Can someone explain to a simpleton like me

[News Shooter]

What is the deal with buying a thousand cell phones? Doesn't it only take one to set off a bomb?
How exactly would it work? Why so many?

This one just doesn't sound right to me.

 

[SiameseRat]

Because why use one bomb when you can use a thousand?

 

[patio]

The cell phones were not being used to set off bombs. The cell phones were being purchased, stripped from their packaging and resold on eBay for a profit. The money was then being used to fund terrorist activities. Similarly, things like baby forumla are stolen and resold for a profit. Most terrorist activity in the United States is raising funds and logisitics.

 

[News Shooter]

That's what I heard

The cell phones were not being used to set off bombs. The cell phones were being purchased, stripped from their packaging and resold on eBay for a profit. The money was then being used to fund terrorist activities. Similarly, things like baby forumla are stolen and resold for a profit. Most terrorist activity in the United States is raising funds and logisitics.

But the cops keep saying they were targeting the makinac bridge..i guess I lost something in translation

 

[patio]

But the cops keep saying they were targeting the makinac bridge..i guess I lost something in translation

I went back and found a few more articles, no mention of the bridge but some addressed the issue of using them as detonators, other addressed using them for harder to trace communication and one even mentioned using the batteries for making meth. Whatever the case may be, good to know someone had their eyes open and helped take another small link out of the chain.

 

[Mike508]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/NEWS99/60814024

FBI: No imminent threat to the Mackinac

August 14, 2006

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CARO  There is no imminent threat to the Mackinac Bridge, the FBI said Monday, two days after local prosecutors charged three Texas men with terrorism-related counts and said they were targeting the 5-mile-long span.

The FBI also said there was no information indicating that the men have any direct link to terrorism.

Maruan Awad Muhareb, 18, of Mesquite, Texas; Adham Abdelhamid Othman, 21, of Dallas; and Louai Abdelhamied Othman, 23, of Mesquite, were stopped by police Friday outside a Wal-Mart store in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit in the states agricultural Thumb region, after employees became suspicious over their purchase of 80 cell phones.

Authorities say the men had about 1,000 cell phones in their van.

They were charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.

Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene told reporters Saturday that investigators believe the men were targeting the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigans Upper and Lower peninsulas. He did not say why they believed that.

In response, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had increased patrols near the bridge.
In a statement Monday, Reene said representatives of his office and Caro police met Sunday to discuss the case with officials from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. attorneys office. He said all the agencies were working together on the investigation.

Authorities in Caro have not said what they believe the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones. But Caros police chief said cell phones can be used as detonators, and prosecutors in a similar case in Ohio have said that TracFones often are used by terrorists because they are not traceable.

 

[Another_David]

There's been exceptionally poor reporting on this topic. All the agencies were spewing info about it but most read as if every other word was left out.

I've always thought the weekend news is half-ass at best. I've had similar suspisions of doctors that cover the weekend shift at the hospitals too! The weekenders seem to just hold down the fort until the full staff returns.

 

[KMaurer]

I think that it's almost certain that one of two things will exentually happen. Either there's a lot of specific exidence of a terrorist connection that hasn't been even aluded to so far in the media CF, or everbody is going to be released and all charges dropped. So far all I've heard is that they bought a bunch of merchandise that they hoped to re-sell at a profit. If that's illegal, every business in America that doesn't deal exclusively in providing services is guilty. Anybody who earns money by any means, might use it to fund terrorism. Or are we supposed to convict them simply because they're Palestinian?

Ken

 

[chobicus]

Or are we supposed to convict them simply because they're Palestinian?

ISLAMOFASCISTS

SEA OF GLASS

Honestly, they'll probably get off scot free, and rightly so. It's gotten too much attention to whisk them off away to Gitmo.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

There's been exceptionally poor reporting on this topic. All the agencies were spewing info about it but most read as if every other word was left out.

I've always thought the weekend news is half-ass at best. I've had similar suspisions of doctors that cover the weekend shift at the hospitals too! The weekenders seem to just hold down the fort until the full staff returns.

I agree with you on the poor reporting issues and even the "Weekend News" but having a doctor in the family, I can assure you that its the same doctors on weekends as it is during the week. They rotate on call status on a regular basis so everyone has some weekend time off.

 

[Chris]

What is the deal with buying a thousand cell phones? Doesn't it only take one to set off a bomb?
How exactly would it work? Why so many?

This one just doesn't sound right to me.

Frankly, about as much as the Branch Davidians buying a lot of guns. Nothing illegal. But you are different, and we can build a spin against you in the media, and make your life miserable, and we can murder you n live TV and get away with it - - so nah nah nah...

OR something like that.

 

[Another_David]

I agree with you on the poor reporting issues and even the "Weekend News" but having a doctor in the family, I can assure you that its the same doctors on weekends as it is during the week. They rotate on call status on a regular basis so everyone has some weekend time off.

I chose my words poorly. I don't doubt that the doctors working weekends are any less qualified. The hospital service as a whole seems to go in to a holding pattern over the weekend.

Plus, in my few experiences, the covering doctors don’t want to make any major decisions; they’re just there to keep the patient alive until the primary returns.

 

[KMaurer]

ISLAMOFASCISTS

SEA OF GLASS

Honestly, they'll probably get off scot free, and rightly so. It's gotten too much attention to whisk them off away to Gitmo.

So Palestinian == Islamofascist. That will come as a real shock to quite a few of the Palestinians I know who have suffered their entire lives under the delusion that they were Christians. But, what the heck, as long as it's in the name of security and doesn't require any hard thinking.

Ken