At least two suspects escaped last Wednesday night’s police raids. Although they are not thought to be significant players, there remain concerns that they may now be galvanised into taking some form of unspecified action.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda’s deputy head, is said to have warned in a message placed on a restricted extremists’ website last month that the terrorist group was planning two large-scale attacks this autumn.

Read More

A man from the Republic of Georgia is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on a federal detainer after he and another foreigner were found in Murrysville with 15 prepaid cell phones and $4,200 in cash, police said.

The men said they were immigrants, but each displayed Michigan drivers’ licenses, Tappe said.

The prepaid cell phones, which the men had recently purchased in Monroeville and Murrysville, were found inside the van. Also in the van were a laptop computer and global-positioning software.

Tappe said a bomb-sniffing dog from the Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Office searched the van.

“It was a 2006 van, but it was all gutted out,” Tappe said. “No seats or paneling on the walls. For all intents and purposes, it was the kind of vehicle that could be used for explosive devices.”

Read More

Tuscola County prosecutors filed terrorism-related charges Saturday against three men who they say bought dozens of cell phones Friday in Caro in a globally coordinated plot involving the Mackinac Bridge.

They charged brothers Adham Abdelhamid Othman, 21, and Louai Abdelhamied Othman, 23, along with their cousin, Maruan Awad Muhareb, 18, with identical counts of collecting material to support terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target with intent to committ terrorism.

Read More

Update:
A magistrate set bond at $750,000 for each of the men, who are charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes. No pleas were made at the arraignment at a District Court in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit.

Officials have not said what they believe the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones. But Caro’s police chief said cell phones can be used as detonators, and prosecutors in a similar case in Ohio have said that TracFones are often used by terrorists because they are not traceable.

“All we did is buy the phones to sell and make money,” Louai Abdelhamied Othman told the magistrate. He said it wasn’t the first time the group had been questioned.

“We’ve been checked by the FBI before,” he said. “They even gave us their card and everything.”

Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene told The Saginaw News that investigators believe the men were targeting the Mackinac Bridge. He declined to say what led investigators to that belief