DETROIT (AP)--Last winter, federal authorities warned local officials to be on the lookout for anyone buying large numbers of prepaid cell phones - devices that could become potential tools for terrorists.
Authorities in Michigan and Ohio clearly listened: In the space of only a few days last week, they arrested five men and charged them with terrorism-related offenses.
But in the days since, the two cases have grown more complicated.
On Monday, an Ohio prosecutor said he was dropping the charges he brought against two Michigan men because he could not prove a terrorism link. And the FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that three Texas men arrested in Michigan had direct terror ties.
Prosecutors in Michigan, however, were standing by the charges against the three Palestinian-American men living in Texas, though they have not said what they believe the men intended to do with the phones.
Officials have said various illegal acts can be committed with prepaid cell phones, including using them as detonators, communicating among terrorists and using the batteries to make methamphetamine.
"I don't know how many of you have ever gone to a store to purchase 80-100 cell phones at a time," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday in Chicago. "I would consider that somewhat unusual and I think it would be perfectly legitimate to say, 'Hey, is there something going on here?"'
Supporters of the five men have said all along that their only purpose was to make money through a perfectly legitimate business and that they were targeted because of their Arab descent.
Tuscola County prosecutors have charged Maruan Awad Muhareb, 18, of Mesquite, Texas; Adham Abdelhamid Othman, 21, of Dallas; and Louai Abdelhamied Othman, 23, of Mesquite, with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.
The surveillance charge was connected to images of the Mackinac Bridge found on their digital camera, said William Kowalski, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit office. He said there was no imminent threat to the bridge.
Michigan State Police Director Col. Peter Munoz, who heads the state's homeland security efforts, said there was no indication the men were plotting to blow up the Mackinac Bridge "or target any other location in Michigan or elsewhere."
Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene, who charged the three men, would not comment on the status of the case. Representatives of his office and Caro police have consulted with officials from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. attorney's office.
Nabih Ayad, a defense attorney representing the Texas men, said that based on Monday's statements by the FBI and Munoz, he planned to file an emergency motion Tuesday for his clients' release on bond.
He said the photos of the Mackinac Bridge were innocent tourist snapshots taken while the men were stuck in traffic. "That's what people do when you see a tourist attraction: They take pictures," he said.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, Washington County Prosecutor James Schneider said he did not have enough evidence to prove that Ali Houssaiky and Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, both of Dearborn, Mich., had any link to terrorism.
The two 20-year-olds still face a misdemeanor charge of falsification - accused of lying about why they bought the phones. Felony charges of money laundering in support of terrorism and soliciting or providing support for acts of terrorism will be dropped, Schneider said.
Houssaiky and Abulhassan were arrested Aug. 8 in Marietta, Ohio, after they aroused suspicions by buying large numbers of prepaid cell phones, officials said.
The Texas men, Muhareb, Adham Othman and Louai Othman, were arrested Friday in Caro after purchasing 80 cell phones at a Wal-Mart, police said. Authorities said they found nearly 1,000 phones in their van.
Louai Othman's wife, Lina Odeh, has said the men were buying the phones to sell to a man in Dallas for a profit of about $5 per phone. She said they were in Michigan because so many people in the Dallas area are doing the same thing that the phones are often sold out.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent out joint bulletins in February and March to police departments nationwide warning about the bulk purchase of phones for personal profit or financing terrorism.
Antigo, Wis., Police Chief Bill Brandt said Monday that his officers stopped and questioned the three men last Wednesday in Antigo after they bought six cell phones at a Dollar General store and a clerk called police.
Officers asked for identification, got a vehicle description and a license plate number, the police chief said. The men told officers that they buy cell phones, take them to Texas, sell them there "and make big money," Brandt said.
Brandt said they were cooperative. "They had no problem identifying themselves," he said.,
The men's information was relayed to the state Department of Justice in Milwaukee, Brandt said.
The police chief said the trio was at least the third group that have been questioned this summer in Antigo after attempting to buy multiple cell phones.
"The only reason the local businesses are regulating the number of phone purchases is because we have asked them to and nobody is quite sure of what happens to these phones," he said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 16th August 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/18866.php