That certainly seems to be the conclusion being drawn by law enforcement in this case.

Investigators in southeast Ohio said they were working to unravel how two Michigan men charged with supporting terrorism came to have airplane passenger lists and airport security information.

Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, and Ali Houssaiky, 20, both of the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, were being held at the Washington County jail on $200,000 bond each, which could be raised at a Thursday afternoon court hearing. Each was charged Wednesday with money laundering in support of terrorism.

Deputies stopped the two on a traffic violation Tuesday and found the flight documents along with $11,000 cash and 12 phones in their car, Sheriff Larry Mincks said.

It wasn't clear what significance the airline information might have. Assistant County Prosecutor Susan Vessels declined to comment on whether the manifests were for upcoming flights or those that already had flown. She also would not give the origin or destination of the flight or flights.

FBI spokesman Mike Brooks in Cincinnati said his office was investigating.

The pair have bought over 600 phones in recent months, phones just like thos being used in Iraq and other parts of the world by Cindy Sheehan's freedom fighters terrorists.

Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said initially the men lied about their reasons for purchasing the phones, which led to the charges.

Abulhassan and Houssaiky are expected to appear for an arraignment this morning in Marietta Municipal Court.

“Eventually they indicated they would sell the chips inside the phones to another individual in the Dearborn, Mich., area for $5 more than they pay for the phone,” Mincks said.

Maj. John Winstanley said the sheriffÂ’s office has received notices from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning individuals are purchasing the phones for terror related activity.

“It’s their belief that they send these TracFones overseas, and they use (the chips) against the troops, detonating bombs,” Winstanley said.

And if Dearborn, Michigan rings a bell with you, it might have something to do with recent rallies over teh war in lebanon -- rallies in favor of Hezbollah, a group with a history of killing Americans.

Mincks said Dearborn has a large Lebanese population and has been the site of pro-Hezballoh rallies recently. He said the department was not profiling, but admitted that because of the suspects’ descent the incident “caused a bit of a stir.”

Of course we wouldn't want to profile folks who look like terrorists, believe like terrorists, and speak out in support of terrorists, even if they are buying items that are used by terrorists. After all, we all know that Islam is a religion of peace, right, no matter what percentage of the world's terrorist acts are conducted by Muslims acting in the name of Islam. There is certainly no need to look at Muslim groups or houses of worship -- and certainly not to give them special scrutiny. We need to pay every other group the exact amount of attention.

After all, we all know that the cops always closely scrutinize the membership of Curves whenever there is a serial rapist, just to avoid concerns about profiling.

(H/T Schlussel, Malkin)

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