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Inside Scoop on Islamic Cell Phone Buyers Who Planned to Blow Up Mackinac Bridge
Debbie Schlussel.com ^ | August 13, 2006 | Debbie Schlussel

Posted on 08/14/2006 5:55:09 AM PDT by goldstategop

By now, you've probably read the news that the three Palestinians caught in Caro, Michigan with 1,000 TracFone cellphones are involved in a plot to blow up Michigan's Mackinac Bridge (it connects both Michigan peninsulas). Mackinac Bridge site here.

But here's what you didn't read:

Sources tell DebbieSchlussel.com that the men are from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the group that works in concert with HAMAS in performing homicide bombings in Israel. The group once even considered merging with HAMAS, at the time that it was headed by University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, a founder of the group. Maybe now sleepy Americans will awaken to note that Palestinian terrorism is not just Israel's problem. It's America's.

Sources say the plot was uncovered because law enforcement personnel observed two or more other men videotaping the Mackinac Bridge.

Mackinac Bridge (Peninsulas Bridge, Michigan)

Sources also say that it is very unlikely the men could have succeeded in blowing up the Mackinac Bridge--even with the chips from 1,000 phones for 1,000 bombs--as it is several miles long (it's the world's third longest suspension bridge). At a total length of 26,372 feet, the steel structure can support 38,486 tons of weight and is very, very strong and fortified. The sources say that, likely, the plan would have succeeded in bombing cars driving on the bridge, but not bringing the structure down


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Michigan; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 1000tracfones; bombplot; bridge; carocell; crushislam; debbieschlussel; insidescoop; islam; islamicfascists; islamisadeathcult; islamisevil; islamofascism; jihadicellphones; jihadinamerica; knowislamnopeace; mackinac; mackinacbridge; michigan; muslim; muslims; religionofterror; terroristidiots; trop; waronterror; wot
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To: MarkeyD
Michael Moore, there is no domestic terrorism, this is right near his summer place

Nah, he's got almost 100 miles between his joint and the Bridge. And, since there are load limits in force, he doesn't have to worry about crossing the bridge!

81 posted on 08/14/2006 10:01:42 AM PDT by blu (People, for God's sake, think for yourselves)
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To: goldstategop
The sources say that, likely, the plan would have succeeded in bombing cars driving on the bridge, but not bringing the structure down

That's irrelevant. Does anyone remember the video of Osama broadcast on Al-Jazeera where he was watching and commenting on the 9-11 attacks, and he mentions that he didn't think the buildings would completely collapse? I believe he said on that tape that his goal was simply to damage the buildings and kill the people from the point of impact and all the floors above it?

The point is, a bomb does not need to bring down the bridge for the terrorists to reach their goal. Their goal may be as simple as killing as many people as possible (like, as some here have mentioned, during the Labor Day bridge walk). Their goal may not necessarily be to cause destruction or slow the economy down. There would be a larger economic impact if these guys were to have targeted the border crossings in Port Huron or Detroit.

Their goal may have been to kill as many people as possible or cause a panic. The Mighty Mac may not seem like a strategic target in an economic sense, but anything these guys can pull off within the border of the United States would have a significant impact, and perhaps they were looking to blow it up simply because they thought that we thought they wouldn't, and therefore they thought we weren't expecting the chance.
82 posted on 08/14/2006 10:11:18 AM PDT by BaBaStooey (I heart Emma Caulfield.)
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To: robertpaulsen
"That was my first thought. At 15 seconds per phone call, it would take over 4 hours to call them all. "

But using the alarm feature all could go off at once.

83 posted on 08/14/2006 10:11:37 AM PDT by OldEagle (May you live long enough to hear the legends of your own adventures.)
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To: robertpaulsen

huh? with a call bank, something you'd find at a telemarketers office, and some auto-dial units and enough trunks - you'd need just a few minutes.


84 posted on 08/14/2006 10:20:23 AM PDT by oceanview
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To: cripplecreek
Good morning.

Several FReepers brought up the threat of suicide bombers in the middle of the crowds during the holiday. I would have to agree that that would be the goal,rather than bringing down the bridge, especially considering the tactics employed by Islamic Jihad.

WW3.

Michael Frazier
85 posted on 08/14/2006 10:29:09 AM PDT by brazzaville (no surrender no retreat, well, maybe retreat's ok)
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To: OldEagle
"But using the alarm feature all could go off at once."

True, but then why go to the trouble of using cell phones? A cheap digital watch would do the trick, and be less likely to be traced.

86 posted on 08/14/2006 10:31:17 AM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: 6ppc

I think that is the plan. A huge number of small IEDs across the country simultaneously triggered would cause a great deal of panic.


87 posted on 08/14/2006 10:42:25 AM PDT by twntaipan (I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than ride in Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: nuconvert

Just saw this in another thread - "Page said the young men can speak English, Spanish and Arabic. One young man reported he was born in Texas. The other two said they were born in Jerusalem and Puerto Rico." - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1683493/posts


88 posted on 08/14/2006 11:51:30 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy (Like my Dad, the quintessential 50s/60s Mech Engineer, God rest his soul... :>)
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To: DOGEY

Given . . . how thick headed he is . . . perhaps his fat rear could be used to shield HumVee's.

But if I were a soldier, I wouldn't want that near the stench of the traitorous dolt.


89 posted on 08/14/2006 12:11:03 PM PDT by Quix (LET GOD ARISE AND HIS ENEMIES BE SCATTERED. LET ISRAEL CALL ON GOD AS THEIRS! & ISLAM FLUSH ITSELF)
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To: cripplecreek

I am no engineer, nor am I educated with regard to explosives, bombs, etc. It's just that those losers seem to get lucky sometimes. Bottom line is a lot of people could die, even if the bridge isn't totally destroyed.


90 posted on 08/14/2006 12:25:41 PM PDT by Paved Paradise
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

That was my point exactly.


91 posted on 08/14/2006 12:27:03 PM PDT by Paved Paradise
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To: Ready4Freddy

Interesting. Thanks.


92 posted on 08/14/2006 12:48:26 PM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: cripplecreek
Wonder what those "sources" say about the potential of suicide bombers blowing up among the 50 or 60 thousand bridge walkers on the holiday?

Well, yeah.... and as I discovered for myself the other day, Debbie could have figured that out with about 30 seconds of google searching.

I've never found Ms. Schlussel's stuff to be very enlightening, because her analyses tend to be superficial at best ... and this is just another example.

93 posted on 08/14/2006 12:51:37 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: dead
They didn't say they couldn't inflict a horrible loss of life, they just said that they couldn't bring down the bridge.

The problem with this article is that Ms. Schlussel simply assumes that "bringing down the bridge" would have been these guys' goal. Clearly not possible ... and also clearly not the typical MO for a terrorist. A terrorist wants to maximize the human toll, which is why the Bridge Walk is such an obvious place to focus.

Poor Ms. Schlussel apparently did no research, and thus did not come up with the obvious target; her terrorists must be content with "bombing cars driving on the bridge, but not bringing the structure down." Pretty pathetic for a professional pundit.

94 posted on 08/14/2006 12:57:28 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: robertpaulsen
That was my first thought. At 15 seconds per phone call, it would take over 4 hours to call them all.

And with tens of thousands of people on the bridge, that would be a terrorist's dream. You could start at both ends and work to the middle.

Actually, though, there are more practical barriers to having more than a few of these things on the bridge: putting them there in a manner that can't be detected by authorities with dogs.

95 posted on 08/14/2006 1:01:42 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: cripplecreek

So even if the intent is not to bring down the bridge, a few detonations at various points on the bridge while it is filled with 60,000 or so people will kill a few hundred people outright, BUT, it will create a stampede of panic in a semi-confined area that would cause at least 10 times the deaths and injury. In a large crowd like the picture posted elsewhere in this thread even 10 explosions spread across the bridge would cause the herd mentality to kick in and the people trampled to death, pushed off of the bridge and injured in the confusion of which way to run would be substantial.


96 posted on 08/14/2006 2:22:28 PM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: RJS1950

The best thing a person could do in the event of multiple suicide bombers in the crowd, would be to get near the rail on the edge, stay low and stay there.


97 posted on 08/14/2006 2:27:13 PM PDT by cripplecreek (If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?)
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To: r9etb

"Pretty pathetic for a professional pundit."

Even worse now that it appears that they don't have any terrorist ties ...


98 posted on 08/14/2006 5:51:39 PM PDT by RS ("I took the drugs because I liked them and I found excuses to take them, so I'm not weaseling.")
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To: RS
Even worse now that it appears that they don't have any terrorist ties ...

I guess that makes me wrong, too.

99 posted on 08/14/2006 7:08:23 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: cripplecreek

Just like Larry Johnson saying it was no more than a GOP conspiracy a couple of weeks or so before 9/11.


100 posted on 08/14/2006 8:12:02 PM PDT by AmeriBrit (Spreading the truth - Doing the job the MSM won't do!)
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