Cellphone Buys Lead to States' Terror Charges
But the Michigan and Ohio cases may unravel, raising questions about local power.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
August 16, 2006


WASHINGTON — Early this year, federal authorities alerted police departments around the country of the threat posed by people making bulk purchases of prepaid cellphones.

Authorities feared that the burgeoning underground market for the phones could be used to bankroll terrorists — or that the phones could be used as detonators to trigger a series of explosive attacks.

ADVERTISEMENTSo when five men in Ohio and Michigan were stopped last week in separate incidents and found to be carrying large numbers of the phones, local authorities decided to do their part in fighting the war on terrorism. The men were arrested and charged under state law with terrorism-related offenses that left them facing up to 20 years in prison.

But now the local cases against the men appear to be unraveling almost as quickly as they were stitched together.

The FBI has taken the unusual step of declaring publicly that it was unaware of any evidence linking the men to terrorists.

On Tuesday, a prosecutor in the Ohio case dismissed the terrorism-related charges, acknowledging that he did not have the evidence to make them stand in court. And defense lawyers in the Michigan case are going into court today to have the charges against their clients thrown out as well.

The arrests have raised questions about the role of state and local authorities when it comes to prosecuting terrorists — a function that has been the exclusive province of the federal government since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Though some of the federal cases have come under attack as targeting people who posed little threat to the country, the Michigan and Ohio cases are believed to be the first in recent memory brought under state law for terrorism-related crimes and show how states are starting to take matters into their own hands.

The Ohio charges were believed to be the first filed under a state anti-terrorism law enacted in April.

Lawyers and supporters of the men — all of Middle Eastern descent — said they believed that the men were arrested because of their ethnicity and that they were only looking to make some money by buying the phones and reselling them. They said the arrests reflected a worrisome trend.

"Unfortunately, these Barney Fife-like procedures of the police departments are increasing an Islamic-phobic atmosphere, which already exists in American society today," said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group. His reference was to the fictional deputy sheriff on the "The Andy Griffith Show" who was known for his exuberant, if bumbling, police work.

"I don't think that the prosecutor of a very small town has better intelligence information than the FBI," Walid said.

The authorities in Marietta, Ohio, and Caro, Mich., defended their work, which unfolded as the nation was in a state of heightened alert in the aftermath of a thwarted British terrorism plot.

Mark E. Reene, the prosecuting attorney for Tuscola County in Michigan, which includes Caro, said in a news release that he was standing by the charges.

He said the charges were authorized only after the Caro Police Department had contact with federal officials including those in the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

"The only objective has been to determine the facts and ensure the safety of the citizens of this county, state and country," Reene said. "It is important to note that the local law enforcement officials involved with this investigation have significant experience."

Triggering the arrests were purchases of a widely available consumer item — the prepaid cellphone. The phones are popular with consumers because they are sold with a fixed number of minutes, which lets users avoid spending more money on calls than they have budgeted. The phones don't require a service contract.

And, because the phones aren't linked to specific customers, the calls are essentially untraceable — a quality that has also made them popular with drug dealers and others who want to avoid having their calls traced.

In Ohio, Ali Houssaiky and Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, both of Dearborn, Mich., were stopped by sheriff's deputies for a traffic violation Aug. 8, then arrested after the deputies found 12 cellphones, $11,000 in cash, airplane passenger lists and information on airport security checkpoints.

Defense lawyers have said the flight information consisted of old papers left in the car by a relative who worked at an airport. The two men acknowledged buying about 600 phones in recent months as part of a moneymaking scheme.

James E. Schneider, the county prosecutor in Marietta, said in an interview that suspicions about the men were heightened because they initially gave deputies different names than appeared on their identification cards.

The men also said they were buying phones for a relative's construction business, but they later changed their story. Although Schneider agreed to dismiss the terrorism charges Monday, the men continue to face misdemeanor charges of falsification.

Schneider defended the local detective work and the prosecutorial about-face. He said authorities would continue to probe for terrorist links.

"I don't think it was a mistake to arrest these fellows, and I don't think it was a mistake to file the charges," Schneider said. "I think the course we are taking is the prudent course."

Asked about a statement by the FBI that the men had no links to terrorism, he said, "I have never talked to the FBI" about the case.

The Michigan arrests came after police were called early Friday to a Wal-Mart store in Caro where three men had bought 80 of the cellphones. Authorities had previously cautioned retailers to be wary of bulk purchasers of the devices.

Police ultimately found 1,000 of the phones in a minivan the men had rented, along with digital photos of the Mackinac Bridge that links Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

Nabih Ayad, an attorney representing the three men, said he would ask a judge today to dismiss charges of material support of a terrorist organization and surveillance of a vulnerable target and to free them. A magistrate ordered the men held on $750,000 cash bond each.

Ayad said that he was confident the charges would ultimately be dismissed and that the men, all Texas residents, were entrepreneurs rather than terrorists. "They viewed this as a business opportunity," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ome-nation

Why would anyone in their right mind, pay $5.00 more for these phones, when they can go buy them at any store near them?????

These people and the illegals use every legal loop hole we have to get their way.....DEPORT THEM ALL!