Posted on 08/17/2006 9:15:23 PM PDT by idsujmxzcg
BAY CITY -- Lawyers for three Texas men once accused of plotting to blow up the Mackinac Bridge claim the government is bailing out an overzealous prosecutor by bringing unprecedented charges.
Until Wednesday, even the FBI said the business of buying and altering cell phones -- as the men claim was their only motive -- was a legal enterprise, and that the only issue was whether proceeds end up in terrorist coffers.
But now, the FBI and U.S. attorneys in Bay City say the entrepreneurial behavior of three Americans of Palestinian descent amounts to fraud, not terrorism.
<excerpted>
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
I have no idea - but since you ask, from what I can tell none of those plotters are native born British. Those that are british citizens were naturalized.
But that's not the point. Just about every news report on the cellphone buying case labelled the men as "Palestinian-Americans", and they were even called Palestinian-Americans in articles that explicitly mentioned the fact that they were born in Texas and Puerto Rico. I suppose I should be used to sloppy journalism by the MSM by now, but it is still grating.
to quote the cuckolded husband from Stalag 17 - "I believe it."
Read the article. They are not dropping all the charges, just changing them. They dropped all the terrorism charges, but they are still pressing dubious fraud charges that could put these guys away for 20 years.
Are you being thick? Every time an ambitious prosecutor cries wolf like this is endangers us all. It makes people numb to the real threats.
Look here.
Remember you need an outlet, car and gas expenses finding cell phones. If there ever was way to lose money, this has got to be it. Unless the buyers pay a premium with the intent of using phones illegally.
Being born here doesn't always wash, look at what's going on in England.
Then if they were using them for IEDs, the batteries would have to stay in them. Taking out the batteries is an argument for them not being used in terrorism.
Actually see post #15. If that is accurate they could actually make a pretty good living.
That report simply does not square with the mens' purported intentions.
Maybe, but what if you get an incoming wrong number during assembly?
See my #15. Apparantly "Wireless Stop, a cell phone store on Harry Hines Boulevard in northwest Dallas" is one of the buyers who buy from them. They pay $38 each.
Wrong!
Are you even thinking this through? One would assume the phone would be off until it is prepared, then it would be turned on. They have an off/on switch.
These bad guy ain't dumb.
Oh yes. The intelligent agrument. I'm being thick-skulled because some enterprising entrepreneur wants to re-sell phones for a profit, when they can be bought in bulk legitimately, and the purchase can be tracked. I think the IRS would like to hear about this little 'business' if anything. Not that I'm fond of the IRS.
I'd assume an assembler would initiate 'failsafe' mode. Kinda like kickin' a stick into a woodchipper, otherwise. No?
Along Harry Hines Boulevard, three men arrested in Michigan last week weren't known as potential terrorists. To shop owners there, they were seen as ambitious young businessmen.
"They seemed like good guys, young, hard-working," said Jalal Charanya, owner of Wireless Way, which sells prepaid cellphones. "There are many guys selling these kinds of phones ... but they were probably my biggest supplier."
Louai Othman, Adham Othman and Maruan Muhareb have been cleared of terrorism allegations. However, they were charged Wednesday with fraud and money laundering in connection with their mass purchases and sales of cellphones.
They were known to sell as many as 200 cellphones at a time to Dallas businesses. Such commerce was not unusual for businessmen such as Mr. Charanya who are looking to buy cellphones for resale.
The trio is among a group of entrepreneurs who buy prepaid phones in stores and then resell them – some for use in the United States, others to be exported, stripped down, repackaged and resold for profit in places such as Hong Kong and other foreign markets.
The participants say the enterprise is legal. But federal officials in Detroit charged the Texas trio with fraud Wednesday. The officials allege that the men's practices were damaging the phone companies and misleading the consumers who eventually buy the phones.
Mr. Charanya said he does business with between 30 and 100 men in the area who buy discounted prepaid phones at places such as Wal-Mart and Target and then resell them to him for about $5 profit per device.
In turn, Mr. Charanya and other businesses unload the cellphones in bulk, either to other suppliers in Los Angeles, New York, or Miami, and occasionally overseas. He said the strongest international demand for prepaid cellphones is in Hong Kong.
There are at least a dozen businesses in Dallas and hundreds across the country that turn a profit on discounted prepaid cellphones. At each stop in the chain, from the original buyer, to the wholesaler, to the overseas merchant, the price of the cellphones increases.
So a discounted handset sold at Family Dollar in Dallas for $29.99 may eventually sell for more than $100 in Asia or the Middle East.
"All these phones are headed overseas," said Sean Mobh, manager of Wireless Wholesale Stop on Harry Hines Boulevard. "Nokia knows this is going on, Wal-Mart knows this is going on, there's no secret. Nobody says anything because everybody's making a few bucks' profit on these phones."
Many of the phones in the trio's possession were Nokia phones packaged by wireless phone company TracFone and sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
LOL!
You think you are sly?
or coy?
let's play...
I love to play...
one man's "overzealous" prosecutor is another man's alert law enforement agent.
I do have to give you credit though.....your spelling and typing skills are much better than most of your friends.....
;-)
This story doesn't pass the smell test.
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! He used a "box cutter" to open the boxes. The same weapon used on 9/11! That confirms it, they must be terrorists!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.