The controversial WikiLeaks document dump offers a rare glimpse into the tactics US officials use to prevent terror attacks. Diplomatic cables the group illegally obtained reveal US officials quietly pushed for expanding cell phone service along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. They also show US counterterror operatives were trying to gather information on all foreign students studying in Yemen. US embassies in these hotspots of radicalism reported mixed success, the pilfered cables show, at squeezing the reluctant allies to do more to crush al Qaeda and its followers. We have learned since 9/11 that Pakistan responds, periodically, to US pressure on counterterrorism, Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson wrote in a cable to Washington. Patterson reported that Pakistan had acquiesced to arresting some Taliban figures and allowing US spy planes inside the countrys airspace. The Pakistanis also agreed to install cell phone towers in the tribal areas [to] disrupt cross-border attacks and improve our intelligence capabilities. The WikiLeaks files show US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also pressed Dutch allies to help erect cell towers on Nato bases in Afghanistan. To further expand their intelligence gathering, Clintons counterterror adviser Daniel Benjamin asked Yemeni officials for student records after Umar Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up a US-bound jet on Christmas 2009. -New York Daily News