Two Men Try To Buy Multiple Cell Phones In Ithaca

wnem tv5 ^ | Aug 11, 2006 04:18 PM CDT | WNEM TV5

[DannyTN]

(TV5) -- While FBI agents pour into Caro another incident breaks out in Gratiot County. At approximately 11:35am August 11th police were called to the Dollar General Store in Ithaca after a" clerk in Ithaca became suspicious after two men came into the store, and became upset when they were turned down while trying to buy several disposal cell phones.

TV5's Mike Terry spoke with the clerk who called police. She said they were two "Middle Eastern" men and said they've been coming into the store weekly and buying disposable cell phones. She said the same thing was happening at the dollar general store in Alma.

You might think the clerk became suspicious because of what was going on in Caro but when we asked the clerk she said she wasn't even aware of what was going on.

The policy at their store is that they can only sell two cell phones, per person, per day. She saw the men put the phones in the trunk of the car and when she thought they were coming back in, she called 9-1-1.

We did talk to Ithaca police while there has been no crime committed-they do want to find these men, and run their names against government watch lists.

[MinorityRepublican]

Seems like it. They want to shoot for something big, not Israeli-style terror attacks.

[DannyTN]

You still need them to coordinate, make things legal, warrants, etc. And don't forget we need someone to tell us what color we are at.

[PA Engineer]

Yep. Exactly what I was thinking. Heck a wireless computer can serve that purpose. All of the heavy bomb making materials are readilly available here in the states. Something big is being planned. I wonder if the cellphone outage in New York was a test run of a defensive response.

[conservative in nyc]

I suspect this is why NYC had a cell phone outage. I think Homeland Security may have pulled the plug while they figured out if a threat was imminent to NYC.

According to news reports, the Queens cell phone outage was caused by a water leak in a Queens Verizon switching station for Nextel cell phone service. It only affected Sprint Nextel subscribers on the old Nextel network in and around Queens (not all of NYC). I doubt Homeland Security had anything to do with the outage.

[callthemlikeyouseethem]

http://www.wnem.com/Global/story.asp?S=5271174

"Disposable cell phones have become a tool of terrorists for good reason they are untraceable, can be used to contact members of a terrorist cell and can even detonate explosives. Not to mention the buying and selling of the phones can be used to fund terrorism.

While police aren't saying yet that's what these phones would have been used for the mass amounts purchased are causing concern.

Tim Nausler with the Michigan State Police bomb squad says this has all the tell tale signs of using cell phones to detonate bombs. He says you need two phones to detonate a bomb one to be with the explosive and the other to make the call to that phone. In some instances he says you can detonate with one phone using the alarm clock function.

Nausler hasn't seen many if any incidents in Mid-Michigan where cell phones were used but does say it's very common practice in the Middle East."

[DannyTN]

I think I would have felt better if Homeland Security had been responsible for the outage. At least I'd know they have some preventive plans.

[Marius3188]

Could be the Next Generation of AQ and the like.

As you know, Southern Thailand has been dealing with the Cell phone terror use lately. It wouldn't surprise me if these people all are on a similar "school" teachings and methods.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0802/dailyUpdate.html

[RFC_Gal]

http://news.com.com/Mobile-phone+outage+hits+New+Yorks+outer+borough/2100-1039_3-6104339.html

A water leak in a Verizon Communications telephone switching facility has knocked out service to Sprint Nextel customers in the New York City borough of Queens for much of Thursday, Verizon confirmed.

The leak damaged equipment in a central office facility owned by Verizon in New York. Equipment from mobile-phone provider Sprint Nextel is housed in this facility, which switches traffic between the cellular access network and the traditional phone network.

[Paleo Conservative]

A "City of Evil" wannabe?

[Larry Lucido]

I see, this is Ithaca, Michigan. If it had been Ithaca, NY, the clerk would have been sent to sensitivity training and the city council would have established a fund to help those who can't afford multiple cell phones.

[Larry Lucido]

LOL!

[tina07]

If the throw away phones are untraceable, how could Homeland Security shut any of them off??

[taxesareforever]

LOL!

Also to tell us, "no sign of terrorism".

[saveliberty]

Absolutely

[tina07]

I guess it's because 'WE' are at war, not just Homeland Security? 'They' keep saying to be vigilant, so....

[stlnative]

Let's see... The $20 Tracfones come with 40 minutes of airtime before you have to refill the minutes on them.

So I'd say that they could probably set off about 80 cell phone connected bombs with one dialing cell phone that has 40 minutes of air time on it. (if they can dial each number within 30 seconds)

80 bomb connected cell phones x $20 = $1600
1 dialing cell phone with 40 minutes of airtime x $20 = $20

I am not sure how much the explosives would cost... but chances are setting off 80 cell phone connected bombs is pretty darn cheap for the terrorists.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Yet another group doing this?

Copycats perhaps.

[TomGuy]

I'm not seeing anything here that says they were trying to buy 100 of the things.

Separate incidents, different locations, starting in November 2005.

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Two Men Try To Buy Multiple Cell Phones In Ithaca
	Posted by DannyTN On News/Activism 08/12/2006 12:28:49 AM CDT · 11 replies · 216+ views wnem tv5 ^ | Aug 11, 2006 04:18 PM CDT | WNEM TV5 (TV5) -- While FBI agents pour into Caro another incident breaks out in Gratiot County. At approximately 11:35am August 11th police were called to the Dollar General Store in Ithaca after a" clerk in Ithaca became suspicious after two men came into the store, and became upset when they were turned down while trying to buy several disposal cell phones. TV5's Mike Terry spoke with the clerk who called police. She said they were two "Middle Eastern" men and said they've been coming into the store weekly and buying disposable cell phones. She said the same thing was happening at...

[staytrue]

Portable computers are too large with too short a battery life to be effective.

[Wilhelm Tell]

The liberals aren't concerned when some Middle-Eastern person buys 1000 phones. Even assuming most of the uses are innocent, there is still the potential for a cell phone to be misused and there is no easy way to tell. But the liberal response is, "We can't consider the possibility that the phones will be used by terrorists - let's just give them the benefit of the doubt and hope for the best." But when a citizen with no criminal history goes into a store to buy a gun, well, then the liberal gets paranoid! Suddenly, every gun is a crime waiting to happen and every citizen without a criminal record is considered suspect.