South Florida Students Face Indictment for Carrying Explosives Across State Lines [Indicted]

FNC/AP ^ | 8-31-07

[STARWISE]

Two Egyptian students at the University of South Florida were indicted Friday for carrying explosive materials across states lines and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons.

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, an engineering graduate student and teaching assistant at the Tampa-based university, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

He and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding in Goose Creek, S.C., on Aug. 4, where they have been held on state charges.

The two men were stopped with pipe bombs in their car near a Navy base in South Carolina where enemy combatants have been held. They were held on state charges while the FBI continued to investigate whether there was a terrorism link.

[dsc]

“thank the Lord these terrorists were apprehended.”

Yes, indeed, but why are they facing 20 years instead of execution?

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Now, now... they’re only trying to protect us from our islamophobic selves...

[upchuck]

What a sucky article. Rehashes what we already know. Lots of unanswered questions.

Glad they are off the streets. Hopefully for a long, long time.

[Moderate right-winger]

My God!!! We are too lenient on terrorists. If it were up to me, I would have thrown them out from helicopters

[LibWhacker]

South Florida students my ass.

[STARWISE]

Sami al-Arian, the former USF professor, father of an incalculable number of terrorist cells in FL, jihadi-loving fundraiser for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad .. just trying to raise public awareness for the plight of the Palestinian muslims ... Thank God he was finally deported.

Al-Arian, a Palestinian born in Kuwait, has reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a charge of conspiring to "make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of" a terrorist organization and be deported from the United States, according to an attorney involved in the negotiations. The agreement was approved by a federal judge on April 17, 2006.

Al-Arian and three co-defendants were arrested in 2003 and charged with providing money and support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian has remained in prison since last December, when a federal jury in Tampa, Florida, found him not guilty on eight charges and failed to reach a verdict on nine others. He will spend about 18 more months in jail before he's deported.

[Zeppelin]

exactly...solitary for them...dont send them to the general population, they would LOVE the recruiting opportunity...

[Moderate right-winger]

That’s true!! Let them spend prison time in the pig pen

[tutstar]

thanks for the ping...

[toldyou]

“What the hell! What did the investigation reveal? What were they going to do with the stuff? Why isn’t the media asking?”

Right. I want to know if they were heading north or south and what their destination was.

[lonevoice]

Mohamed was charged with distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, which is a terrorism statute, a Justice Department official said. The crime faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Update on the "fireworks" guys from last month. Wonder what they were going to do with those things?

[Freee-dame]

Pipe bombs = perhaps not a terrorist component???????

What is the FBI's definition of terrorism? It must be something very different from that of ordinary Americans.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Every once and a while BOR gets it right.<<<

The FBI had been after Sami al-Arian for years. I credit Bill for jumping on the story and bringing American's up to speed....but O'Rielly didn't uncover al-Arian through investigative reporting. Books have been written mentioning him as a "bad guy".

Read "Terrorist Hunter" by Rita Katz....remarkable story of an Iraqi Jewish womans fight against terrorism once she got to America!

[lonevoice]

Ooops. Meant to ping you on this update on the "fireworks" guys from last month. Wonder what they were going to do with those things?

Mohamed was charged with distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, which is a terrorism statute, a Justice Department official said. The crime faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

[Buckhead]

i’m sure these young men are look those unlucky fellows on the ferry
in the state of washington. just being profiled because they are from
the middle-east.

WIFE O’BUCKHEAD

[STARWISE]

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/189222.php

August 30, 2007
Terror in Tampa: Suspects Linked to Another Plot?

UPDATE 8/31: Terror charges filed! Thanks to MM for the link.

---

Fellow Jawa Tim from Opinion Bug brings word that the case is definitely not closed on two University of South Florida Muslim students, Youssef & Ahmed Megahed. The two were arrested near the Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station on charges that they were carrying explosive devices.

Tampa Tribune:

A federal grand jury in Tampa is asking for DNA and hair samples from a University of South Florida student jailed four weeks ago in South Carolina on explosives charges, his attorney said.

What the hell would they want DNA evidence for unless they were implicated in some other plot? I mean, we know they were in the car with the explosives. So, the Grand Jury must be trying to figure out if they were also somewhere else doing something else and the DNA would link them to that other place.

But just what is that other place and what is it that they are suspected of doing in that other place?

Federal court records show that [Noor] Salhab leased the house in the early 1990s to World and Islam Studies Enterprise, a think tank run by Sami Al-Arian, the former USF professor accused of funding Palestinian terrorist organizations.

Michelle Malkin notes that that organization was convicted terror supporter Sami Al-Arian’s World and Islam Studies Enterprise.

The plot thickens. I am beginning to come up with a few crazy theories about just what these two were doing. And none of them involve trying to attack the Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station with a bunch of illegal fireworks. But all of them have something to do with the pair’s computers being seized by the the FBI.

And what would a terror investigation be without an appearance by CAIR?

Also appearing before the grand jury Wednesday was Ahmed Bedier, who has been a spokesman for the Megahed family. Bedier is executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and a frequent media spokesman for Muslims and Islamic causes....

Bedier declined to answer questions about his testimony, saying he wanted to check with the national headquarters of CAIR about what he was allowed to say.

Hmmmm, so does CAIR know something here or what?

~~~~~~~~

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4220378&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Another Tampa terrorism investigation?
Last Edited: Thursday, 30 Aug 2007, 6:17 PM EDT
Created: Thursday, 30 Aug 2007, 6:16 PM EDT
It appears a grand jury is investigating two USF students.
SideBar

TAMPA - Grand juries, by their nature, are secret, but one of the few facts we have is that the Tampa federal grand jury is demanding hair and DNA from the two USF students, Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed.

The federal investigation is separate from South Carolina charges over explosives found in their car trunk near the Goose Creek Naval Weapons Station, where terror suspects have been held.

Former federal prosecutor John Fitzgibbons says it is significant that it’s a Tampa grand jury.

One item of great interest to investigators, sources tell FOX13, is the arrival of Mohamed in the United States on a University of South Florida Scholarship earlier this year. Its a path to the U.S. from Egypt that others in past investigations have taken, including Ramadan Shallah, who left USF to become the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.

Ex-USF Professor Sami Al Arian’s role in bringing Shallah to Tampa made him a target in another terror probe, which lead to Al Arian’s indictment, trial, and pending deportation.

Also called to the grand jury, the owner of a home where Mohamed had left a car, and planned to rent a room, it’s the same home rented years ago to a USF think tank headed by Al Arian.

Islamic Advocate Ahmed Bedier told FOX13, “a lot of people that get in trouble in this community, their homes go up for sale, somebody else moves in later, it doesn’t mean they have any connection to them.”

Bedier, a Muslim advocate, was also called before the grand jury, and says he was asked about his contacts with the Megahed family after their son’s arrest.

“There’s an investigation to look into their background,” Bedier said.

“Whether there’s anything there, and again, in a post 9-11 environment, government is taking no chances,” he said.

No one knows what’s really going on in that grand jury room except the federal prosecutor who is presenting evidence, but one thing is clear—there is another terrorism investigation underway in the Tampa federal court.

[countess]

What is up with the turd eating grins on these bastards faces?

It looks to me like they were told to show their teeth. Now that I think about it, most of the photos we have of terrorists don't show the teeth. I wonder if they do that on purpose for identity reasons.

[STARWISE]

[evets]

Hey Megahed... we're going to jail! HA Ha Ha.

[omega4179]

are these boys still frightened and confused?