Replies

IIRC, they never got to Montana. (At least as far as we know) One turned up in Minn. and two in NJ.
Now NJ is only a cab ride from JFK, but Minn?
If any of them flew, they would have to be using IDs different than what they used to enter the country or they would be traceable.

Minneapolis is the hub for Northwest. They have commuters to every major/mid-sized/small Midwestern city from there.

I am about 5 hrs from the Twin Cities at the point where Iowa/Minnesota/Wisconsin come together. 3 weeks ago, the local Walmart was bought out of Tracphones and a specific brand of hairdryer. The 2 Middle Eastern men, one older, one a teen, who bought them wanted more "before we go back to Michigan". The helpful store manager then called another Walmart to check if they had more phones/hairdryers and they did, so the men were given directions there. A few days earlier, the Onalaska Walmart was also bought out of the phones.

I was told this by an associate who observed part of this transaction, including the manager checking the inventory list for the hair dryers. This was reported to the FBI within days of the event.

We refrained from posting any of this or even discussing it, except to report it to the FBI, since there had been other reports of large phone purchases and we didn't want to either panic people or give the perps a heads up. Those of us who knew about this have been in dread for the past few weeks, waiting for a shoe to drop.

I believe this is huge and covers the USA.

" Now NJ is only a cab ride from JFK, but Minn?"

Here's a local news story, including (gasp) a picture of El-Dessouki. Another news report I heard lastnight had an interview with the uncle of this 'student.' The uncle, who is a grocer (named Hamzi Kassab) living in St. Louis Park, said that he called the FBI to tell them his nephew was here, 'visiting family.'

http://wcco.com/local/local_story_221143115.html