Walmart Employee: Eagle Eyed Hero, or Paranoid Profiler?

Updates: FBI Cites No Terror Ties in Arrests, FBI: No imminent threat to the Mackinac

Three men are in jail for either plotting to blow up a bridge, or simply for trying to make a buck by reselling cell phones. The "local authorities" were not fooled by logical explanations. They know Arab terrorists when they see them. You can tell by the way they are so... Arab looking.

"An eagle-eyed Wal-Mart clerk in Caro, Michigan may have foiled a dastardly terrorist plot simply by alerting police to a suspicious purchase made by three men of Middle-Eastern descent, the Associated Press reports. Police are holding the men on terror charges because they bought 80 pre-paid cell phones in violation of Wal-Mart policy, which limits to three the number of phones one can buy.

The men said they bought the $20 TracFones with the intention of re-selling them to a merchant in Texas for $38. This makes perfect sense, as the phones are undoubtedly sold at a loss to be recovered through the subsequent sale of air-time credit - hence the purchase limit of three per customer. And removing the packages makes sense if the original purchase price is visible on them, while removing the chargers is a good idea if one wishes to sell them separately. But local authorities weren't fooled: they know that this is exactly the sort of "plausible" cover story that hardened terrorists are trained to concoct." - register

"Louai Abdelhamied Othman of Mesquite, along with his brother, Adham Abdelhamid Othman of Dallas, and their cousin Maruan Awad Muhareb of Mesquite, are charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes. Police found about 1,000 cell phones in the men's minivan. Authorities have not said what they think the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones. But the police chief in Caro, Mich., where they were arrested, said cell phones can be used as detonators. Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene told the Saginaw News in Michigan that investigators think the men were targeting the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. He declined to say what led investigators to that belief."

The investigators found a picture of the bridge and drew conclusions, it seems.