'Today' Doesn't Tell Us Mackinac Bridge Suspects Arab-Americans

Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

by Mark Finkelstein

August 14, 2006

Maruan Awad Muhareb. Adham Abdelhamid Othman. Louai Abdelhamied Othman.

Now you know the names of the three suspects arrested over the weekend, suspected in a plot to blow up the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas.

You wouldn't have known either their names or backgrounds had you relied on the Today show this morning for the information. According to the wife of one of the suspects, the men's families come from Jerusalem.

According to NBC reporter Janet Shamlian, who narrated a segment on the situation, those facing terrorism charges are "three Texas men." For all Today told us, the suspects could have been Bubba and the Boys, perhaps upset that the Detroit Tigers are leading the Texas Rangers in the American League.

The three are, of course, innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps it was just a misuderstanding, and they were buying cell phones not to use as detonators, but - as they claim - to resell at a profit back in Texas. Nevertheless, without the information on their backgrounds, Today gave us much less than half the story.

[Loyal Buckeye]

The MSM pushes chutzpah to a new limit.

MSM HTML?

[commish]

I doubt these morons were planning on blowing up the bridge -- more likely scenario would be a series of IED's detonated during the Labor Day walk across the bridge.

[Beagle8U]

"But.........But.......the canadian socialist feminazi governor of the peoples republik of michigan says there never was a plot to blow up the bridge, that this is just another ploy by the gop to make her look bad.."

I wonder if she will be doing the "Bridge Walk" this year?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

That's what I think. There are thousands of people on the bridge on the Labor Day walkover.

[OldFriend]

WABC radio news continues to play the audio of one of the wives insisting it was just a plan to make money. Of course, she speaks perfect english so there is no hint that arabs are involved.

[DCPatriot]

"MSM HTML?"

???? Please explain?

[Tennessee_Bob]

Maruan Awad Muhareb. Adham Abdelhamid Othman. Louai Abdelhamied Othman.

Damn those radical Methodists!

[kjo]

Just imagine if these had been Tim McVeigh types! It'd be 24/7 "news" for two weeks. The Dems in Congress would be taking up new anti-terror laws to stop these "Christian Racists".

When it's Arabs, they can't even mention that simple fact.

And they wonder why no body watches anymore.

[gridlock]

hese turds often have small shops in minority neighborhoods. The local crack heads use the disposable phones to conduct "bidness"...

Even your local crack head is going to want the charger. These guys were throwing the chargers away. Now who would want a cell phone without a charger?

[gridlock]

Sounds like it's not only bias of which the Networks are guilty but lies! Another reason to delete the network channels from your remote. I did it a few decades ago!

Now that Monday Night Football will be on ESPN, I can dump Channel 7 from my remote!

[Married with Children]

NICE!

[Common Tator]

They were buying the cell phones to resell. However the resale was to terrorists abroad.

These cell phones are untraceable. If you buy a regular cell phone, you have to give your name and address. And the point in the world where the call orginiates can be determined.

But these prepaid cell phones have to run through just a few satellites. They need lots of cell phones so we can't trace them by the number. This makes any attempt to monitor such calls by getting a court order worthless. We would have to allow evesdropping on these phones when we do not know who are where they are being used. That is what the Democrats have been wanting to prevent.

Dead Americans is the price Democrats are willing to pay to get back in power. When they use these phones to set up attacks that kill us you can thank the Democratic party and the stupid main stream media.

We know they were selling them outside the USA becuase they were throwing away the battery chargers. That had to be because US chargers only work on 60Hz 110 V power.

[Married with Children]

LOL!!!

[madison10]

they look like Mexicans to me

To me, too. Would have made it easy to blend in in Texas. Probably what all the store clerks thought: That the guys were Hispanic, especially if they were purchasing the phones in areas with high migrant/hispanic populations. May have been an issue if the clerk in question was a Hispanic her/himself.

Just a theory of mine. Ignore me.

[Miss Marple]

Don't you think it a nice touch that Today told us that one of the wives said they were from Jerusalem? 99% of listeners would think they were Jewish.

So, Jewish Texans is the impression they were going for.

[himno hero]

omish... they look omish to me

why is it when there is trouble, they are front and center?

[parcel_of_rogues]

So I guess some ME guy driving a propane truck across the bridge with a bottle of "gatorade" next to him in the cab wouldn't be out of the ordinary and couldn't do much damage either.

[NavyCanDo]

"These guys were throwing the chargers away. Now who would want a cell phone without a charger?"

That is the question. If they had plans to return to an ethnic neighborhood and sell these from the trunk of their car why would they open the package and then discard a component such as the charger? The FBI need to be all over this - and if is found that their alibi is true then pass the case on to the IRS for probably not reporting the income. I suspect though these guys were up to no good, and there is a laundry list of bad things these phones pre-paid phones could of been used for from assisting drug runners to collecting the Sim Chips for use on IED here or in Iraq.

[maggief]