(cell) Phone buying is a big business (in Arab-Amer community)

[Bozita]

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/NEWS05/608140339

Phone buying is a big business

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

August 14, 2006

It may seem unusual for someone to buy hundreds of cell phones at a time, but metro Detroiters of Middle Eastern descent say that practice is part of a long tradition of entrepreneurship in Arab-American communities.

From Dearborn to Troy to Sterling Heights, Arab Americans are a major part of the cell phone business in southeastern Michigan. At least half of the cell phone businesses in the region are owned by metro Detroiters of Arab or Chaldean descent, say business owners in the industry. Many new immigrants or emerging businessmen earn money by buying the cell phones and then selling them to gas stations, distributors or stores.

It's called capitalism, Arab Americans say.

In Michigan, "you can talk to almost any family in the Arab-American community, and they all have some relative in the cell phone business," said Warren David, a Lebanese American from Northville.

more...

[displacedtexan]

1. The same is true of downtown Baltimore.

Lots of Arab American cell phone businesses.

This whole Detroit terror thing is crap if that's the only
evidence.

[marmar]

2. America has a clear case of Ara-noia...

It's sad. Instead of trying to learn about what people don't understand, they fear and vilify it. It's been done over and over again for time immemorial. People never learn.

[951-Riverside]

3. Come on these are peaceful, peace loving, peaceful lovers

The idea that any of them would buy pre-paid cell phones for nefarious purposes is absolutely absurd. America ought to be ashamed of themselves

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. What nefarious purposes?

Really, if you wanted to make bombs, triggered by cell phones, would you go to walmart and buy them by the case? Or would you pick up one here, a couple there, and be sure of attracting no attention?

There may be terrorists out there buying cell phones, but it ain't these guys.

[gasperc]

5. many also run alot of the gas stations around here(detroit)

and as a white catholic Italian-american I'm not the least bit concerned. It's sad and frightening that this hard working community is being targeted by law enforcement. Unless the authorities come up with alot more than a map and alot of cell phone then it's going to be hard for me to think that they were up to anything nefarious. Especially to the level of having thousands of these phones. I can't imagine a system where there are intended to be thousadns of terrorists in this country that could dial the thousands of phones to set off thousands of devices. I would think that the huge stock pile of material to create thousands of devices would be a much bigger catch. I bet they found a niche market where they could easily re-sell the phones for a profit but until we get the detail, well let the paranoia begin