3 Texas Men Arraigned on Terror Charges

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2006/aug/12/081205929.html

CARO, Mich. (AP) - Three Texas men were arraigned Saturday on terrorism-related charges after police found about 1,000 cell phones in their minivan.

Investigators believe the men were targeting the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. But one of the men said they were only trying to buy and sell phones to make money.

A magistrate set bond at $750,000 for each of the men, who are charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes. No pleas were made at the arraignment at a District Court in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit.

Officials have not said what they believe the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones. But Caro's police chief said cell phones can be used as detonators, and prosecutors in a similar case in Ohio have said that TracFones are often used by terrorists because they are not traceable.

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[Ian David]

1. So, why is the government spying on our calls to Aunt Sophie...

when the terrorists know by now to use disposable, pre-paid TracFones?

[Pavulon]

5. Looks like

they aren't so anonymous afterall...

ANYTHING that has a fcc sticker can be tracked and triangulated from space.

Or maybe someone just thought they were doing something strange..

[Blue_In_AK]

2. If these men were black or Latino

law enforcement would probably assume that the phones were being used by a drug ring. I believe the terrorist charge is racial profiling because of the Middle Eastern names.

[jpak]

6. Yup - from the link...

"All we did is buy the phones to sell and make money," Louai Abdelhamied Othman told the magistrate. He said it wasn't the first time the group had been questioned.

"We've been checked by the FBI before," he said. "They even gave us their card and everything."

[HuffleClaw]

16. good point

this is such complete bullshit. history is not going to be kind to this administration.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. If these men were black or Latino, they would probably have

been summarily executed for PWM (phoning while black).

[stop the bleeding]

3. something isn't right

something is not quite right with either side of this story

[zreosumgame]

18. you know it was a scam they were running

after all, buying a ton of phones to sell out of the back of the van. they were either defective expired or 'fell off a truck' some place up the line. But what 'terror' is involved? Serial crank calls or something?

[patdem]

4. MORE terraists...bullshit...ARE YOU AFRAID YET?

If not...get in line..cause if THAT does not scare you..we got more where that came from..trust us!

[Straight Shooter]

7. Scapegoats, or criminals? Who knows.

We might have another Miami 7 case, here. I'm having difficulty imagining a heavily-trafficked bridge being blown up by people stupid enough to violate Wal-Mart's policy of not being able to purchase more than 3 phones at a time.

[notadmblnd]

9. The Mackinac Bridge isn't exactly heavily trafficked

at least not in my experience, once across the bridge there's St. Ignance but for the most part there's a lot of wilderness. the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit would be the one to blow, now that's one heavily trafficked bridge.

[Straight Shooter]

17. Thank you for the info. I did not know that.

If they're being set up, the setup is as stupid as the suspects.

[yellowcanine]

20. I would suspect Yoopers bent on secession from lower peninsula "trolls"

before I would suspect the "Cell Phone Three". There continues to be a low level of sentiment for secession from Michigan and even secession from the U.S. - some Yoopers have more in common with Ontario than Michigan. There is even a small group of Yoopers that want to unite with Northeast Wisconsion to form the state of Superior. What does all of this have to do with blowing up a bridge? Not much, but probably as much as 1,000 cell phones in a van driven by three men with "Middle Eastern" names.

[Dr.Phool]

8. Homeland Security has been watching HBO reruns of "The Wire"

So have I.

[Lindacooks]

10. Why would they need 1000 detonators?

That would take an awfully long time to detonate each bomb - if you managed to do one every two seconds, that would be 35 minutes.

[truthisfreedom]

11. all of this terrah terrah terrah stuff is new, and it's all political and

being driven (in some cases) by the military industrial complex, who needs thugs in control of congress to keep the money pouring into their pockets. the oil companies are in on it, the power consolidators are in on it... it's all part of a greater plan.

[saigon68]

13. These charges are to convince the sheep this ass-wipe is doing something

We here are however still trying to figure what that "SOMETHING" is?

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. According to other reports they were re-selling them

Buying the phones from Walmart for $20 and reselling them to to a Texas wholesaler for $38.

I'm guessing the wholesaler wanted to get around the sales restrictions that the manufacturer imposed on retailers.

[Schema Thing]

14. This makes much more sense. I'd be far more suspicious

if they'd been arrested with 20 phones, then at least, you could believe they were working on a communications or detonation scheme. 1000? has to be commerce.

[yellowcanine]

21. Or they could be cleverly covering up detonater use with commerce - just

like Saddam covering up his "mobile biological weapons labs" by making them look for all the world like weather balloon trailers. Those Ayrabs are damn tricky. Rug merchants and camel traders, ya know. Can't trust them.

[WhiteTara]

15. 1000 cell phone to detonate a bridge?

Where do these people come up with this stuff? SciFi Channel? I'm guessing they were on the way to sell them, as in selling stolen property. Terrests, Sheesh.

[LordLovesAWorkingMan]

23. No kidding

This smells to me like a silly get rich quick scheme. I'm sure we'll never hear from these poor chumps again....probably on a CIA plane to an undisclosed nation as we speak...

[Zan_of_Texas]

19. Well, 1000 is a lot of "detonators".

Wouldn't you want to use a normal detonator, unless you were in a space like a plane, where it had to look like something else?

The near-border location might be a key. Smuggling ring needs phones?

Hey, maybe Canadians coming across the border need a phone that works in the U.S..

Who knows.

Next you know people with matches will be arrested, because matches can start fires.

[leesa]

24. They even have the FBI's cards...and we're supposed to believe this

isn't timed for political expedience? All of these arrests this week are pure bullshit and they will all go away with lack of evidence.