Aug 12 2006
Why 600 Cell Phones?
The Dearborne Duo who were arrested for having 600 cell phones and $11,000 dollars in cash on them are rightfully suspect. First off, any college kids with $11,000 in cash have probably been doing something illegal. I myself have never had that much cash on me – maybe a tenth of that one time when I was financing a car lone and took cash out for the down payment. So right from the start this is not good.
Michelle Malkin had some updates which pointed to the fact the phones were a special variety with a special chip. I have been trying to understand what use these phones could be to terrorists and the volume of phones keeps me scratching my head a bit (as I did in this post). And I think I have some more ideas on the usefulness of the phones. But I have to say with a picture of the parents just tore me apart. Any parent can understand the pain of seeing your child in trouble, and this is serious trouble. So let me be clear: I hope these boys are innocent and just naive pawns. I fear they may not be. But I no more want to see the parents’ worst nightmare come true than I would want to see them anguish at serious bodily injury to their son.
So why so many phones? Well, this article points out some interesing details:
The men later admitted to buying about 600 phones in recent months in southeast Ohio to sell to someone in Dearborn. Prosecutors have said prepaid phones can be used to make international calls that are difficult to track and have been linked to use by terrorists.
Emphasis mine. One of the biggest challenges to terrorists is how to communicate with their shock troops here in the US planning to attack us. When the NY Times leaked the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program it was obviously noted by terrorists that they needed more secure communications. They needed to adapt. Cell phones are one of the best options – especially if no name can be traced to the phone itself. And phones that are hard to trace for one or two or ten calls give the terrorists some hope they can have some communications for some time. These cell phones are the perfect solution and the volume is required so that a terrorist here makes one or two calls and then throws the phone away (or better yet, hands it to a homeless person).
What caught my eye in this report was the shifting alibi:
The men came into the store at 550 Plaza Drive about two months ago and purchased 23 prepaid phones and paid the $270 bill with cash, Ms. Brown said.
When she asked why they needed so many phones, they had told her they were buying them for their boss who was getting one for each employee so they could stay connected.
Paying the bill in cash means no tracing. Again, legit money making schemes do not need to hide the transactions and buy in low lots of 23-30 phones. That means 20 trips to hit the 600 phone number.
Al Qaeda needed to make changes so they could adapt to the NY Times exposing the NSA surveillance. This was one good way to adapt.
However, the other story of the three men buying a thousand phones seems to have investigators looking at a plot to take down a major bridge. There is nothing to say the cell phones cannot provide both secure communications and a reliable detonation capability.
If this is really legal the telephone purchasers can easily be cleared. All they have to do is produce their “business” associates to prove there is a legal business. If they can’t produce “business” associates to prove it’s legal then they might have a problem.
AJ
Points to ponder,
How did the kids make the Dearborn connection?
The Dearborn guy seems to want to shlep out his purchases thru lackies rather than doing a bulk buy, which is strange to say the least.
How many “field reps” does this guy have working?
Considering the markup Dearborn guy is willing to pay, where can he make any profit of a legal and above board use of the phones?
If it’s just phone remarketing, why seperate the components like some of the “field reps” have. They could have been left in the original package.
All together too much nonsense to make sense.
More thoughts on this issue
How many prepay for play phones are sold each year?
What percentage are cash transactions v debitcard/credit card buys which imply benign usage?
How many purchased phones never get activated?
The market for the phones is the low income poor credit history clientel that the traditional providers will not risk after a credit check.
The phones per minute rates are much higher than traditional plans and even of the major providers now offer the option of no contract pay as you go access.
Some of the phones are purchased by cell phone adverse people as a safety net they hope they never have to use.
Merlin,
A lot of these phone users, that is to say, legitimate users, do not have bank accounts so no debit cards, and they’re — I hesitate to use the term “credit bums” because I know some of these people, a bit irresponsible but not malicious. They’re mostly on the young side and haven’t established a decent employment record; if they had once or twice opened checking accounts, they’ve bounced a couple of checks and no bank will open a new account for them, so obviously, no debit cards or credit cards issued.
They also can’t get a landline phone installed (either have an unpaid phone bill or the deposit is too high), and of course have likely already burned Nextel or one of the carriers, so no dice with a regular cell phone account.
The catch is, they will and do buy ONE of these phones. If they had the means to buy a few hundred, they wouldn’t have the credit and bank problems that send them to these throwaway cell phones. AND, money is a serious problem for them, so no way any of them would pay $38 for a $20 phone — why should they, or why would anybody, when they can go to WalMart — there’s a WalMart everywhere you look — and buy it direct.
My point is, there is absolutely no legitimate market for any product at double the going price if that product is easily available. It’s possible these Pakistani kids were suckered with promises of a good payoff, into traveling across the country to buy these things in small lots — but it’s not possible they didn’t know the end use for the cell phones they were buying was somewhere between illegal and sinister.
They may not know with certainty that they’re working for terrorists, but they had to have had a strong suspicion that’s what they were doing.
Something illegal but not terrorism-related is not credible. A normal crook with a decent bankroll, which these kids or their backers clearly have, can and will find a way to buy that type of thing wholesale, if they have to open a store-front for a mock Radio Shack-spin off, right down to getting the necessary local/county/state licenses.
No pity, no mercy for these punks. And no virgins for ’em, either.
Addendum: Just saw an item linked from FrontPageMag.org on these “kids.” Along with the boodles of cash and stacks of cell phones, police found airline passenger lists and airport security information.
Their attorney insists they’re innocent, all-American kids who are being singled out because of their ethnicity and names.
Merlin,
I agree 100%. The buyer in Dearborn is probably the one we want and the kids are like low volume dope dealers – just mules. The kids probably know its not legal – at least from a tax perspective. They are college educated to some degree. I think they saw a way to make a lot of money and were possibly pawns. But they may not be. I am waiting to see more details. The volume of phones does worry me.