
• Some 132 newspapers (primarily in Australia, Britain and the United States, including the London Times and the New York Post), making it one of the three largest newspaper groups in the world;
  
• Twenty-five magazines, most notably TV Guide;
  
• Book publishing interests, including HarperCollins;
  
• Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

Sony

Sony's media holdings are concentrated in music (the former CBS records) and film and television production (the former Columbia Pictures), each of which it purchased in 1989.

TCI

TCI (Tele-Communications Inc.) is smaller than the other firms in the first tier, but its unique position in the media industry has made it a central player in the global media system. TCI's foundation is its dominant position as the second biggest U.S. cable television system provider. C.E.O. John Malone, who has effective controlling interest over TCI, has been able to use the steady cash influx from the lucrative semi-monopolistic cable business to build an empire.

TCI has used its control of cable systems to acquire equity stakes in many of the cable channels that need to be carried over TCI to be viable. TCI has significant interests in Discovery, QVC, Fox Sports Net, Court TV, E!, Home Shopping Network and Black Entertainment TV, among others. In 1996, TCI negotiated the right to purchase a 20 percent stake in News Corporation's new Fox News Channel in return for access to TCI systems. Through its subsidiary Liberty Media, TCI has interests in 91 U.S. program services.

(Universal) Seagram

Over half of Universal's income is generated by the Universal Studios' production of films and television programs. Universal is also a major music producer and book publisher and operates several theme parks. As many of the broadcast networks and cable channels vertically integrate with production companies, Universal has fewer options for sales and is less secure in its future. It owns the cable USA Network and the Sci-Fi Network, after buying out its uneasy partner Viacom.

NBC (GE)

General Electric is one of the leading electronics and manufacturing firms in the world with nearly $80 billion in sales in 1996. Its operations have become increasingly global, with non-U.S. revenues increasing from 20 percent of the total in 1985 to 38 percent in 1995, and an expected 50 percent in 2000. Although NBC currently constitutes only a small portion of GE's total activity, after years of rapid growth it is considered to be the core of GE's strategy for long-term global growth.

NBC owns U.S. television and radio networks and 11 television stations. It has been aggressive in expanding into cable, where it now owns several cable channels outright, like CNBC, as well as shares in some 20 other channels, including the A&E network. The most dramatic expression of GE's media-centered strategy is its 1996 alliance and joint investment with Microsoft to produce the cable news channel MSNBC, along with a complementary on-line service. From this initial $500 million investment, NBC and Microsoft plan to expand MSNBC quickly into a global news channel, followed perhaps by a global entertainment and sports channel. NBC and Microsoft are also developing a series of TV channels in Europe aimed at computer users.

We've just reached the crux of the presidential campaign—the moment in which one candidate, purporting to expose the other's fatal flaw, has instead exposed his own.

Saturday morning, President Bush attacked John Kerry for a comment Kerry made in Thursday night's debate. Here's how Bush described Kerry's remark:

He said that America has to pass a global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves. That's what he said. Think about this. Sen. Kerry's approach to foreign policy would give foreign governments veto power over our national security decisions. I have a different view. When our country is in danger, the president's job is not to take an international poll. The president's job is to defend America. I'll continue to work every day with our friends and allies for the sake of freedom and peace. But our national security decisions will be made in the Oval Office, not in foreign capitals.

This description, which Bush continues to repeat at campaign stops and in television ads, is plainly false. In his first answer of the debate, Kerry said, "I'll never give a veto to any country over our security." But if that isn't what Kerry meant by a "global test," what did he mean? Let's go back and look at Kerry's words.

No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America. But if and when you do it, Jim, you've got to do in a way that passes the test—that passes the global test—where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing, and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons.

Here we have our own secretary of state who's had to apologize to the world for the presentation he made to the United Nations. I mean, we can remember when President Kennedy, in the Cuban missile crisis, sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with [French President Charles] de Gaulle, and in the middle of the discussion to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, [the secretary of state] said, "Here, let me show you the photos." And de Gaulle waved them off, and said, "No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me." How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we've done, in that way?

It's clear from Kerry's first sentence that the "global test" doesn't prevent unilateral action to protect ourselves. But notice what else Kerry says. The test includes convincing "your countrymen" that your reasons are clear and sound. Kerry isn't just talking about satisfying France. He's talking about satisfying Ohio. He's talking about you.

What do you have in common with a Frenchman? Look again at Kerry's words. He says the test is to "prove" that our reasons for attacking were legitimate. In the next sentence, he gives an example of someone failing that test: Colin Powell's February 2003 presentation to the United Nations about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What did Powell apologize for? The inaccuracy of our intelligence. Kerry contrasts this with the trust France once placed in American spy photos.

Proof, intelligence, spy photos. The pattern is obvious. The test isn't moral. It's factual. What you and the Frenchman share is the evidence of your senses. The global test is the measurement of the president's assertions against the real world, the world you and I can see.

This is the test Bush has failed. He has failed to produce evidence for his prewar claims of Iraqi WMD and operational ties to al-Qaida, or for his postwar claims of success against the insurgency. Now he's going further. He's not simply failing the test. He's refusing to take it.

Listen to Bush's words again. "The president's job is not to take an international poll," he says. "Our national security decisions will be made in the Oval Office, not in foreign capitals." Bush doesn't say these decisions belong to the United States. He says they belong to the Oval Office. He frames this as patriotism, boasting that he doesn't care whether he offers evidence sufficient to convince people in France. He shows no awareness or concern that evidence is also necessary to convince people in Ohio. He says it isn't his job to take a "poll," to hear what others think. He needs no validation.

Bush pretends he's just blowing off the French. But his comments show a pattern of blowing off external feedback in general. He shrugs off information that debunks his claims about WMD, arguing that it's more important for a president to understand the overall nature of the world. He defines credibility as agreement with himself. He reinterprets evidence of policy mistakes in postwar Iraq as evidence of success. In Thursday's debate, he dismissed unwelcome reports from that country as too offensive to heed. And according to Sunday's New York Times, he and his aides exaggerated Iraq's nuclear capability, ignoring warnings from "the government's foremost nuclear experts."

Bush claims he has done all this to protect you. But that claim is precisely what's challenged by the evidence he conceals or disregards. What he's protecting you from is the ability to measure his assertions against the world that you and I can see. That's the global test he's mocking. And he expects you to applaud him for it, because he thinks you resent the French so much you'd rather have a president accountable to no one.