Question: why would terrorists & drug organization members get verizon phones?

[DeltaLitProf]

Wouldn't they be more likely to get phones they could just use once and throw away?

[graham4anything]

1. for the same reason gun lovers/ NRA don't want to have a national data base

[JaneyVee]

4. A gun registry seems so quaint right about now.

[randome]

2. That's probably the only warrant Greenwald could get his hands on.

There are likely other warrants for other carriers and other divisions of those carriers.

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[zbdent]

3. You mean like the no-contract phones they sell at Wal-Mart?

(and other places, to be honest)

[treestar]

5. Because they are not smart

Or might not be.

If Tamerlan had any brains he would have planned a route to the bomb site that would avoid videocameras. Plus left the area quietly rather than start a gun battle with police. Insisted little brother wear sunglasses. We could still be looking for him now.

And he could have had more chances to make us pay for our meddling in the Middle east!

[WinkyDink]

10. Really? So it was just dumb clucks who perpetrated 9/11?

No matter whodunit, they weren't stupid.

[treestar]

11. Their brilliance was in the idea

Knowing we would not suspect this until it had been done. And of course their willingness to kill themselves.

Even so, many here argue they could have been caught if Bush had paid attention. Quoting the brief that bin Laden was intent on striking in the US. Spy methods would have been used to figure out that information.

[lindysalsagal]

6. Like my dating cell phone?

They will never find me! Oops! New phone number! So long!

[KharmaTrain]

7. If Ya Think...

...it's only Verizon phones that the NSA is datamining, I've got some quicksand to sell ya. Thanks to FISA laws they can put their tenacles on virtually all electronic communications. Even "throw away" phones need to access a network owned by one of the major companies and that number/IP address can and will be mined. Some of that shows up every month on that subversive thing called your phone bill. Going online or on the phone is like walking out the front door...expect your actions are and will be tracked by many entities...

[think]

8. Because they get a great deal on the "family" plan

And of course they trust the US Govt not to spy on them. And they never read the news. And most terrorists are environmentalists also so they would never be caught dead with a disposable phone....

[jberryhill]

9. It's not about who provides the phones per se...

It's about who runs the cell towers and switching infrastructure.