Posted on 08/14/2006 12:16:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CARO, Mich. - The FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that the three Texas men arrested with about 1,000 cell phones in their van had any direct connection to known terrorist groups.
Authorities had increased patrols on Michigan's 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge after local prosecutors said investigators believed the men were targeting the span.
Local authorities didn't say what they believed the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones, but Caro's police chief noted that cell phones can be untraceable and used as detonators.
The FBI issued a news release Monday saying there is no imminent threat to the bridge linking Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.
The release also said the FBI had no information indicating that the men, Palestinian-Americans living in Texas, had any direct links to any known terrorist groups or to the alleged plot to bomb trans-Atlantic jetliners that was announced in London last week.
William Kowalski, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit field office, said authorities believe concern about the bridge was connected to images of the Mackinac Bridge found on a digital camera belonging to the men.
Kowalski said there was nothing illegal about buying cell phones in bulk, but that profits from that kind of activity can be suspicious.
Adham Abdelhamid Othman, 21, of Dallas, and Maruan Awad Muhareb, 18, and Louai Abdelhamied Othman, 23, both of Mesquite, Texas, were stopped by police Friday outside a Wal-Mart store in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit after employees became suspicious when they purchased about 80 cell phones.
Local prosecutors charged them with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.
The men told a magistrate Saturday that they were buying the phones for resale.
Louai Othman's wife, Lina Odeh, told The Associated Press on Saturday that she thought her husband and relatives were targeted because of their Arab descent. She said the men's families come from Jerusalem.
Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene said Monday that representatives of his office and Caro police had met with Sunday with officials from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. attorney's office. He said all the agencies were working together on the investigation.
Messages seeking further comment from Reene were not immediately returned.
I give. What's the SIM card got to do with it? How can it be "used"?
a war on domestic terrorism require proactive policing. what good is it to make arrests of people who are willing to commit suicide - AFTER their crime occurs.
the local PD did what they were supposed to do here, to protect the public. the FBI is too quick to conduct short investigations and write every suspicious activity off as "oh, its nothing".
They can change the number repeatedly.
I'm really getting sick of the FBI saying there's "no evidence of a terrorism link" in every single case presented before them. Sounds like the local authorities in rural areas like Caro are more interested in homeland security than the federal government. The FBI swoops in and releases these suspects because, once again, there is no "evidence". Just take the perps at their word that they were reselling phones for a profit. Why did they have to drive 2000 miles from home to buy these phones?
and without the batteries? Smells dirty to me...
are you kidding me? you can tune into COPS any night of the week and see more real civil rights violations - dogs, stun guns, beat downs - then anything going on regarding how we are handling cases investigating domestic islamic terrorism.
if we don't change the way we handle these cases - 1000s of americans will die at the hands of these people. the FBI hasn't gotten that message yet it seems.
So in lieu of evidence against them, what do you recommend is done with them?
we need losts of arrests for "suspicion" of XYZ, followed up by real investigations of what is going on - not some cursory examination of facts provided only by the accused. We can't have a system where Rush Limbaugh faces more scrutiny over a viagra at the airport, then domestic terror investigations.
read annie jacobsen's book about the "syrian band members" on her flight a couple years back, what she says about the extent of the FBI investigation into their behavior, which clearly appeard to be a dry run for multiple team members using successive trips to the lavatory to assemble something from items carried on board. based on what we now know about the London plot last week, her story was dead on.
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