Men buying prepaid cell phones arrested on terrorism charges

More info.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/9668664/detail.html

And here's some info on two other terror suspects that had about 600 cell phones.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060812/NEWS03/60812010



Although it’s not illegal to buy the phones, when they are sold in large amounts, it raises a red flag, the chief said.
You'd think most of the people on this forum would be terror suspects, given the way we go through phones.

 

Got a few hundred in your van MOTO? That would be a lot, even for people around here. Also I suspect most WAers have 1 or 2 of each, not dozens of the same model. These guys were buying 80 at a time. Probably not just because of their enthusiasm for wireless.

 

I want to know what model Tracfones have been purchased. Dual band GSM and CDMA models for 850/1900 MHz won't work except in North America (mostly).

COtech

 

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: LG-CU500 Obigo/WAP2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Man 80 at a time. Wow.

 

The thinking is, that that's OK for them because they are interested in making international calls from here that are difficult to trace. They assume that all international calls are being recorded and the call records are being mined for patterns. So I call Osama once with one phone and in that conversation he gives me a different number for our next call. Next time I use a different phone to call his new number and never use the first one again. Patterns would be very hard to spot.

Also, they were buying them in different states and moving them around. My next call could be from a phone with a different area code. Even though ultimately the carrier knows where I am, I imagine this too would make patterns harder to detect.

 

Exactly! Anyone watch The Wire on HBO?

 

GSM because of the SIM Card.
SiM CaRDS Transfers easily to another Phone.

 

But they don't want to keep the same phone numbers when they switch.....plus...CDMA is harder to tap/intercept then GSM. Not that it would that difficult for cdma either.

 

Define, normal. If I ever win the lottery, that'll be me.

 

Nor·mal adjective (Pronunciation: 'nor-m&l) Latin normalis, from norma

1.a : according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle. b : conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern. This would apply to a person who uses technology based on its functionality and utility in work, personal life or entertainment, not because of obsession with technology per se.

2. Wireless Advisor normal. a. A desire to have the latest cell phone regardless of possessing a surplus of similar phones. b. A compulsion to spend money and time on cell phones, PDAs, handheld computers or other wireless devices for the sheer joy of tinkering with technology, the lure of having new toys before everyone else and the opportunity to show how smart you are.

Please contrast above definitions with:

Ab·nor·mal adjective (Pronunciation: "ab-'nor-m&l) alteration of French anormal, from Medieval Latin anormalis, from Latin a- + Late Latin normalis normal

1. a. Regarding use of technology, a person interested in technology that enables the destruction of passenger jets, tall buildings, subway systems and other populated vehicles and places in the Western world in order to redress supposed insults to that person's religion, culture, history or pride. b. The belief that because of these supposed insults, any mass murder of Westerners is justified and will be rewarded by a god or gods.






(special thanks to Merriam Webster www.w-a.com )

 

:O Sorry - I meant www.m-w.com - Great site!

 

They also can use the parts in these phones to make detonators for IED's.

Yes if they are 850/1900 only phones, they they can't be used in the Mid east, but what about other countries like the US & Canada that do use these bands?

These people may be simply buying the phones to sell on Ebay, but I do find 1000 a bit many for anyone to sell on Ebay.
They key pad with the tones set on can & have been used to detonate IED's just as a small example.
I know there is more they can do with these phones either in the US or Outside the US, if that is what they are looking to do.

 

I don't think you will make much money buying pre-paid phones at a convenience store or 'Wally World' and reselling on Fee-Bay. Although, noone said would be terrorists are intelligent...look at the shoe bomber

 

US Police Act, Then Back Off On Cell Phone Terror Arrests


Last winter, federal authorities warned local officials to be on the lookout for anyone buying large numbers of prepaid cell phones - devices that could become potential tools for terrorists.

Authorities in Michigan and Ohio clearly listened: In the space of only a few days last week, they arrested five men and charged them with terrorism-related offenses.

But in the days since, the two cases have grown more complicated.

On Monday, an Ohio prosecutor said he was dropping the charges he brought against two Michigan men because he could not prove a terrorism link. And the FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that three Texas men arrested in Michigan had direct terror ties.

Prosecutors in Michigan, however, were standing by the charges against the three Palestinian-American men living in Texas, though they have not said what they believe the men intended to do with the phones.

Officials have said various illegal acts can be committed with prepaid cell phones, including using them as detonators, communicating among terrorists and using the batteries to make methamphetamine.

"I don't know how many of you have ever gone to a store to purchase 80-100 cell phones at a time," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday in Chicago. "I would consider that somewhat unusual and I think it would be perfectly legitimate to say, 'Hey, is there something going on here?"'

Supporters of the five men have said all along that their only purpose was to make money through a perfectly legitimate business and that they were targeted because of their Arab descent.

Tuscola County prosecutors have charged Maruan Awad Muhareb, 18, of Mesquite, Texas; Adham Abdelhamid Othman, 21, of Dallas; and Louai Abdelhamied Othman, 23, of Mesquite, with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.

The surveillance charge was connected to images of the Mackinac Bridge found on their digital camera, said William Kowalski, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit office. He said there was no imminent threat to the bridge.

Michigan State Police Director Col. Peter Munoz, who heads the state's homeland security efforts, said there was no indication the men were plotting to blow up the Mackinac Bridge "or target any other location in Michigan or elsewhere."

Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene, who charged the three men, would not comment on the status of the case. Representatives of his office and Caro police have consulted with officials from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. attorney's office.

Nabih Ayad, a defense attorney representing the Texas men, said that based on Monday's statements by the FBI and Munoz, he planned to file an emergency motion Tuesday for his clients' release on bond.

He said the photos of the Mackinac Bridge were innocent tourist snapshots taken while the men were stuck in traffic. "That's what people do when you see a tourist attraction: They take pictures," he said.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, Washington County Prosecutor James Schneider said he did not have enough evidence to prove that Ali Houssaiky and Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, both of Dearborn, Mich., had any link to terrorism.

The two 20-year-olds still face a misdemeanor charge of falsification - accused of lying about why they bought the phones. Felony charges of money laundering in support of terrorism and soliciting or providing support for acts of terrorism will be dropped, Schneider said.

Houssaiky and Abulhassan were arrested Aug. 8 in Marietta, Ohio, after they aroused suspicions by buying large numbers of prepaid cell phones, officials said.

The Texas men, Muhareb, Adham Othman and Louai Othman, were arrested Friday in Caro after purchasing 80 cell phones at a Wal-Mart, police said. Authorities said they found nearly 1,000 phones in their van.

Louai Othman's wife, Lina Odeh, has said the men were buying the phones to sell to a man in Dallas for a profit of about $5 per phone. She said they were in Michigan because so many people in the Dallas area are doing the same thing that the phones are often sold out.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent out joint bulletins in February and March to police departments nationwide warning about the bulk purchase of phones for personal profit or financing terrorism.

Antigo, Wis., Police Chief Bill Brandt said Monday that his officers stopped and questioned the three men last Wednesday in Antigo after they bought six cell phones at a Dollar General store and a clerk called police.

Officers asked for identification, got a vehicle description and a license plate number, the police chief said. The men told officers that they buy cell phones, take them to Texas, sell them there "and make big money," Brandt said.

Brandt said they were cooperative. "They had no problem identifying themselves," he said.,

The men's information was relayed to the state Department of Justice in Milwaukee, Brandt said.

The police chief said the trio was at least the third group that have been questioned this summer in Antigo after attempting to buy multiple cell phones.

"The only reason the local businesses are regulating the number of phone purchases is because we have asked them to and nobody is quite sure of what happens to these phones," he said.

www.cellular-news.com/story/18866.php

 

Not to stir up a hornet's nest or anything, but it wasn't little old ladys from Wisconsin who flew planes into the World Trade Center, it was terrorists of Arab descent. So if Arab men are buying 80-100 prepaid cell phones at a time, alarm bells should be going off... and if they didn't, I'd want to know why not.

Hell, if I bought 100 prepaid cell phones at a time, I'd want the cops to ask me a few questions, too. Those questions would, of course, revel that I'm a wireless geek who is a danger to no one but himself and anyone standing within a few feet of the radiation I'm sure I'd produce with 100 prepaid cell phones.

 

Right. And who is this guy in Dallas that has some business, involving large numbers of phones, that the experts here on WA doubt could make money? That seems suspicious to me.

 

Yeah! Has anyone questioned him?

 

But this is considered Profiling & isn't allowed by those out there to "Protect & Serve us" which is why in an instance like this it makes common sense. But hey what do I know, I am just a dumb Firefighter.

 

Under the Patriot Act, it isn't considered profiling. It is part of a terrorists profile that is allowed to be watched. It isn't official, but I guarantee you that little old ladies get wanded by TSA more for appearances of no profiling than actual suspicion.

Just like police....they aren't allowed to do it, but ponder this:

An officer gets a report that an unidentified man just robbed a conveneience store and was gettign away in a Lexus, headed in his direction. Do you think they will stop the white guy in a newer Lexus or the dark skinned man (black, arab, whatever...) in the older Lexus???

Right or wrong, it is human nature and instinct based on societal patterns. You can not intelligently discuss such things without a good understanding of the fundamental psychological issues that guide aforementioned instincts.

 

When I saw the report on TV which included scenes of phones packed up into boxes, it looked like they were Nokia 2126's which is a CDMA model.

With TracFone GSM models, the SIM card is tied to the phone itself, a TracFone SIM is not interchangable like other SIM cards and will not work in a different TracFone. I presume the same applies to their Net10 phones.