Aug 09 2006
Probable Terrorists Arrested In Ohio
This news is well timed with the national debate going on about where to fight the war on terror (and whether to take it seriously by monitoring phone calls between terrorists and their agents here in the US). It concerns the arrest of two men who seem to have been attempting a terrorist attack here in the US:
Two Michigan men were charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism after authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information on airport security checkpoints in their car.
Deputies stopped Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of Dearborn, Mich., on a traffic violation Tuesday and found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in their car, Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said.
…
Abulhassan and Houssaiky said they bought about 600 cellular phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio, said sheriff’s Maj. John Winstanley. The men said they sold the phones to someone in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb, Winstanley said.
Vessels declined to say how the phones, cash or flight information involved terrorism.
While this may be nothing, if it does pan out to be an actual terrorist cell then the far left’s timing with the Lamont win will be really, really bad. The whole issue of our efforts in the ME is where we chose to fight the war on terror. This could be a reminder that we Americans really do not want to surrender the ME and then allow Al Qaeda the base of operations to plan and come here at their leisure. Seems quiet ironic I just posted on this very question just before this news broke. All speculation of course.
Interesting. And do you suppose this arrest on a “traffic violation” and subbsequent search were just lucky breaks?
Islamists nabbed in Ohio…
Can you say “soft target”? AJ Strata ponders the implications. Hat tip: Michelle Malkin……
Clarice,
I have been pondering that very question!
Cheers, AJStrata
Another reason to hate Michigan…
As if this Ohio State grad needed another reason to despise the state that voted for Kerry, elected a Canadian governor and is home to U of M and the Detroit Pistons:
Two men were charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism a…..
HEH!! I wouldn’t be surprised if they were being watched to see if there was probable cause to authorize a wire tap…their names having turned up on some overseas calls.
Evidently ( from what I have gathered from the news) Dearborn, Michigan is an area full of muslims. Surely the government is watching these people closely.
Any smart money on a Dearborn/Ohio tie in with the UK plot to hijack a whole gaggle of aircraft?
Yes, Barbara, Dearborn is loaded, one of the largest Muslim communities in the US. Wolfowitz did public appearances there right after the Iraq invasion, lots of great cheers from the very large (Shiite) Iraqi population in the Detroit area. Many of them have cooled down in their love for the US, now that Saddam and his Sunni Baathist Party is out of power.
Oops. Guess I’d better either start reading the whole item(s), or increase my intake of Ginko biloba.
BREAKING: Authorities Break Up Major Terror Plot In Britain…
It appears that the Brits have distrupted an extremely large terror plot, involving as many as 20 planes. Turn on FNC now (2am ET), and check this out from Sky News… Police say they have disrupted a major plot to……
Don’t you see that this is great for the Democrats? Rather than going all the way to the middle East to surrender to the terrorists, the Democrats can surrender to them in America’s Heartland!
…..the Democrats can surrender to them in America’s Heartland!
Someone once said that for humor to work it has to have at least a small element of truth. Your statement qualifies, RWR.
Another reminder that we can’t let the bastards win…I leave it totally up to you to define which bastards we’re talking about here. My opinion is that there are two varieties. The kind who attack and the kind who surrender. We’re going to be stuck with both for a long time, unfortunately. Sigh.
Carol
600 cell phones to Dearborn is scary indeed. I believe that is the largest muslim community in the country. Why would anyone in Dearborn need 600 phones? That is some scary stuff, folks. That’s a lot of bomb triggers.
Sure. Every board needs a troll. Since several writers have chosen to politicize this news event, I thought I would toss out a few thoughts.
1) I don’t think there’s a national figure that has advocated surrendering to terrorism. There’s plenty who disagree with the way this Administration has chosen to fight it. Let’s talk about where we agree and disagree.
I think it is fair to say that everyone agrees on:
– Cooperating with our allies on intelligence (lots of good stuff done here with the British and, surprisingly, the French who really know their way around the Mideast).
– Better cooperation among our own intelligence services
– Better funding for intelligence work (some argument here on whether this Administration has done that, but lets be generous)
Here’s where I am many Democrats disagree with the President:
– He took his eye off Bin Laden. Remember him? He’s the one running these efforts and also was responsible (NOT Saddam) for 9/11. Let’s get him already, shall we?
– He failed to pay for port security
– He distributes the homeland security money in ways that defy reasonable explanation (as one who was at the WTC on 9/11 and a steadfast New Yorker, I resent a whole lot of money going to Wyoming).
– He failed to fight the war of ideas ENTIRELY, and instead doing an excellent job of antagonizing every moderate Arab into extremism.
– I don’t believe you need to torture people to win – we’re the good guys, after all.
– I don’t believe you need to imprison them without counsel to win – we’re the good guys, after all
– I don’t believe you need to be able to spy without oversight on all Americans domestic and foreign to win – we’re not Commies after all
– And then there is that Iraq thing, which most Americans (by far) think was a big mistake. I was all for that war too when i bought the argument about WMDs. But when that (being charitable) didn’t pan out and then the war itself was horribly botched, well, here we are. And now we have to be there because of a civil war breaking out (which we brought about) and because of fear of arab extremists training there (which we caused). Exit strategy? Hell if I know, but I DO know (and so do most Americans) that this Administration’s “strategy” stinks.
So there you go -nothing you haven’t heard of before, but relatively respectfully presented – AND, it happens to be the way that most people in this country feel, as you’re about to find out in November.
Why not just deport them again?
Not the Terrorists…. the Muslims in Dearnorn. Get rid of them.
Good question, Crosspatch. I can’t see them as remote triggering devices, other than the ability to get them through security checks as benign. A few visits to Radio Shack and Ace Hardware would be cheaper.
But for throw-away (untraceable) communication purposes, it makes a lot of sense; make one call, pass on whatever message, then toss the phone. Then, nothing connects the caller to whoever answered the call.
600 of them suggests that either someone likes to stay closely in touch, or there are a lot of people who do not want to be traced and linked to their phone calls.
Someone mentioned that maybe they were getting them for the SIM cards. Rather than throwing away the phone, you just need to swap SIM cards.
I would start looking for areas with large numbers of registered phones that for some reason never show up on the network.
Interesting thing is, and I can’t remember exactly where I read this, that these guys were from Dearborn and were busted in Ohio on their way to South Carolina and back where they intended to buy a few phones at each Radio Shack they passed as they made the circuit. It was a suspicious Radio Shack clerk calling the sheriff that eventually led to their arrest.