Feds Unseal Documents & Pictures in Accused Terrorist Case (pilot's uniform & manuals, etc.)

MEMPHIS - Never-before seen snap shots inside the Memphis apartment of an accused terrorist. Feds say Mahmoud Maawad had a bookcase of flying manuals and books, a stack of aviation DVDs, a pilot's uniform in the closet and even a bomber jacket.

We showed the pictures to a former neighbor of Maawad. "It does surprise me. I was like who is this person how come I didn't know this person."

The feds also say Maawad ordered pilot's merchandise and books from sporty's pilot shop on the internet. The internet receipts show Maawad ordering flight simulators and long list of flying books and videos.

But the feds say that's not all. FBI agents found a chart of Memphis International Airport. And new details about where Maawad was going online are even more disturbing. For example, the site of a radical Sunni Muslim group led by Al Queda leader Abu Musab al-Zarquawi. The feds say Maawad also searched sites on how to smuggle "guns and bombs" into the airport. And even looked up "car bombs."

For now prosecutors have charged Maawad with wire fraud and using a false social security number to work at a Chelsea Avenue gas station and to enroll at the University of Memphis.

Back to the former neighbor, he just hopes people can realize most Muslims like him are happy to be here. "It doesn't really mean all Muslim's are terrorists. What he believes is totally different."

Maawad's trial is scheduled for next month. His attorney didn't return our phone calls for comment.

Here is another article from seattlepi.com on the same story:

Prosecutors: Egyptian looked at arms sites

By WOODY BAIRD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Prosecutors allege that an Egyptian man searched the Internet for ways to smuggle guns and bombs past airport security in what might have been a plot to launch a terrorist attack in the U.S.

Authorities said they had no evidence directly linking Mahmoud Maawad, 29, to terrorists but asked for his detention as a precaution.

He has been held without bond since his arrest in September for using a fake Social Security number to enroll at the University of Memphis. Maawad came to the United States on a visitor's visa but never left after it expired in 1999, authorities said.

Authorities refuse to talk about their ongoing investigation of Maawad, but in a court filing Feb. 16, prosecutors said a computer seized from his apartment showed he was "linking to web sites that are associated with Ansar Al-Islam, a radical Sunni Muslim organization in Iraq."

Maawad drew attention of federal investigators when Sporty's U.S.A., a company selling aviation gear, complained that he failed to pay for $3,000 worth of goods ordered over the Internet.

He is charged in a federal indictment with defrauding the company with a debit card with insufficient funds.

The court filing said Maawad's computer showed searches for information on how guns and bombs can be smuggled past airport security. Authorities also found DVDs on pilot training and charts on the layout of the Memphis airport. One of the DVDs was titled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."

Federal prosecutors said in the filing that they believed Maawad "was either planning or participating in a potential terrorist event inside the United States."

The filing was in response to a defense "discovery" request for information on the government's evidence against Maawad. Prosecutors gave few details in the open-records portion of their response, but showed their concerns that Maawad was planning an act of violence.

Maawad is being represented by the federal public defender's office, which has consistently refused to discuss the case. Calls to the office were not immediately returned Tuesday evening.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Student_Arrested.html

Whats missing here is was this guy planning on hijacking a Fedex or UPS cargo plane or a passenger jet?
It would appear to me it would be easier nowadays to take control of a catgo jet that does not have an Air Marshal,minmal flight crew.

Could terrorists actually conceal themselfs inside air freight containers and come out after takeoff, cut through any bulkheads from the cargo area to the flight deck and overcome the crew?

I sure hope there is proper air freight scanning procedures in effect.

Another item about an incidnet relating to memphis:

FBI investigating ‘mass destruction’ inquiry:MIDDLE EASTERN MAN ASKING QUESTIONS!!
The Daily Helmsman ^ | February 21, 2002 | By Rick Russell

Posted on 02/23/2002 7:39:19 PM PST by RaceBannon

FBI investigating ‘mass destruction’ inquiry

By Rick Russell Senior Reporter February 21, 2002

Federal and local authorities are investigating a man who approached a University of Memphis professor last week seeking information about weapons of mass destruction. The professor, who wished to remain anonymous, said a man of Middle Eastern descent approached him while he was in his office Feb. 13 and asked for a “crash course in the physics that deals with mass destruction.”

In return, the man told the professor he would pay him money for the requested information.

“He told me that money was no object, and that he had plenty of it,” said the professor.

The professor said the bizarre nature of the man’s inquiry and inconsistencies the man gave about his background prompted him to notify Federal authorities while the man sat in his office.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation then informed U of M police, who found the man still sitting in the office when they made the scene.

Bruce Harber, director of public safety at The U of M, said the man was compliant during questioning and supplied officers with a Tennessee driver’s license and a work visa.

However, Harber said the man gave conflicting statements about background information and how he got to the U of M campus.

Police then contacted Immigration Naturalization Service to confirm his background.

INS verified that the information was valid and released the man.

Authorities would only identify the man as a Somalian citizen carrying a visa issued from Nigeria who is currently living in Memphis.

George Bolds, spokesman for the Memphis office of the FBI, said they are currently looking into the incident.

The man is not a student at The U of M.

I had the Microsoft Simulator software at one time, the one before 9/11, it was amazingly complex. Now with puters faster, LCD monitors bigger plus peripheral hardware like rudder pedals and yokes its actually quite easy to learn how to operate say a 737 sized aircraft. I learned to fly a Cessna 150 in less than 2 hours. Besides these terrorists only need the basic skills, it was observed at one of the schools of those involved in the 9/11 attacks that they had little interests in landing techniques. Besides many aircraft nowadays are so automated you basically just dial up a GPS waypoint and off you go.
I also wonder if there was actually any of the proposed safety hardware installed that required a password every half hour while in transit or the plane went into a holding pattern and could not be redirected or landed unles it was unlocked by ground control. I supposed it did go through but is a secure piece of information.

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