H*F*S!! 2 men charged with "supporting terrorism" in Michigan

on MSNBC right now

more are involved in the area.

How long before it will be commonplace to see your neighbors dragged off to parts unknown?????!!!

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2006-08-10-ohio-terror-suspsects_x.htm

MARIETTA, Ohio (AP) — Investigators in southeast Ohio said they were working to unravel how two Michigan men charged with supporting terrorism came to have airplane passenger lists and airport security information.

Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, were being held at the Washington County jail on $200,000 bond each, which could be raised at a Thursday afternoon court hearing. Each was charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism.

Deputies stopped the two on a traffic violation Tuesday and found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in their car, Sheriff Larry Mincks said.

It wasn't clear what significance the airline information might have. Assistant County Prosecutor Susan Vessels declined to comment on whether the manifests were for upcoming flights or those that already had flown. She also would not give the origin or destination of the flight or flights.

why bother to post?

Ohio - hotbed of terrorists with a nice fluid border to MI.

and maps.

So obviously, in an ORANGE ALERT

see my first post.

Used to be on DU by the time I posted, 3 people would have added the link for me.

What has gone wrong!!

it was over by the time I turned it on.

would be my guess. What a monster machine we have to fight!

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060811/METRO/608110380

-snip-

Abulhassan graduated with a 3.95 grade-point average and counted a National Leadership Merit Award among the eight scholarship honors he earned on his way to enrolling at the University of Michigan. At 6-feet-1, he was a varsity basketball and football player with dreams of playing college basketball and going to law school.

Houssaiky was the captain of the 2003 football team, a Metro all-star running back and a recruit on the Grand Valley State University football team. He is now a student at Wayne State University.

Fordson High Principal Imad Fadlallah, who is also a friend and neighbor of the Abulhassan family, said police blew the incident out of proportion.

"These kids were just trying to make a couple dollars. They would buy the phones at Wal-Mart and sell them to vendors and gas stations to make $3 or $4 per phone," he said. "Osama is the son that anybody would dream of having, and to make a federal case out of something stupid like this is outrageous. Poor kid just happened to have the wrong name."

Fordson football coach Jeff Stergalas called the arrests shocking.

"They are outstanding kids," Stergalas said. "If you put up 100 kids, they would be the last ones I would ever guess could be involved in anything. Both of them come from very good families. They represented our school with utmost dignity, and represented the community with utmost dignity."

-snip-

more...

I find this story alarming.

http://www.wxyz.com/

Second story.

They're not terrahrists for wanting to blow up Wal-Mart, they're friggin heros.

to someone in Deerborn, Mich.

If you didn't see this ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1885068

check it out. PA state police want us to look for groups of "medium-complected" men in the woods, and write down their license plates and call it in to a tipline! We're supposed to be good little "scouts" against terrorism!

All bets are off, again. We're supposed to turn in anyone who isn't lily-white -- anyone who is doing anything or buying anything.

Yipes, America. Yipes!

anything to do with terrorism is to release whatever info they can to the media. The panic level of the people can't be allowed to subside.

possession of Expedia travel plans can put you in jail, eh?

So when are they going to start arresting people for using Google Earth?

The word "Overkill" now has new meaning as well..

I always wondered when the whole planet would go nuts.. always figured that when we hit a certain point in reproduction that something would trigger the human mind to start thinking that if everyone just got killed somehow things would be better, and that we can make up New Words to make it all okay..

I used to drive my old girlfriend crazy suggesting that in the future we really will be eating people, and that madison avenue will come up with all these media campaigns to convince us that Humans are the BEST FOOD there IS!

Looks like it won't be long now..

Poor kids, trying to make a buck, not even selling drugs and they get a 200 K bail. Someone should go to jail for this, and it's not these kids. I'd like to see some responsibility shown for all these convenient "mistakes" people make, like Rove, and Bush and Cheney, etc..

them like he did the Saudis against the 9-11 families, it should be a piece of cake. It won't be long before they start rounding up Muslims for the crime of being Muslim.

Driving while Muslim....

Automatic terrorism offense.

and the biggest TERROR Supporters on earth are the guys who'll be arresting us!

nt

The charge is "money laundering in support of terrorism".

so the aim of producing fear and obedience was achieved, despite the fudging on the facts.

Scared me! until I read down further...

Driving under the influence of Islam that they were picked up for.

maybe they could find the other one now?

Both men are charged w/money laundering. If they're going to actually convict them of this, they'll need a whole lot more than 2 guys w/cell phones & a Wal-Mart map. They'll need to trace the money & show that it actually originated from a terrorist organization.

And it doesn't look like they were traveling around selling cell phones. Instead, they traveled around buying cell phones at different Wal-Mart's & then selling the phones to one person/organization in Dearborn. Dearborn has a large Lebanese population & would presumably be a place where Hizbollah might have some fundraisers. And they intitially lied about why they bought the phones.
("Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted buying about 600 phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio, said sheriff's Maj. John Winstanley. They sold the phones to someone in Dearborn, Winstanley said.")

They bought Tackfone pre-paid cell phones, which aren't traceable. And they had $11,000 in cash in the car. It's definitely fishy, at the least. If they resold those phones to a terrorist org., it would become almost impossible for authorities to trace exactly who bought the phone & why.

I remember wondering if there was some cultural thing happening with buying up the phones and re-selling them to Muslim communities. Is this in fact the same story recycled by the CCM for this particular moment in time? Just to increase the fear quotient? Or a new case?

but it seems to be part of a pattern. I found an interesting article from a few months ago - is this what you're referring to?

Surge in Sale of Disposable Cell Phones May Have Terror Link

"Jan. 12, 2006 — Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.

The phones — which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card — have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists.

There's very little audit trail assigned to this phone. One can walk in, purchase it in cash, you don't have to put down a credit card, buy any amount of minutes to it, and you don't, frankly, know who bought this," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI official who is now an ABC News consultant.

Law enforcement officials say the phones were used to detonate the bombs terrorists used in the Madrid train attacks in March 2004."

This case seems to follow the same pattern - purchasing large quantitites of pre-paid cell phones w/cash. Those phones could then be re-sold to a terrorist or organized crime organization so that law enforcement couldn't trace their conversations, or even bomb detonations. Given all the circumstances here, I think there's at least a strong possibility that these guys weren't buying 600 cell phones as a hobby.

Looks ta may like yalls is terrariss like tha ones on that thar teevee show 24...

I's knew yalls hated us fer our freedom....

after being arrested for possession of a shit load of gunpowder.45,000 rounds of ammo,rifles,and plans of government buildings,oh yes he had scuba gear. he is facing more charges in kentucky for a garage full of ordnance...hey white guys have more fun....