Wal-Mart employees expose illegal immigrant's, not terror cell's, bulk phone purchase
ABC News is reporting on several incidents around the country wherein retail employees have been notifying local and federal authorities about bulk prepaid cellphone purchases (which, as in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, can be used as detonators). After the December 18th purchase of some 60 prepaid handsets by six individuals, Midland, TX Wal-Mart employees decided to call the local po-po, who turned the case over to the Feds when the men began acting suspiciously in custody. ABC had reported that the six were later linked to a Metroplex-based sleeper cell, although local news sources dispute that claim, saying that one of the men was merely detained for in immigration violation. A similar case at a California Target store (man buys 150 cheapo prepaids) also turned out to be on the level- the buyer was just purchasing the handsets for legitimate resale.
Update: In the original version of this post, the men in question were described by the author as "Middle Eastern." We sincerely apologize for using that qualifier; as several readers have pointed out (and internal discussion/reflection corroborates), it has no bearing whatsoever on the story, and smacks of racial profiling- it was a mistake on our part to include it. Furthermore, there are conflictingversions of the facts in this story, with more recent information indicating that these six men committed no crime save for the reported irregularity in one's immigration documents.
[Via textually]
