This made me sick.

[wx247]

We were just there last Wednesday. I can't believe it.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=4459148

[x-y-no]

I'm kind of at a loss as to what the scheme was for it to require so many phones.

First of all, the alibi about reselling them is just goofy. Why the heck would anyone pay more for a phone (out of the packaging and with the battery removed, no less) than it costs in thw Walmart you've got in just about every town in the country?

On the other hand, while I'm well aware of how cell phones are used for IEDs and such, a thousand of them seems to be pretty extreme even for al Qaeda type thinking as far as a coordinated attack goes. Of couse, maybe they weren't planning one big attack, but rather an extended campaign. But that would require a lot of accomplices, and I haven't heard anything about this being an extensive group.

More will be revealed, I guess. Or maybe not ...

[Cookiely]

It takes a lot of phones to blow up a bridge I guess.

[Aslkahuna]

No, it takes a lot of phones to provide enough chipsets to a local operative who then arranges to get them to Iraq to kill Iraqis and US Soldiers. What would appeal to the demented mind of a bunch of terrorist slobs than to use a product sold in the US to kill GIs.

Steve

[HurriCat]

I love their story - that they are doing all of this to resell the phones at a profit of five bucks each. Huh? You drive how far? I'd say that gas bill ate into the profit margin a little. Also, we just don't buy the whole deal with tossing the chargers and all. Please, you guys are so busted. And you just have to love how quickly they've learned to throw the PROFILING card. (mak 'er a double) PUH-LEEZE.

[x-y-no]

No, it takes a lot of phones to provide enough chipsets to a local operative who then arranges to get them to Iraq to kill Iraqis and US Soldiers. What would appeal to the demented mind of a bunch of terrorist slobs than to use a product sold in the US to kill GIs.

Steve

Yeah, I thought about that possibility too ...

Do the phone networks in Iraq run on the same protocol as here? IOW, would these phones work there?

[gtalum]

The phones probably wouldn't work with the Iraqi cell towers, but their radio transmitters work fine.

[gtalum]

And it turns out this "terror" threat was just ridiculous overreaction by the local authorities.

Terror case has ended, but stigma remains

The 20-year-old Dearborn men were set free Tuesday from a jail in Marietta, Ohio, a small town near the West Virginia border. Abulhassan and Houssaiky were charged with two terrorism counts Thursday after police said the men bought hundreds of cell phones that could have been used to detonate bombs on airplanes. But prosecutors dropped the terror charges Tuesday, and the two friends drove home with their families, relieved, yet deeply concerned.

"There was definitely some bad judgment used by some officials in Marietta," Abulhassan said minutes after being released. "I couldn't tell you for sure whether it was racial profiling, but it definitely felt that way."...