Posted on 08/07/2007 10:55:12 PM PDT by Starman417
TAMPA - Investigators have removed computers from the family home of a University of South Florida student accused of having pipe bombs in his car, according to Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
He said the FBI contacted the parents of Yousseff Samir Megahed of 4959 Anniston Circle, Tampa, who were on vacation, and got permission to search their home. When they returned, their computers were gone.
Megahed is one of two USF students arrested near a naval base in South Carolina over the weekend.
Ahmed Abda Mohamed's family questioned why the men are being held on such a high bail amount.
"They know their son is innocent," said M. Nachabe, faculty adviser for student Mohamed, after speaking by telephone with the man's parents in Egypt.
Many questions remain in the case of Mohamed, of 2107 E Nedro Road, Tampa, an engineering graduate student, and Megahed, a 21-year-old undergraduate.
Mohamed's age is listed variously as 24 and 26 in law enforcement records.
The men were arrested Saturday afternoon in Goose Creek, S.C., on charges of possession of an explosive device. After a prosecutor argued the men were flight risks, a judge set bail at $500,000 for Mohamed and $300,000 for Megahed.
The FBI declined to discuss the case. An arrest affidavit from the Berkeley County, S.C., Sheriff's Office says that Mohamed told deputies he made the devices from components he bought at Wal-Mart.
The men told deputies that the explosives were fireworks, according to Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said the FBI had gone to a store for surveillance footage but declined to say which store or what is on the tape.
"The FBI has been to a store and picked up videotape," she said. "It's an open investigation. I don't think it would be appropriate to respond to specific questions."
It remained unclear Tuesday exactly why the men were in rural South Carolina or if they had a destination.
Neither man has a criminal record, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
On July 24, Tampa police accused Mohamed of illegally shooting squirrels in an east Tampa park. Police say he and Ahmad A. Ishtay, 19, used a pellet gun to shoot the animals in Rowlette Park.
Both were issued citations for discharging a firearm and using an illegal method of taking game, a report said. The case has not been resolved, court records show.
"He invited me," Ishtay said about going to the park with Mohamed.
Ishtay, who rents a Temple Terrace house and works at Boston Market, said he met Mohamed and Megahed through a roommate. He said he didn't know the roommate's last name, but he was from Mauritania.
Another of Ishtay's roommates, Ghassan Salhab, 27, said the man from Mauritania moved here from Canada recently and returned there Monday.
Ishtay and Salhab said that sometimes when Mohamed and Megahed visited their house in Temple Terrace they would cook, but neither knew them well.
Megahed's family did not return a message for comment.
Mohamed's family lives in Egypt, but his faculty adviser said they're well aware of the situation and working for their son's release, asking the Egyptian consulate for help.
I can’t figure out why they set bail for them before more was known. The involvement of this mysterious “man from Mauritania” certainly doesn’t look good.
So far as I know, the creeps are still in jail, but bail wasn’t even that high, relatively speaking. CAIR has deep pockets...
I’m more worried about the northern border than the southern.
Ship them to GITMO. Waterboard them. Them keep them imprisoned until the war is over.
The feds put a hold on them.
Yeah. Bomb making materials in his vehicle....prior record...sure the FBI thinks he's innocent. Just keep telling yourself that.
I Googled Megahed and came up with a list of prominant **Doctors**???
Egads. I suspect that the Feds were watching them even before their trip to SC, but it's pretty scary to think what they might have been up to. (Not to mention how scary it must be to have been one of their neighbors!)
I think we may have accidentally hit upon an AQ operation in its beginning, their so called next event, hopefully these idiots will give us some info on if any other groups or plans in the works. They should have realized first off they are ME and that they are on everybodies watch list so just even having plain simple fireworks is a red flag.
Deport them all.
Death to islam.
Good. I’m worried about the northern border, too, because they don’t even have to run the risk of being illegals to slip in. Many of these flakes were freely and legally admitted to Canada from former areas of British influence and can legitimately come and go between the US and Canada at whim. The Canadians seem to have a real death wish when it comes to admitting some of these people and have built up a nice little nest of jihadis up there.
Sherri Jackson is positive of one thing, her former neighbor left as if he didn't want to be found. Jackson says they left in a hurry. She adds when they moved in they never looked like they were settled instead they looked like they could be gone in five minutes.
This makes it sound as if they did not look like they were going on a trip (to the alleged "birthday party") but actually appeared to be leaving permanently when she saw them.
He's saying he didn't know the last name of his own roommate?
More to this than meets the eye.
“Why can’t we seem to execute terrorists in this country?”
Because not enough democrats have died to change their mind and make them realize they are endangered.
Republicans for the most part are too spineless to do the job themselves.
I was a little puzzled, because it sounded as if she had seen them leaving this time (in August). However, the story was a little jumbled, so anything is possible. It looks like the reporter - who actually DID get out and do some investigation, unlike reporters for major papers - probably had to edit out a lot of it hastily for publication and there were some dangling threads left.
I’m sure we’re going to find they were connected to all sorts of things. Well, we in the general public may never find out about it, but the FBI and others probably will.
I think they’ve got to go back and take another good look at USF and its students.
I have been in that area because my daughter lives there.
We were out one morning looking for a property in Goose Creek once and we accidentally went down one of the small roads leading off the main local road and found ourselves at a very intimidating checkpoint. In addition, it was clear that there were surveillance devices up one side and down the other.
I signalled that I was lost and I turned around and left! I am not sure if we had found our way to the brig or to some other secure installation there (although in any case, I doubt that we were very close to whatever it was). The woods are quite dense there and you can’t see a thing.
These places are not on any route an interstate traveller would take, and moreover an interstate traveller certainly wouldn’t be out scouting around innocently in those pitch-dark woods at night. On the positive side, as I mentioned, is the fact that nobody would be able to get very far, because it is clear that the facilities are heavily guarded in a variety of ways.
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