Terrorism plot foiled in the U.K. ... and at a Radio Shack in Ohio

[Tear Down This Wall]

Big Plots; Little Plots
By Rich Galen
Friday, August 11, 2006


British police and MI-5 "thwarted" [a word which has not been used in conversation for the past 150 years until today] a plot to blow up between six and ten US airliners while they were crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Heathrow to JFK or Dulles or LAX.

The Home Secretary held a press conference in London along with the deputy top cop of the London Metropolitan Police.

About an hour later, the Secretary of Homeland Security in Washington had one and was joined by the Attorney General and the head of the FBI.

Helicopters hovered over the flats where the terrorists had lived, met, plotted and, presumably, been caught.

As the morning wore on great (and well deserved) kudos were heaped on the police, intelligence, and security services in the UK, the US and Pakistan for banding together to stop this horrific act.

Meanwhile … In Marietta, Ohio another plot was broken up.

You know about Marietta, Ohio 45750. It is the place where I went to college; met and married the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices; witnessed the birth of The Lad; and served on the City Council.

This, more or less, is what happened, as reported by Brad Bauer in the Marietta Times:

Two guys walked into the Radio Shack in Marietta, Ohio and bought a number of pre-paid cell phones - maybe a dozen. The two guys refused to give the Radio Shack salesman their names when they wanted to purchase time on two of the phones, which the Radio Shack salesman thought was strange.

So, he called the Sheriff's office and told them about these two guys and the cell phones and the name thing.

The Sheriff sent a car out looking for the two guys, found it, and got in behind it.

At some point, the two guys with all the phones but no names made a turn without having first put on their turn signal.

Whoop! Whoop! Traffic stop.

The Sheriff's deputy gets up to the car, sees about a dozen cell phones and what turned out to be $11,000 in cash. And smells Marijuana.

Cell Phones. Turn signal violation. Marijuana. Ohhh, kaaaayyy, boys. Why'nt cha just step out of the car, slowly, and let me see your hands.

The two guys, it turns out have names which happen to be Osama Sabhi Abulhassan and Ali Houssaiky (no kin to the Houssaiky or Abulhassan families from the neighboring town of Coal Run, Ohio, I'm told.)

It comes to pass that they lied to the deputy about what they were doing with all the phones and what with the name thing and the turn signal thing and the Marijuana thing they were arrested on a charge of "obstructing official business."

After the bust, the Deputies searched the car and found a map showing every Wal-Mart from Michigan to South Carolina, as well as airline passenger lists and airport security information, and so they called the Feds.

Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted to buying over 600 phones in the area over the past few weeks and, further, explained how they took the phones apart and sent the chips to some other guy in Dearborn, Michigan who paid them a five dollar profit on each phone.

Then they explained how "they send these [phones] overseas and they use the chips against the troops detonating bombs."

Old Osama and Ali must'a slept through the training session on not spilling your guts about international terrorism after you've been busted on a traffic violation.

The Feds showed up and the charge of obstructing official business was dropped in favor of a charge of money laundering on behalf of Hezbollah which, as a former reporter and City Councilman, I don't believe is a listed offense in the Marietta, Ohio Code of Ordinances.

The two are now being held on $200,000 bond each in the Marietta lockup.

That's the way this war on terrorism is fought. CIA, FBI, MI-5 on the one hand. A Radio Shack salesman who smelled something funny and the Sheriff's department of a small county in Ohio on the other.

Both worked.

It was a good day for the good guys.

[mdklatt]

Then they explained how "they send these [phones] overseas and they use the chips against the troops detonating bombs."


In all the stories I've seen about this, the two deny any terrorist connections. Their lawyer claims they were just reselling the phones back home to make some money. Riiiiiiiiiight. Like they don't have Radio Shacks in Detroit?

The lawyer also said the Wal-Mart maps and airline information must have been left in the car by somebody else. Riiiiiight.

[SoonerInKCMO]

In all the stories I've seen about this, the two deny any terrorist connections. Their lawyer claims they were just reselling the phones back home to make some money. Riiiiiiiiiight. Like they don't have Radio Shacks in Detroit?

The lawyer also said the Wal-Mart maps and airline information must have been left in the car by somebody else. Riiiiiight.

Man, they ain't got **** in Detriot. :D

[mdklatt]

Man, they ain't got **** in Detriot. :D

Then maybe they're telling the truth! :eddie:

[Tear Down This Wall]

In the lawyers' defense, he's got to say something. After all, he's their attorney :D Scott Pederson had an attorney, too. I very high profile one. Attorneys gotta say what they gotta say, but...it seems these boys may have hung themselves with their own candid discussion of what they were doing. Look for said attorney to attack the interview process.

Off the subject a little here, but I've been faced with customers in my business before who were foreign and were very guarded about what information they provided. I simply didn't do business with them. There are too many legitimate business people out there, native and foreign, who will give me all the information I need for me to help them, so I just don't monkey with those who are secretive and over protective of basic information like name, address, and phone number.

[mdklatt]

Off the subject a little here, but I've been faced with customers in my business before who were foreign and were very guarded about what information they provided. I simply didn't do business with them. There are too many legitimate business people out there, native and foreign, who will give me all the information I need for me to help them, so I just don't monkey with those who are secretive and over protective of basic information like name, address, and phone number.

Those contractors on the Death Star knew what they were getting into.

:D

[Scott D]

Man, they ain't got **** in Detriot. :D

..!..

[TUSooner]

Big Plots; Little Plots
By Rich Galen
Friday, August 11, 2006


British police and MI-5 "thwarted" [a word which has not been used in conversation for the past 150 years until today] a plot to blow up between six and ten US airliners while they were crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Heathrow to JFK or Dulles or LAX.

The Home Secretary held a press conference in London along with the deputy top cop of the London Metropolitan Police.

About an hour later, the Secretary of Homeland Security in Washington had one and was joined by the Attorney General and the head of the FBI.

Helicopters hovered over the flats where the terrorists had lived, met, plotted and, presumably, been caught.

As the morning wore on great (and well deserved) kudos were heaped on the police, intelligence, and security services in the UK, the US and Pakistan for banding together to stop this horrific act.

Meanwhile … In Marietta, Ohio another plot was broken up.

You know about Marietta, Ohio 45750. It is the place where I went to college; met and married the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices; witnessed the birth of The Lad; and served on the City Council.

This, more or less, is what happened, as reported by Brad Bauer in the Marietta Times:

Two guys walked into the Radio Shack in Marietta, Ohio and bought a number of pre-paid cell phones - maybe a dozen. The two guys refused to give the Radio Shack salesman their names when they wanted to purchase time on two of the phones, which the Radio Shack salesman thought was strange.

So, he called the Sheriff's office and told them about these two guys and the cell phones and the name thing.

The Sheriff sent a car out looking for the two guys, found it, and got in behind it.

At some point, the two guys with all the phones but no names made a turn without having first put on their turn signal.

Whoop! Whoop! Traffic stop.

The Sheriff's deputy gets up to the car, sees about a dozen cell phones and what turned out to be $11,000 in cash. And smells Marijuana.

Cell Phones. Turn signal violation. Marijuana. Ohhh, kaaaayyy, boys. Why'nt cha just step out of the car, slowly, and let me see your hands.

The two guys, it turns out have names which happen to be Osama Sabhi Abulhassan and Ali Houssaiky (no kin to the Houssaiky or Abulhassan families from the neighboring town of Coal Run, Ohio, I'm told.)

It comes to pass that they lied to the deputy about what they were doing with all the phones and what with the name thing and the turn signal thing and the Marijuana thing they were arrested on a charge of "obstructing official business."

After the bust, the Deputies searched the car and found a map showing every Wal-Mart from Michigan to South Carolina, as well as airline passenger lists and airport security information, and so they called the Feds.

Abulhassan and Houssaiky admitted to buying over 600 phones in the area over the past few weeks and, further, explained how they took the phones apart and sent the chips to some other guy in Dearborn, Michigan who paid them a five dollar profit on each phone.

Then they explained how "they send these [phones] overseas and they use the chips against the troops detonating bombs."

Old Osama and Ali must'a slept through the training session on not spilling your guts about international terrorism after you've been busted on a traffic violation.

The Feds showed up and the charge of obstructing official business was dropped in favor of a charge of money laundering on behalf of Hezbollah which, as a former reporter and City Councilman, I don't believe is a listed offense in the Marietta, Ohio Code of Ordinances.

The two are now being held on $200,000 bond each in the Marietta lockup.

That's the way this war on terrorism is fought. CIA, FBI, MI-5 on the one hand. A Radio Shack salesman who smelled something funny and the Sheriff's department of a small county in Ohio on the other.

Both worked.

It was a good day for the good guys.
Good-oh!

[Tear Down This Wall]

I've been thinking...so hold on to your hats...

Now, it's obviously that some of these Arabs have some ingenuity. I mean, cell phone-bomb trigger thingys. Please.

I ask, why, if they can think up this stuff, why can they just apply that kind of effort into getting along with the rest of the planet. I mean, imagine all of the time and effort they take making these ridiculously insiduous plots. Couldn't they be doing something more useful to the common good, the world economy...heck even the economy of their crappy countries?

It's like a waste of talent. They can obviously do stuff, but they use their powers for evil instead of good.

Radio Shack. Go figure.

[mdklatt]

Now, it's obviously that some of these Arabs have some ingenuity.


The last original idea an Arab had was the concept of zero. :pop:

[Tear Down This Wall]

:D

[OklahomaTuba]

The last original idea an Arab had was the concept of zero. :pop:

That's really funny. :D

[SCOUT]

They picked up three more for buying boatloads of prepaid cell phones.

Dallas-area men face terrorism charges
07:03 AM CDT on Saturday, August 12, 2006
Associated Press

AP
The suspects were driving a blue minivan with Texas license plates.
CARO, Mich. — Three men were arrested Friday on charges of supporting terrorism after they purchased 80 prepaid mobile phones from a Wal-Mart store, police said.
The men, all from the Dallas area, were being held on charges of soliciting or providing material support for terrorism and obtaining information of a vulnerable target for the purposes of terrorism, police Sgt. Dale Stevenson said. They told investigators they planned to resell the phones to a wholesaler for profit, police said.
Stevenson declined to elaborate on how the case relates to terrorism. Telephone messages were left Friday with the Tuscola County prosecutor's office and the FBI, which assisted with the investigation.
The men, ages 18, 22 and 23, were being held in Tuscola County Jail and scheduled to be arraigned Saturday.
Stevenson said the men went to a 24-hour Wal-Mart store in Caro early Friday and bought the cell phones despite a store policy limiting customers to three phones per purchase. A Wal-Mart clerk who thought the purchases were suspicious alerted police.
"They target these stores late, in the morning, hoping to get an inexperienced clerk," Stevenson said.
Police stopped the men's van about 1:30 a.m. and found nearly 1,000 phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones, along with a laptop computer and a bag of receipts, Stevenson said.
"The cell phones can be used as detonators. Batteries can be disassembled and used to make methamphetamine. Obviously there's something wrong here," Caro Police Chief Ben Page said.

AP
The men had nearly 1,000 mobile phones in their van, police said.
The men told police they were buying the phones, which cost about $20 and come with a charger, taking them out of their packaging and selling them to a wholesaler in Texas for about $38 without the charger.
The arrests in Caro, about 90 miles north of Detroit, come three days after two men were arrested in Marietta, Ohio, where police said they piqued suspicions when they acknowledged buying about 600 phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio.
Investigators found information about airline flights and airports in their car.
The men, Ali Houssaiky and Osama Abulhassan, both 20 and from Dearborn, have been charged with two felonies—money laundering in support of terrorism and soliciting or providing support for acts of terrorism—and misdemeanor falsification. A preliminary hearing on the felony counts was set for Tuesday.
Defense lawyers said Houssaiky and Abulhassan planned to resell the phones simply to make money and the flight information consisted of old papers left in the car by a relative who worked at an airport.
"The only illusory connection advanced by the prosecution to date is based on race and national origin," Abulhassan's family said in a statement. "This appears to be a typical case of racial profiling and we are confident Osama and Ali will be exonerated."
Prosecutors in Ohio have said the prepaid phones can be used to make hard-to-track international calls and have been linked to use by terrorists.
Wal-Mart has an agreement with cell phone manufactures to enforce a limit of three cell phones per purchase, said John Simley, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark.
"We're providing law enforcement officials with all the information we can to help with the ongoing investigation," Simley said. "We are not discussing the purchases or other details pertinent to the incidents."



http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa060812_wz_terrorphones.991dfb0.html

[critical_phil]

.. why can('t) they just apply that kind of effort into getting along with the rest of the planet. I mean, imagine all of the time and effort they take making these ridiculously insiduous plots. Couldn't they be doing something more useful to the common good...



for the same reasons that meth cooks don't go ahead and get chemistry degrees?

[Soonerpsycho]

End of the world nigh? :eek:


Apocalypse Now?

Is Iran planning a cataclysmic strike for August 22?

By Joel C. Rosenberg

Is Iran planning an apocalyptic strike against Israel and/or the United States for August 22? If so, what should the U.S. do to protect Americans and our ally? Such questions are worrying a growing number of officials in the White House, at the CIA, and at the Pentagon, and for good reason.

As a devout Shiite Muslim, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is telling colleagues in Tehran that he believes the end of the world is rapidly approaching. He also believes that the way to hasten the coming of the Islamic Messiah known as the “Hidden Imam” or the “Mahdi” is to launch a catastrophic global jihad, first against Israel (the “little Satan”) and then against the U.S. (the “Great Satan”). What’s more, Ahmadinejad is widely believed to be pursuing nuclear weapons that would give him the ability to carry out his apocalyptic religious views. Some experts even speculate that Iran may already have several atomic bombs and the means to deliver them.

In recent days, Ahmadinejad and his advisers have said that Iran will answer the world regarding the future of its nuclear program on August 22. That happens to be a very significant date for Muslims: It is the anniversary of the supposed “night flight” by Mohammed from Saudi Arabia to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to heaven and back again. There is a worry that Ahmadinejad is planning some sort of apocalyptic attack as his ‘“response” on August 22. If so, time is short and the clock is ticking.

It is hard for many Americans to imagine an Iranian leader (or any other world leader) actually trying to bring about the end of the world by launching a nuclear attack to destroy millions of Jews and Christians. But it is precisely this type of attack that I wrote about in my recent political thrillers, The Ezekiel Option and The Copper Scroll. One of my goals was to help people understand this brand of radical Islamic thinking and its implications for Western civilization. On page 358 of The Ezekiel Option, a fictional Islamic character insists that Israel is going to be “wiped off the face of the map forever.” Five months after Option was published last June, Ahmadinejad gave a speech vowing to wipe Israel “off the map” forever. In the novel, Iran forms a military alliance with Russia and starts buying state-of-the-art weaponry from Moscow to accomplish its apocalyptic objectives. Last December, fiction again became reality, when Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to buy missiles and others weapons.

Muslims are not the only ones who have apocalyptic end-times views, of course. As an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish heritage, my novels are based on a number of “end times” prophecies that the Bible says will be fulfilled in “the last days.” For example, the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel — writing 2,500 years ago — described a future Middle Eastern war to annihilate Israel that is known today by Bible scholars as the “War of Gog and Magog.” Jews and Christians who take Ezekiel’s prophecies seriously believe that at the last minute the God of Israel will supernaturally intervene to defeat Israel’s enemies in this war. By contrast, the Muslim version of the “War of “Gog and Magog“ found in the Koran concludes with Muslims winning. The Ezekiel Option and The Copper Scroll imagine how such prophecies could play themselves out in modern times. But suddenly this is no longer the stuff of fiction. Ahmadinejad actually seems intent on launching the “War of Gog and Magog.”

Bernard Lewis of Princeton University, arguably the world’s foremost expert on Middle Eastern history, wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal last Tuesday warning that Ahmadinejad’s apocalyptic objectives could lead to a “cataclysmic” attack on August 22. Lewis observed that there it is not possible to say with any certainty that such an attack is planned, but he felt compelled to explain to Americans just how dangerous Ahmadinejad’s thinking is, especially in light of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian “end times” theology, such as the “War of Gog and Magog” and “Armageddon.” How, Lewis asked, can you negotiate with a man who believes it is his religious duty and mission to bring about the end of the world? How can you deter a man who wants to die and go to paradise, but believes he won’t actually die in such a war because Allah is on his side to kill millions of “infidels”?

Lewis’s warning was prudent and needed, as was his careful explanation of the apocalyptic thinking driving the Iranian leadership at present. But Lewis’s conclusion was puzzling. He writes:

“How then can one confront such an enemy, with such a view of life and death?” he wrote. “Some immediate precautions are obviously possible and necessary. In the long term, it would seem that the best, perhaps the only hope is to appeal to those Muslims, Iranians, Arabs and others who do not share these apocalyptic perceptions and aspirations, and feel as much threatened, indeed even more threatened, than we are. There must be many such, probably even a majority in the lands of Islam. Now is the time for them to save their countries, their societies and their religion from the madness of MAD [the Cold War policy of Mutual Assured Destruction].”

’This is indeed a wise “long-term” strategy, trying to win over Islamic moderates, but Lewis writes as if the danger posed by Iran is not an immediate one, as if we have the luxury of relying on far-sighted strategies. But ’Lewis himself is suggesting that Iran may be planning “cataclysmic” attacks to begin as early as August 22. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for long-term planning. We all hope and pray that August 22 is not the day Ahmadinejad has chosen to launch the apocalypse, but there is little doubt in the White House and at the CIA that the Iranian leader is feverishly trying to build, buy, or steal nuclear weapons, and that he will quite likely use them once he has them.

All of this raises very serious questions for the president and the nation. How much time do we have to pursue a diplomatic track with Iran? At what point do we have to conclude that negotiations are going nowhere? Are we prepared to live with a nuclear-armed Iran? If so, how? If not, what is the president prepared to do to protect Americans and our allies from an Iranian nuclear-strike, or nuclear blackmail?

In his famous “axis of evil” speech on January 29, 2002, President Bush made the following case:

“We will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology, and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction. We will develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect America and our allies from sudden attack. And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation’s security. We’ll be deliberate, yet time is not on our side. I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.”

Today, the country is deeply divided over whether using military force in Iraq was the right thing to do. But the Iranian nuclear threat is now far worse than the Iraqi threat of having or obtaining weapons of mass destruction was then. President Bush has a decision to make and precious little time to make it. For let’s be clear: should Iran go nuclear on this president’s watch, all the gains made to date in the War on Terror will be wiped out overnight. That is not a legacy this president wants, nor one this nation can afford.

— Joel C. Rosenberg, a one-time aide to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, is a New York Times best-selling author of Middle East-based political thrillers. His new novel is The Copper Scroll. His forthcoming non-fiction book is entitled Epicenter: Why The Current Rumblings In The Middle East Will Change Your World.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWNmMWM5MjhhMzVjZTM0ZmI1ZmJlYzAxNzU3NDEyMWI=

[Okla-homey]

End of the world? Whatever. I know where I've been and I'm certain of my salvation and the salvation of my loved ones. Bring it. It would probably be very cool to watch anyway.;)

[SicEmBaylor]

I use the term "thwarted" regularly.