The ABC News story reports the sale of large quantities of disposable cell phones in Texas and California and the ongoing FBI investigation. The story quotes former FBI official, Jack Cloonan as saying: ?There?s very little audit trail assigned to this type of phone. One can walk in, purchase it in cash, you don?t have to put down a credit card, buy any amount of minutes to it, and you don?t, frankly know who bought the phone.? This type of phone can be purchased for as little as $24.95 and is the same type used to detonate the bombs terrorists used in the Madrid train attacks in March 2004 . It is also possible that these phones could be purchased for use in the Middle East, as again they are frequently used to detonate improvised explosive devices. These cheap, difficult to trace phones have uses other than detonators; they can be used by terrorist cells to relay instructions and by drug dealers in their transactions. The story also notes that the increase in sales could also ?include political extremists, terrorist supporters, sympathizers or others shaken by the recent revelations of the spy agency?s widespread monitoring of calls.?

There have been subsequent reports from other areas of the country of Middle Eastern-looking males trying to arrange the purchase of prepaid wireless phones. Assumedly, other purchases or attempts to purchase have gone unnoticed or unreported. The FBI in Texas has reported that they have found no link between any terrorists and a group of people who attempted to buy the large quantities of phones last month. So, the investigation will continue, and undoubtedly this story will soon fade from the media?s interest, and little will be heard of it again.

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