RE: 3 Arrested on Terrorism Charges in Mich. forbuyingprepaidcellphones

[Blanchard_Michael () emc com]

Right now we really don't know what they were going to do with those phones.  We certainly have god, plausible reasons 
for them buying the phones.

  Is the reason they got arrested was because they were middle eastern?  Or because they bought 1000 phones and it 
seemed suspicious?  
  Would have I been arrested for doing the same thing?  I'm a plain old bearded white guy who looks like he'd be more 
at home in the deep south or even better Montana, than in Eastern Mass (I would be too, actually).  Now would I be 
arrested for buying 1000 of those phones or simply denied to purchase that 4th phone at that wall mart?

  The only thing we know for sure is what WE would do with the phones....  Sell them at a profit most likely.

   What were those fellows going to do with those phones?  We may never know, but it sure did sound suspicious to me.  
Why take the batteries out?  Do they actually sell them without batteries?  Sounds kinda fishey to me... I can kinda 
see removing the packaging (probably a simple blister pack like a Matchbox car woul dbe packaged in. and I could 
understand removing the charger to sell on the side... But removing the batteries to sell JUST the phone?   Kinda 
fishey...  But illegal?  Not anywhere here in the states that I know of....

 Mike B


Michael P. Blanchard 
Antivirus / Security Engineer, CISSP, GCIH, CCSA-NGX, MCSE
Office of Information Security & Risk Management 
EMC ² Corporation 
4400 Computer Dr. 
Westboro, MA 01580 

-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Drsolly
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2006 3:13 PM
To: Dennis Henderson
Cc: funsec () linuxbox org
Subject: Re: [funsec] 3 Arrested on Terrorism Charges in Mich. forbuyingprepaidcellphones

On Sun, 13 Aug 2006, Dennis Henderson wrote:

> > > "They were being paid by check for the phones they purchased. This was
> > not
> > > cash under the table or some hidden thing," Baumgartel said. "These are
> > > college students. This is what college students do. They're more willing
> > to
> > > drive around to try to make money."
> >
> > And that's exactly what it sounds like to me - a perfectly legal
> > buy-it-cheap, sell-it-at-a-margin deal.
>
>
> We'll mark this for followup...  Its amazing how in denial some people are..
>
> First the tax evasion and money laundering aspect of this is gonna get them
> some time. Yes Solly, not what they were charged with(yet)

I didn't hear that they were charged with either of those.
 
> Second, a court of law will settle the terrorism charges. Innocent until
> proven guilty.
>
> If you were simply selling them at a profit, why go thru all the trouble of
> unpackaging them? If this was such a moneymaker, why not incorporate and do
> it legit? Make even more profit and not have to worry about the number of
> phones etc.

I already gave two reasons why you might do that. 

> LE and Intelligence services are damned if they do and damned if they
> dont... Connect the dots,  get critcized from the armchair swami's
> Don't connect the dots, get accused of incompentence...

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