Targeting A Bridge?
The theory at the moment is the guys in Michigan with 1000 cell phones were targeting the Mackinac Bridge:
Federal authorities helped with the investigation into a possible terror threat to the Mackinac Bridge. The FBI office in Detroit worked with local law enforcement authorities before the police arrested three men in Caro on Friday. Officers found about 1,000 pre-paid cell phones in their van. Police in Caro arrested the three Palestinian-American men after they allegedly bought 80 of the phones at a Wal-Mart store in Caro.
A pre-paid cell phone can be economical and convenient. But, 22 year old Adham Othman, 23 year old Louai Othman, and 19 year old Maruwan Muhareb aroused suspicion when they allegedly bought 80 phones at the same time. Caro Police Chief Ben Page said they thought “something was wrong here.”
When police pulled the men over, they found about 1,000 phones in the van. Many were separated from their battery packs and the chargers were discarded. Michigan State Police Trooper Patrick Sharkey says, “We didn’t know exactly what was going on. You hear on the news about these phones being used to detonate IED’s.”
Their wives claim they are ‘good guys’ who were only planning to resell the phones.
Uh-huh.
In pieces.
Gee, that’s how I always buy my phones.
As usual, Michelle Malkin has more.
World Stuff | Mr. Bingley | 
August 14, 2006 6:38 am
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This is our best defense against terrorist acts: alert citizens.
Good job!
Right you are, Greg; alert citizens and authorities who listen to them.
And welcome, btw!
The phones are re-furbished, out-of-date, just good enough loss-leaders. Like I posted elsewhere I have one and it’s a POS – but I hate Cell-companies more and I’m independent of a “Plan” to take $40 out of my pocket every month, and it’s off until I turn it on to make an outgoing call. You can’t call me on my cell-phone, sorry.
The TracFone business-model must be about selling airtime, and anybody claiming to make money off the phones is insane since they’ll never get the economies of scale as good, and besides that you can buy then on the Internet direct from TracFone for cheaper than the price in the store…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14347754/
Maybe that blow-hard half-wit Michelle Malkin will step up and pay the possible lawsuit instead of sticking that responsibility to Liberals (as usual). NAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! All talk and no action as usual.
Hmm, interesting, syntax. We’ll see how it turns out. It’s one odd way to make a buck, though. And I don’t see any grounds for a lawsuit, frankly, as it was the prosecuter who brought up the terrorism charges, not Malkin.
Mr. Bingley, have you surfed most of the Right-wing blogs over these three individuals? Y’all had them tried, convicted and sentenced before they were even brought before a judge. I understand the profiling issue…makes total sense to me and I’m a Liberal and a member of the ACLU. It should be done without hesitation. I just hope its done by responsible individuals and not those who share the same extremism and fundamentalism as the terrorists. Many of the White-wing…I mean the Right-wing have adopted this “kill them all and let Allah sort them out” attitude and this does not help at all. These three should’ve been investigated but should not have had their names, faces and guilt splattered all over the blogosphere by a bunch of irresponsible Christian-fascists. If it wasn’t for racial profiling, we wouldn’t be able to tell these bloggers apart from the Islamo-fascists.
You some raise valid cautionary points, Syntax; these folks should be properly investigated and have their day in court, obviously. It’s very easy for everyone to get swept along in the terror-porn newscycle with big bold headlines that the MSM asails us with, much like on the latest weather threats/non-threats, and as most of the blogs rely on the MSM (at best) for their primary information the potential for exageration is all too evident. well, that and a lack of spell-check.
Sadly, you fall prey to/exhibit the very same behavior you claim to be against. When the MSM reports in big headlines that “Bob Smith was arrested for child pornography” on page 1 what do you think happens to him in the minds of the public? Regardless of the fact that 12 weeks later the same paper may fail to report in small typeface on page 52 that he was found completely innocent by a jury? To accuse people of having suspects “tried, convicted and sentenced before they were even brought before a judge” is basically to accuse them of breathing, because the key point is that we’re not judges, and unlike many places where public posses spring up and go lynch people who are assumed to have committed crimes we actually allow the proper authorities to go about their business and we accept their decisions, however imperfect we may feel they are.
I certainly don’t ascribe to the view that our police and judicial are ‘extreme’ or ‘fundamentalist’ in any way shape or form, and I’ve been in countries where they are, and let me tell you you can most certainly tell the difference the instant you step out on to the street in those places. Though I must add as an aside that I wouldn’t mind if our courts were a tad more ‘fundamentalist’ in their view of the Constitution, but that’s a discussion for another day.
Your ‘white=racist’ bit is just as tired and reprehensible as anything you’ve fond on ‘right-wing’ blogs, and just as shallow in thought and shot-from-the-hip. Are you calling the MSM ‘christian-fascists’? Because in your tired repetition of that phrase (and since you even-handidly apply it to muslims later i’ll be charitable and assume you are an atheist) you forget that, as much as the blogosphere pats itself on the cybershoulders and thinks how wonderful it is far far more people still get their news from the MSM, and these names and faces and the story of these fellows has gotten far more exposure on the front pages of newspapers and the lead stories on ‘the nightly news’ than my little run-on sentences could ever have given it.
And as for the ‘christo-fascist=islamo-fascist’ bit, please. could you tell me, first off, just what exactly a ‘christo-fascist’ is, and list for me some of the horrific crimes they have committed (Mel Gibson’s driving not withstanding)? I mean, really, in your heart of hearts, and you shouldn’t have to delve too deep, let’s assume that you are tied to a chair in a room; who do you want to walk into the room behind you with a knife: a ‘fundamentalist’ christian or an islamic?
Hi syntax!
(Bingo, Bingley!)