cardsfan

What is up with the threat to Mackinaw Bridge? My wife and I are supposed to be heading that way this Sat. Is it safe? Are there extra precautions in place? I know the suspects are from Dearborn-any local info is appreciated.

buckeyemom

From what I saw on the news, they arrested a bunch of men who had cell phones in MI and they think they were targeting the Mackinaw Bridge. IMHO, you are probably more at risk driving up there on I-75 then actually crossing the bridge.

TheWeasel

"IMHO, you are probably more at risk driving up there on I-75 then actually crossing the bridge."

Agreed. The bridge is what, 5 miles long or so. The odds of being on it when it's blown up are so incredibly low I doubt it's possible to even calculate them. And seeing as they've arrested 5 men now, I'm sure there will be extra security and checks of the bridge, so I really doubt anything will happen.

P_M

YIKES, this is the first I'm hearing of this. I'm glad they caught those bad guys.

JJ5

I'll give you something more likely to worry about. If you are cardsfan, you are coming from St. Louis, right?

Well I-80/94 through IN has had two different (suposedly) suspects or parties (1 was caught- other not if you believe the reports) that have been taking pot shots at cars from the overpasses. The last uncaught one is operating on Cline Ave. and has downgraded to using window busting b-b type pellets instead of bullets. This has been going on for about a month.

2 died the first week, and since then it has been broken glass injuries, but nothing serious. We drive through IN about 4 times a month. So do about 1/2 the truckers in the country. But a traffic accident is far, far more likely regardless.

SuzieTrue

Just got back today from a week of camping in Northern Ontario. Crossing the BIG MAC was not a problem. Crossing the border into the states was more challenging. Most cars were having their trunks inspected. So glad DH and I have our passports. Answered a few questions and we were on our way.

buckeyemom

They also nabbed a couple of guys in Marietta, Ohio, near the Ohio River with around 1,000 Trac Fones. Apparently, you can't trace Trac Fones and they are using them in Iraq to detonate road side bombs.

The guys had recipts from various Wal-Marts across the Midwest for these phones. An alert Wal-Mart clerk alerted aluthorities. In addition, this group had airline manifests and passenger lists on them.

Same with the group in MI. They had recipts from various Wal-Marts across the midwest for those phones. They said they were college kids looking to resell them.

Keith

This mornings Cheboygan (closest daily newspaper to the Bridge) Tribune says that traffic flow has been normal on the Mackinac Bridge since the arrests.

Keith

aceplace

I'd be skeptical about the guilt of those two men... the only evidence against them so far are the phones they bought from Wakl-Mart... no explosives, no bomb-making equipment, no apparent connection with terrorists. Just phones. And nobody needs a thousand cell phones to blow up a bridge. People who implode buildings for a living just need a few dozen charges, not a thousand.

Could it be just paranoia, after the airline plot coming from the UK? The fear-based gut reaction is to overreact, and round up anybody and everybody, which is a nice goal for a terrorist organization. With just a few hundred thousand dollars, terrorists managed to severely disrupt the US air transport system after 9/11... and it looks like they've done it again. And a backlash against innocent Arab-Americans just makes more recruits for terror.

JJ5

What purpose the phones? That's how the UK cells were caught- by buying and goods "movement" records and reporting (spying) from within their own ethnic groups.

It is not an overreaction.

travel_addict

I tend to agree with Aceplace on this one. All they have on these guys - at least what the media is revealing - is 1,000 cell phones and photos and videos of the Mackinac Bridge. According to the detainees and their lawyer, these men have been buying phones here and selling them for more $ in Texas, where apparently, these types of phones are not available.

As for the photos & videos of the bridge, well, I have plenty of those too - does that make me a terrorist?? No, probably not - because I don't fit the so-called profile. I am blonde, blue-eyed and pretty much 'all American'.

Granted, the terrorists so far have mostly been of middle-eastern descent, but that does not give our government the right to automatically assume all middle-easterners are terrorists. And last time I checked, innocent until proven guilty still applied here in the US.

So... let's wait and see what becomes of this before we all assume these men are guilty.

Budman

I'm from the school of thought that terrorists do not have access to the American Bill of Rights. They need to be sent to their maker and their 72 virgins.

If they were using the cell phones for resale, why were they throwing away the chargers?

Reminds me of the cartoon of the terrorist greeting his maker and his 72 virgins -- a bunch of 85-year old nuns with shot guns.

RedRock

Saw in the paper this morning that the wife of one of the detainees said they were buying phones and selling them for $5 more than they paid for them.

The part that is hard to believe is these jerks were traveling all over the US to buy the phones. A good sound cost effective business practice, don't think so. Terrorists, I don't know.

Anyone want to buy a bridge??

Keith

"Police also noted that the men had thrown away many of the phone chargers, indicating that they may have intended to send the phones out of the country because different outlets are used overseas. There were about 120 phones packed per box in their van, police said."

Keith

Keith

I believe they were buying them for use outside the country. Perhaps for bombs, perhaps not.

They already had all the phones they bought in Wisconsin the day before. I don't think the Bridge or anywhere in the US was a target. I think they took pictures of the Bridge because they crossed it on their way to southern Michigan and it was beautiful.

Keith

travel_addict

My husband bought his family a cell phone and got rid of the charger for the same reason - it will not work in Mongolia.

C'mon people, innocent until proven guilty! These men are only under suspicion at this point.

And Budman, I sure hope you don't ever get wrongly accused of doing something illegal in a foreign country.

Budman

<And Budman, I sure hope you don't ever get wrongly accused of doing something illegal in a foreign country.>

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.....

Hopefully I won't be doing something suspicious.

travel_addict

"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....."

You should never assume anything. I was once detained in Mexico City for almost 10 hours - before I learned to speak Spanish - for bringing in about 20 audience-response keypads for an event I was working at. I had filled out all of the proper customs paperwork ahead of time, and kept trying to explain what these items were for. They didn't believe me - they thought I was bringing them there to sell them, which apparently was illegal. After hiring a customs broker and paying lots of money, they let me free. Believe me, it was not any fun at all!

RedRock

I wonder if it was this duck?

http://www.morphmaster.com/aflac.htm

Budman

Good one, RedRock.