Texas men arraigned on terrorism charges in Thumb
CARO, Mich. Three Texas men were arraigned today on terrorism-related charges after police found approximately one-thousand cell phones in their minivan.
Maruan Awad Muhareb, Adham Abdelhamid Othman, and Louai Abdelhamied Othman are charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.
OK, let’s get this straight. These guys bought 1000 cell phones and were staking out a “target” in Michigan. Thus it’s a terrorist plot. What kind of leap of faith are we talking about here? I’m watching this story on the network news and apparently because a cell phone can be used to trigger a bomb, these guys were terrorists because they bought a 1000 phones. So this couldn’t be for drug dealing, reselling phones for a profit to street kids, or a dozen potential scams. It had to be terrorism? Is everything going down from now on going to be called terrorism because there is a long-shot chance that it could be maybe? When will people begin to be busted for terrorism after making a Hollywood stop? Or after kissing in public. What about shoplifting? Hey, it could be terrorism. Sad.
that’s it.. JCD has been abducted by terrorists.. and his replacement has his spell checkkur turned off
Looks like the wife of one admits it was a reselling scheme
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J/P=?
John, if I try to buy more than two boxes of antihistamines in Florida I get questioned at the checkout counter at the drug store because the only reason for buying more than one box is that I must be cooking crystal meth. I’d hate to see what would happen if I got pulled over by the police on the way home with 4 boxes in the car. I’d probably be arrested and have my car impounded on drug trafficking charges.
The crazy drug laws and now terrorism laws under the Patriot Act have really got me scared about the future. Yesterday I watched Demolition Man on cable. When that movie came out in 1993 I though that portrayal of the future was just crazy. There was no way American freedoms could just vanish like that. Yesterday I realized that while the movie was still stupid we are already on the path to losing our freedoms and living in a world much like that in the movie.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have a box of contraband, er old cell phones, that I need to get rid of before the DEA busts down my door for stockpiling Traminic.
This is where the “if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t be against it” argument used by Patriot Act supporters collapses. Those provisions were intended to supplement national security, not provide additional charges to be used against “traditional” crime.
The people in question at worst should have been charged with felony larceny and possibly racketeering if they were part of a cell-phone theft and sale ring, but terrorism?
Just wait, soon anything remotely not aproved by those in power will be considered tools against the state. How do you like your new America, neocons?
Maybe they had 1000 girlfriends on the go and needed different numbers for all of them!
So I’m a terrorist now because I’m a collector of cell phones? It’s my hobby, I like collecting them and maybe one day I’ll put them on display somewhere.
And since I have no room to store them, I just keep them in my van for now. Is that all against the law now? I suppose I’ll get in trouble now for legally changing my name to “Death To America”.
Drug dealers are also terrorist because they spread chemical weapons. The advertising department of the “drug terrorist” does a great job because people actually pay to be terrorized. May be the other terrorist should look into doing some advertising.
I like it just fine. If you don’t you have the right to leave this country.
Curt, you have convinced me with your fine argument skills. Anyone that does not like living in an American fascist theocracy can just move to another country.
Can’t agree with you on this one John.
I’m sorry but the fact that these are young Muslim men doing something unusual should put them under suspicion.
These guys are traveling the country with no visible means of support buying up hundreds of untraceable cell phones from dozens of Wal-Marts.
If they were buying them for resale why wouldnt they get them all from 1 or 2 stores? Wal-Mart restocks shelves daily. The fact that they were driving thousands of miles to avoid buying too many phones at any one store is very suspicous to me.
And who can make a business from buying and reselling anything from Wal-Mart? Why wouldn’t their “customers” simply buy them at Wal-Mart themselves?
Live free or die. This little saying is meaning more and more to me. As we lose our freedoms I wonder what happen to those people who shouted this. We are all afraid but the thing that we all cherish here, the thing that makes america great is vanashing.Our freedoms are dissolving. It’s my freedom to say it sucks here, it’s my freedom to disagree with the government that makes it great to be here. How long before I am labled a terrorist because I say those things? I would rather die then live with out my freedoms.
LIVE FREE OR DIE.
I live near the thumb area in Michigan and all the party stores are owned by middle easterners and all the party stores sell those cheap phones. I have no doubt, whatsoever, that their intent was to resell those phones in their stores and make a bunch of money.
“Why wouldn’t their “customers” simply buy them at Wal-Mart themselves?”
Poor inner city people in Michigan usually don’t have cars. They are stuck shopping at their local party stores and pay outrageous prices for it. It’s very common for those stores to buy from Wal-Mart then jack the prices up in their stores.
SN – Ok they are reselling them (maybe).
Why the nationwide roadtrip to buy them? What about the airline passenger list and airport security details they supposedly had with them?
I fought in a war to preserve our rights. Three of my cousins are burried in Europe who died for these rights. What have any of you whiners done to claim those rights or were you one of the cowards who ran to Canada to avoid the draft until a weak and failed president pardoned them.
Yes, #9 & #11 Find another country that’s as free as this one. rather than pitch in and help you prefer to whine about your rights. You both sound to me like scofflaws
This farce has gone on too long now… Your local sheriff or police can now claim that ANYTHING is terrorist related. I just read about a local domestic dispute where both parties involved were charged with “Making terroristic threats”! Some months ago in Atlanta students making 2-liter bottles explode with diet coke and candy were brought up on bomb charges, I see no end to all of this.
I have not fought in any wars for this country but my father did, and now all the freedoms our soldiers fought died for are being stripped away as if they meant nothing.
#16– since when is making bombs a “right”?
#15 maybe you misunderstand me. My father served in vietnam. My grandfather in a world war. They both fought for our rights. I praise our troops for doing what has to be done. BUT I BELIEVE THAT THEY FOUGHT AND DIED FOR OUR FREEDOM. Freedom that is being taken from us. I honor all of them. They are in my heart. When we allow our freedoms to be taken from us the way that they are we are smearing shit all over what they fought for. When we allow the government to take our rights the terrorists win. I say live free or die.
from bgdBill:”What about the airline passenger list and airport security details they supposedly had with them?”
Where’s that from? Not the story that I linked details to….
typical neocon confusion.
J/P=?
1000 phones at a cost of no less than $30 +tax. That is well over $30,000 worth of phones. I wish I had that kind of cash when I was 18 to 22 years old.
Face facts. Disposible cell phones are a simple “tried and true” method of making untraceable international calls. This is perfect method for making calls back to the middle east for the purpose of planning attacks. Using them to set off IED’s is just a alternate usage.
If you don’t find this a little suspicious, you have your head in the sand.
Over a thousand phones, all bought with cash in small quantities in different stores over two states by two Arab young men(oh my God he is profiling!). Give me a break! If this did happen to result in some horrible attack on innocent people you jerks would be the first ones to start yelling about a failure of the government to “connect the dots”.
If you don’t find this a little suspicious, you have your head in the sand.
I think everyone finds it more than a little suspicious. I’m glad the government found this and I’m glad they are investigating. But to criminally charge someone for buying a lot of phones is asinine. Investigate first, then if you can show connection to a criminal activity, then file the criminal charges!
The cops acted either in panic or in some sort of pathetic sympathy emulation for the recent busts in the UK. In any case they were premature; the thing to do would have been to watch, and wait, then if the perps carried their nefarious schemes further towards fruition then bust them. If the cell phones were to be used to detonate bombs, well, where are the bombs?
Buying goods at retail then selling them on a local, or street level, at higher prices is a time honored business practice on a global level. Here in the South there are thousands of little mom and pop grocery stores out in the sticks, where owners buy from Sam’s, or Walmart, or wherever, then sell to the locals at high prices.
This thing could’ve went either way, but now we’ll never know.
Seems like folks are kinda taking the two stories and doing a little mash up to support their conclusions.
Story one: three men, 1,000 phones, and a local news channel repeating the allegation of “surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes” (wonder if that would be the petting zoo, or the roller rink?). No airline info.
Story two: two college kids, a dozen phones, $10,000 in cash, and mom’s work papers which involve an airline she works for, in the car.
Clearly the work of a terrorist “cell” plot.
Google the two stories and the coverage is all over the map: trying to make it as sensational as possible, complete with prosecutors grandstanding. Then ask if white kids doing the same would have been picked up let alone charged.
Unless these guys have 1000 elderly relatives who couldn’t program in they numbers, if Stephen Hawkins was helping, they weren’t very well trained. It is hard to believe that they wouldn’t anticipate, that buying 80 phones at a time at Wal-mart, would send them from below HS radar and onto the Tuscola Co. Slammer Express. A live dinosaur wearing an iPod dancing on the steps of the Smithsonian would attract less attention. I guess you could make a few bucks selling phones out of the back of a van, if you could find enough people to lazy to walk the additional 15 feet to one of the 5 million convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations, carrier stores and virtually every other retail outlet in America.
I can recall seeing at least 3 TV shows or movies in the past few months with plot lines about drug dealers being tracked by cell phone purchase. So who are these guys? They may be terrorist, but first and foremost they are morons. If they are terrorist, and we have to have terrorists around, these are the kind we need.
Ludicrous??? My God, Dvoric, Don’t you remember the German American Bund In the ’30s Or the rise of the Nazi party during the civil rights era? Or are you just a selfish person pushing your own agenda.
10,000 japanese, italians’ & germans were confined in self governing detention camp Because of subversion. This under a liberal democratic president. Later it was found that 1,000 were subversive and they were deported. Note no one was tortured or executed. All of these people were screaming about their civil rights while they were busy trying to tear down this country. I see the same thing today and history may repeat itself.
These guys were doing something very unusual . The preliminary charges will be sorted out but I am not ready to condemn them as you seem to be so happily ready to do so.
It will be interesting to see how this story pans out. There is no crime here. Should you arrest anyone buying in bulk for business purposes? The FBI may be headed for another embarrassment. I also buy and sell large quatities of prepaid cell phones, but I’m no terrorist. The prepaid market has profit potential and Tracfones are the best brand to buy for profit. I chat with many people in the “prepaid cell phone” community online and they all buy/sell these phones. Does a terrorist need 1000 phones? Wouldn’t 4 or 5 do just fine? GSM phones in other countries are easier to get and are smaller and perfect for bomb making. Why buy 1000 phone here in the US at one time and expose yourself if you are a terrorist?
The government, run by old clueless men, don’t have the experience to know what kind of legal transactions occur out in the real world. I think the police are wasting their time here. Shouldn’t they be hassling some poor old lady in the security line at the airport instead?
In other news, bonehead president declares war on “terror” – mission accomplished.
Yahoos like Curt miss the point every time. I suspect he “fought” in Vietnam defending the profits of the military industrial complex. “My cousins are buried in Europe…” Wahhh!!! These kids were arrested for something that instantly morphed into terrorism. Headline happy police work.
Real anti-terrorism authorities might have seen an opportunity to gather real info – I doubt it though- but Curt prefers to ruin people’s lives by allowing this to be splashed all over the news so he can continue ranting about “cowards” who chose to leave thieir homes and families rather than napalm babies for “freedom”.
#29 You’re off by 20 years but then, nobody expects your kind to get it right. I want to thank you for your glee in the death of my family but then we don’t expect more from the “me first, everybody else last” generation. I think you would be more comfortable chatting with yoiur atheistic and homosexual friends. Let me guess, yoy’re from New York or San Fransisco. For sure your hatred for this Country is obvious.
Oh, by the way, did anybody research this and discover that they were
examining the Mackinac Bridge. I didn’t think so.