Three men face terror charges in phone buys

Saturday, August 12, 2006 The men were found with nearly 1,000 phones. CARO, Mich. (AP) — Three men of Middle Eastern descent were arrested Friday and were being held on terrorism charges after they bought 80 prepaid cell phones from a Wal-Mart store, police said. The men, who are from the Dallas area, were being held on charges of soliciting or providing material support for terrorism and obtaining information of a vulnerable target for the purposes of terrorism, Caro police Sgt. Dale Stevenson said. They were being held in Tuscola County Jail and were scheduled to be arraigned today. Stevenson declined to explain why the men face terrorism-related charges. "I'm not going to comment on that," he said. He said he did not know if the men are U.S. citizens. Telephone messages were left Friday with the Tuscola County prosecutor's office and the FBI, which assisted police with the investigation. Stevenson said the men, who are 18, 22, and 23, went to a 24-hour Wal-Mart store in Caro early Friday and purchased the cell phones despite a store policy limiting customers to three phones per purchase. A Wal-Mart clerk who thought the purchases were suspicious alerted police. "They target these stores late in the morning hoping to get an inexperienced clerk," Stevenson said. Police stopped the men's van about 1:30 a.m. and found nearly 1,000 phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones, along with a laptop computer and a bag of receipts, Stevenson said. The receipts were from several locations, including a Wisconsin store. The men told police they were buying the phones, which cost about $20 and come with a charger, taking them out of their packaging and selling them for about $38 without the charger. Police held the men while they investigated, and the prosecutor's office authorized the charges about 5 p.m., Stevenson said. The arrests in Caro, about 90 miles north of Detroit, came three days after two men from the Detroit suburb of Dearborn were arrested in Marietta, Ohio, where police said they aroused suspicions when they acknowledged buying about 600 phones in recent months at stores in southeast Ohio. Investigators in Marietta, a city of about 14,000 near West Virginia, found a map in the men's car showing locations of Wal-Mart stores in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. Authorities also said the men had information about airline flights and airports in their car. Charges The Dearborn men, Ali Houssaiky and Osama Abulhassan, both 20, have been charged with two felonies — money laundering in support of terrorism and soliciting or providing support for acts of terrorism — and misdemeanor falsification. A preliminary hearing on the felony counts was set for Tuesday. Defense lawyers said Houssaiky and Abulhassan planned to resell the phones simply to make money and the flight information consisted of old papers left in the car by a relative who worked at an airport. Abulhassan's family released a statement Friday through the Ohio public defender's office saying there are no facts that tie Abulhassan's and Houssaiky's business transactions to any wrongdoing. "The only illusory connection advanced by the prosecution to date is based on race and national origin," the statement said. "This appears to be a typical case of racial profiling and we are confident Osama and Ali will be exonerated." Prosecutors in Ohio have said the prepaid phones can be used to make hard-to-track international calls and have been linked to use by terrorists. But a cell phone store owner has said cheap, prepaid phones are popular among teenagers. An employee at the Caro Wal-Mart referred questions to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., where a telephone message was left seeking comment.