Perhaps I didn't put it very well Chris. Whilst you can navigate almost anywhere without GPS, it certainly helps and most experienced desert travellers (or at least the ones I know here in the Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia) wouldn't consider leaving on a major expedition without using it.
There's been a couple of places on the net where I've read people talking about GPS selective availability. Yes we all know that the US DoD can switch that on if they want, but our experiences here (and we're a lot nearer to Iraq than most of you (except perhaps A.B.) all through the war on Iraq has been that GPS signal has been perfectly as normal. I doubt that GPS selective availability caused them to get lost and thus their disappearance.
Let's pray that these individuals are all found alive and well. It's all really tragic.
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Jon Harbour
Middle East Off-Roader
http://www.mid-east-off-road.com
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