Man Questioned -- Again -- For Pre-paid Cell Phones(WestVirginia)
Posted Tuesday, January 9, 2007
A Michigan man was questioned Friday during a routine traffic stop after Philippi police found 90 pre-paid, or TRAC, cellular phones in his car.
The unusual discovery prompted officers to contact federal authorities, following alerts that large quantities of the phones have been linked to terrorist activity.
At 5:08 p.m. Friday, police stopped Hashem Sayed, 24, on Route 119 near its intersection with Hackers Creek Road. According to the traffic citation, Sayed was heading north towards Grafton and was driving left of center. Barbour County Prosecutor Lynn Phillips said he had about 90 TRAC phones with him. Police questioned Sayed and the two others with him.
The police contacted federal authorities, but officers soon released Sayed. Phillips said the investigation is considered complete at the local level. Bill Crowley, an FBI spokesman, could not confirm or deny any ongoing investigation Monday.
This is not the first time Sayed, of Dearborn, Mich., has raised a red flag. In August, Grafton police pulled him over for a routine traffic stop. What they found in his car was far from routine: more than 150 TRAC phones. It may have been unusual, but not illegal. Still, the police contacted federal authorities. At the time, Sayed said he was buying them to ship to California to sell for a profit. Authorities let him go.
Cases like this have the FBI on high alert. Last February, the agency sent out a bulletin warning local law enforcement of links between the pre-paid cell phones and terrorist activity. The phones' digital frequency has been used to detonate car bombs overseas. In Marietta, Ohio, two Michigan men were found last August with a large quantity of phones. In the past year, men with large numbers of cell phones have been found across the country. Some have been arrested on terror charges.
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=18400
Here is the article on Hashem Sayed's August 2006 run in with the WV authorities:
Jan 12, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Ethiopian-backed government forces captured the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic movement in southern Somalia, the Somali defense minister said Friday, hours after warlords met with the president and promised to enlist their militiamen in the army.
Excerpted
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article19726
Nigeria’s next president almost sure to be Muslim
January 12, 2007
ABUJA, Nigeria — The minarets of the national mosque and the tower of the main cathedral soar to equal heights over Nigeria’s capital, neither eclipsing the other.
Religious leaders engineered the parity of spires to promote unity amid sectarian violence unleashed at the end of military rule in 1999. Just as deliberately, after eight years of rule by an elected southern Christian, all the main political parties have nominated northern, Muslim candidates for this year’s presidential race.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2007/01/12/3321577-ap.html
Thanks Oorang.
An interesting subject -- a subject of interest.