Two Men Try To Buy Multiple Cell Phones In Ithaca

wnem tv5 ^ | Aug 11, 2006 04:18 PM CDT | WNEM TV5

[DannyTN]

(TV5) -- While FBI agents pour into Caro another incident breaks out in Gratiot County. At approximately 11:35am August 11th police were called to the Dollar General Store in Ithaca after a" clerk in Ithaca became suspicious after two men came into the store, and became upset when they were turned down while trying to buy several disposal cell phones.

TV5's Mike Terry spoke with the clerk who called police. She said they were two "Middle Eastern" men and said they've been coming into the store weekly and buying disposable cell phones. She said the same thing was happening at the dollar general store in Alma.

You might think the clerk became suspicious because of what was going on in Caro but when we asked the clerk she said she wasn't even aware of what was going on.

The policy at their store is that they can only sell two cell phones, per person, per day. She saw the men put the phones in the trunk of the car and when she thought they were coming back in, she called 9-1-1.

We did talk to Ithaca police while there has been no crime committed-they do want to find these men, and run their names against government watch lists.

[Jameison]

"What happens with "most normal cell phone owners" is irrelevant. "

Oh it's relevant alright.
I am going to bet that when any poll is taken, on this issue, it will come out with the public strongly in support of id'ing disposable cell hone owners.
Why? In part because most of the public won't even be affected by it at all. Plus unlike you and The Slimes, the public actually recognizes that we are in a deadly war with an implacable, genocidal, psychotic enemy, and that these are not normal times.
Politicians will usually respond to what the public is thinking, and what the public want.
After The Slimes leaked the details of the secret monitoring of terrorist phone calls and bank accounts, every single poll had the public STRONGLY in support of those programs.
The result? The Patriot Act was renewed, even after The Slimes had leaked their story just before the debate on renewing that Act started, in an attempt to sabotage it.

[Jameison]

" someone is going to have to run a check where they didn't previously run a check, then we are reducing freedoms and inconveniencing ourselves"

WE already run checks before renting a place to someone, and for practically every utility,including fixed line phones.
Running a check for cell phones is simply running a check on another utility.
We are not "reducing" any freedoms" that most cell phone owners don't already go without.

"Inconveniencing ourselves"?
Oh puleeze.
I travel all the time,and since 9/11, airport checks have been far more stringent than before.
I have had to take off my shoes, be called aside and had the metal detector thing run all over my body, told to stretch my arms, lift legs etc etc.
Is that "inconveniencing myself" too?
Yes.
Is that necessary? You bet.
Does every American that travels have to deal with it already?
YES.
You don't have a point.

[Jameison]

"The phones were apparently destined overseas "


That's not the point.
The British authorities monitored phone calls, emails, etc before they heard that the green light to "GO" had been given.
That's when they moved in and took the suckers out.
Just last month our security services stopped an evil plot to blow up the PATH train connecting New York to New Jersey, while it was under the river, killing thousands by drowning them.
Monitoring their phone calls, emails etc helped know about the plot, and to arrest them.
You can't do that with no-id, no-name disposables as they stand today. That needs to change.

[HiTech RedNeck]

What pray tell would the registrations be verified with, that can't be trivially forged or falsified?

[Jameison]

"What pray tell would the registrations be verified with, that can't be trivially forged or falsified?"

Same way everything else is verified in this country, like utilities, drivers licenses, credit checks, and when people collect their social security checks etc etc.
Of course a lot of documents can be forged, but doing all those checks checks will normally weed out most of the fraud. The fact is, if someone has carried out a fraud when collecting a cell phone , and the FBI overhear him plotting a terrorist attack, it's still going to be easier to trace them, than a no-id at all disposable cell phone, that could be virtually anywhere.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Bet a lot of these will be traced to graveyards

[Jameison]

" Enforcing the laws that are already on the books is the problem"

We have already used the Patriot Act to catch plenty of terrorists while they were plotting to blow us up.
Just last month we caught them plotting to blow up the PATH Train here in New York, in part by monitoring their phone calls..
The point being we can't do that with disposables as they stand today.
And, after The Slimes leaked the government program on monitoring terrorist phone calls, the sales of disposables went through the roof, because the terrorists simply stitched en mass to disposables. How we gonna catch them this time?
That needs to change.

[Looper]

Here, here. I agree.

[seeker41]

Massive wave of suicide bombers using cell phone components to detonate TAPA.

[Fitzcarraldo]

A "peaceful" form of Islam will have to be cultivated. A form that considers usage of any technology higher than a campfire to be dishonorable.

[Jameison]

"Surely you jest?"

Nope.
We more or less do all that with normal cell phones already before we are given a service.
And no one even thinks twice about it.

[Jameison]

"Muslim terrorists will get around a registration process sooner or later"

We will still make it far more difficult for them to do it.
Its like crime in general
Rudy took very tough measures to cut crime in New York, and they worked. Crime went down sharply.
But we still have plenty of murders every year though.
One can never totally wiped out crime or terrorist threats.
But one needs to everything one can to make it as difficult for them to carry out their crimes as possible, and reduce the instances they occur.
The harder you make anything in life,the less that something will occur. Most people for example can't become doctors for example, because its very hard to go through medical school successfully.

[Jameison]

"In the UK, cops can arrest on suspicion when the nation's safety/public safety is at risk. They don't need a warrant. Time to adopt that here. "

I'd tend to agree with you.
Would it happen in this country though?
I doubt it.
Not with the ACLU, and Dingy Harry Reid, and Ted "Swimmer" Kennedy sitting in the US Senate.

"Two women among those arrested in the UK, one worked at Heathrow with an all access pass"

I spent a night at Heathrow back in 2001 (after 9/11), and was appalled at the security there during the night.
Most of the cleaners that came in during the night were Pakistanis and they had access to practically anywhere at the airport, and I didn't see much sign of any security people around to check their movements.
Way I saw it they could plant any bombs anywhere they wanted during the night and simply go home.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

They are not used as the explosive. They are used for the communications among terrorists. Once intelligence agents can track a call and location, the phone is discarded and the location is lost.

This is why a couple of months ago there was a big deal made by the Leftists who criticized the Bush administration and the intelligence offices tracking phone numbers and the calls made between phone numbers. Intelligence wasn't listening to the conversations but were using algorithms to track which phones were connecting to which, in an effort to determine where terrorists may be, as this appears to be their communication method.

Think how hard it would be to locate a terrorists or to pick up the details of a plan if every conversation were on a different phone at a different location.

[PistolPaknMama]

place marker

[RepublicanArmy]

But here's the weird thing: they de-batteried the phones.

Wouldn't they need to remove the battery to wire the phone to the explosives and then replace the battery inside it?

[HiTech RedNeck]

The phones were never batteried to begin with, it seems now. The battery is packed in its own bag or wrap. So consolidating all the batteries, all the chargers, all the phones makes sense for the sake of compactness.

[conservative in nyc]

The phones were never batteried to begin with, it seems now. The battery is packed in its own bag or wrap. So consolidating all the batteries, all the chargers, all the phones makes sense for the sake of compactness.

It also makes sense if you're going to sell the parts separately - batteries to meth growers, who need the lithium to grow their meth; phones to terrorist and organized crime groups, who don't really need new batteries, just new phones, and would appreciate being able to buy phones in bulk without going to a store where they might be caught on camera making their purchase; and chargers to those cell phone kiosks, since people need additional phone chargers when they lose one or go on vacation.

Something's fishy here - but these guys might be nothing more than dishonest arbitrageurs, who understand that sometimes things are worth more when sold in parts than sold as a unit.

[conservative in nyc]

Ithaca, Michigan is 90 miles north of Detroit, not 12.

[Gritty]

Oops. You're right. Sorry.

I was thinking of Utica, not Ithaca.

It's a bit longer drive to Dearbornistan.