leejo

BREITBART.COM - 3 Texas Men Arraigned on Terror Charges

I bet Cing's going to be busy.

Rincewind

My guess is their names... >_<

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Required Reading for all TG sandboxers

SmokingTarpan

Heh, I was thinking along the same lines. I'm willing to reserve my complete judgement until more facts come out (not likely), but I didn't read anything particularly terrorist-related in that article.

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[squadl]
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Pickle

Makes perfect sense to me. Three men of at least Middle East descent if not nationality (not explained) bought 1000 cell phones from retail outlets. These phones are not traceable and are used in the middle east as IEDs. The explanation they were going to make a profit of them is dubious to say the least. They should have been buying them wholesale and not retail if that was the case. Yes, the article is short and some more information would be nice, but from what little there is, the situation is very suspicious.

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leejo

Luckyshot works at a Best Buy. Is the margin so high on these phones that I can make money driving my butt up to MI then back to TX? I wonder what their gas bill on that van was, how much food they ate, etc. My understanding of electronics in general is that there's a razor-thin profit margin.

Never mind that I can buy a phone with more time for $20.

To believe their story, you must also believe that Wal Mart has a less efficient shipping system than 3 dudes in a van and marks up dirt-cheap cell phones so high that it's cheaper to drive 1/2 way across the country to buy 1000 and bring them back to your store.

You must also show almost no curiosity about how 3 men all under 25 acquired $30k in cash.

Rincewind

It's also interesting that they were in MI...

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Required Reading for all TG sandboxers

Pickle

Why?

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SmokingTarpan

I'm not saying that it's impossible they had criminal intent of some type in mind, I'm just saying that I'm not willing to do the "omg TERRORISM!" dance yet. As for the money angle, there were some kids that I went to highschool with that could have had over $30k available to them before they were 16.

If it meant terrorist activities every time someone named Mohammed or Abdul bought a buttload of electronics or had tons of cash, I think we'd see detention camps somewhere in the country to deal with the huge amount of prisoners.

Like I said, the whole situation is iffy, but I'm getting rather tired of the terrorism cry every time someone does something wacky.

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"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo

Steeler

I bet we wouldn't see them.

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Trooper

Around where they were arested has got a HUGE arab population. And if you go and talk to them and get their opinion on events and things like this. They are sick of the moron Muslims who make the rest of them look bad. The American muslims have alot of pride becuase they have over come things and actually make a good living, not this terrorist crap.

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that sounds like a good idea trooper.
-Vulcan

icky

Terrorist supporter!

Burn him!

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Peace through fear... since 1947!

leejo

Me too. The odds of spotting any of them in the back of a van 1000 miles from home with a pile of cheap cell phones are slim and none.

OK so how often is this happening such that you're so weary of it? Last week was the first I'd heard of such a story. Have you been bombarded with these stories? Why does it bother you?

SmokingTarpan

Do you remember the news after the WTC went down? For quite a while (more than a year) after 9/11, most every news story that described someone getting wacky on a plane, or committing some random violent crime mentioned the fact that it was under investigation for possible terrorism, or that authorities were unsure whether it was a terrorist-related act. It seriously got to the point where, in my opinion, we should have changed it from "cry wolf" to "cry terrorist". It's happening less now, but as the story says, cry wolf too many times...

Why does it bother me? Because it smells of the people in charge trying to stir up a fear factor in the populace in order to gain support for new "anti-terror" regulations. Again, I'm not saying these guys with the phones are innocent, as they certainly seem fishy. Look at it this way, though. You take a couple of Arab dudes buying a thousand phones for modification and resale to drug dealers or other run of the mill cons, and the story doesn't really raise any eyebrows. Throw in the word terrorist, though, and suddenly it catches everyone's eye and becomes big news. Today we ban liquids on planes, tomorrow we outlaw certain types of cell phones. It's amazing what can get pushed swiftly into regulations once it's put in as a bid against terrorism.

It's quite possible they were going to sell the phones to terrorists to make IED's or other bombs. It's also just as possible, given the little we know, that they were going to re-sell the phones for cheaper as some charitable act toward the poor. I'm guessing it's somewhere leaning toward the more criminal side of things.

Regardless, the moral of my story is that we should hold the terrorism connection out of the news until we're quite sure that it's real.

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Lucky Shot

No, the margin on these phones are not that terrific. They weren't going into stores asking for deals either to help them out on margin. They were just buying as many as the store would let them. One cell phone company placed a request out a year ago asking retailers to refuse sales of more than 3 pre-paid cell phones and to have them reported to the FBI which is what it sounds like here. We have nixed purchases in the past as I would never want my company's name (Now Circuit City) to be attached to a terrorist bomb.

WNEM TV-5 Mid-Michigan's News Leader plus Weather and Sports for Saginaw,Flint, Bay City, Midland, Thumb, MI; WNEM.com | Mackinac Bridge; Alleged Target Of Terror

It sounds like their suspected target was to attack the Mackinack Bridge which is the major connection between the Upper and Lower penninsula of Michigan. It's a bridge which runs 5 miles long splitting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and serves as a very busy transit point between the US and Canada.

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_arti...?storyid=59411

This is not the first time terrorists have targeted one of Michigan's suspension bridges and in this article in Forbes, it explains why...

The Troll Under The Bridge - Forbes.com

Lucky Shot

Pickle

So reporters should not report on a possible link in a story? That's stupid. Next time a kid is shot in a driveby on the streets of Compton, CA and he matches a criminal profile of a gang member the reporter better not mention it might have been gang related.

Don't get me wrong. I hate the press with a passion. I think they are biased as hell. But I think ignoring good information or possible links is irresponsible as long as it is presented right.

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