Alleged Terrorist May Have Crossed Mackinac Bridge

WNEM TV (Michigan) ^ | August 14, 2006 | WNEM TV5 Staff

[NonValueAdded]

But it took him four days to hitchhike to Saginaw.

[newcthem]

Hey no problem.......these guys are Texans! Afraid for a moment that they might have been moslims.

[mtbopfuyn]

The suspects are 21 year old Adham Abdelhamid Othman, 18 year old Maruan Awad Muhareb, and 23 year old Louai Abdelhamied Othman; all are apparently from Texas.

Lemme guess, from the Arlington cell or the Houston cell or Waco? Yo, LE! You've sat on you rears about these cells long enough, now how about some action.

[stinkerpot65]

Why would they need 1000 of them to blow up a bridge?

[mtbopfuyn]

The men have been "cooperative, upfront, not hiding" anything according to police.

Upfront with infidel police? Sure, let's concentrate on Group A while Groups B and C are setting fuses.

So, are these homegrown or "students" with expired visas?

[txhurl]

Nah, we ain't got no mooselimbs here in Texas.

[D-fendr]

And why remove the batteries?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The bridge is almost three miles long and many thousands of people do a "walk across" the bridge on the first Monday in September.

[holymoly]

Why would they need 1000 of them to blow up a bridge?

A terrorist attack on the Mac doesn't mean they're going to "blow up" the bridge.

E.G. The annual Labor Day walk across the bridge draws, on average, around 60,000 people - all on foot. A number of small explosive devices, placed along the route, could cause considerable carnage.

BTW The center two lanes are steel grate, so IEDs could, concievably, be placed below the Labor Day walkers and/or traffic.

[mtbopfuyn]

Why would they need 1000 of them to blow up a bridge?

What bridge? They were just re-selling them on the open market. Hey, this is America, ya know.

Funny, I didn't see where those other 20 year old students from two Michigan colleges (who just wanna b-ball, dude!) who were also buying up phones. At least one, Osama something, was homegrown.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Maybe they have/had plans for the Annual Bridge Walk.
The 46 year tradition draws between 50,000 and 65,000 participants each year.
That's a lot of people crossing a five mile long bridge.
It would take a lot to bring it down, but how much to cause a panic?

[The Lumster]

So, if the Mackinac Bridge was blown up and Upper Michigan was separated from Lower Michgan how long would it take before someone noticed?

[RichardW]

Just for the record it is 1,258 miles from Dallas to Caro, Michigan. What in the name of all that is holy would they be driving all the way up there to buy cheap cell phones? They were up to no good. You can be certain of that. And tell me again why we allow these people into the U.S.

[Poincare]

I hope the laptop went to the appropriate intelligence agency.

[JBCiejka]

Do you or anyone else know if a cell phone is even usable without being charged, no battery and no minutes paid for? They certainly were not going to resell them, but how useful are they without these things?

[PA Engineer]

The van driven by the men contained about one-thousand TracFones. These cell phones are often used by drug dealers because they are cheap and virtually untraceable. They have also been used to detonate IED's or improvised explosive devices.

A further description of the van would be useful. The incident in my neck of the woods described the van as follows:

"It was a 2006 van, but it was all gutted out," Tappe said. "No seats or paneling on the walls. For all intents and purposes, it was the kind of vehicle that could be used for explosive devices."

Looking for maps thread

[JBCiejka]

Do you or anyone else know if a cell phone is even usable without being charged, no battery and no minutes paid for? They certainly were not going to resell them, but how useful are they without these things?

[fourmation599]

Just a thought, but maybe it's the batteries that they really want. Could there be a way to create a large bomb using a whole lot of these batteries, say some sort of EMP bomb?

[SlayerOfBunnies]

Are these the same muslims that were buying cell phones in Ohio (Marietta or somewhere)? Weren't there some other odd purchases going on this past week as well?