Posted on 08/04/2007 7:29:42 PM PDT by Sleeping Freeper
Washington - Local police outside Charleston, South Carolina stopped a vehicle in which they found what were suspected to be explosives, according to media reports late Saturday.
Two men described as being of possibly Middle Eastern origin were in the vehicle, which was stopped on a highway.
A police bomb squad was at the scene and preparing to examine the vehicle, a local television reported told the Cable News Network (CNN).
Thanks for the Update Cindy... If it walks and looks like a duck, it’s probably a duck... Interesting how we were led to believe there was nothing to this...
“Interesting how we were led to believe there was nothing to this...”
You’re very welcome Sleeping Freeper.
Actually, I always look beyond what the latest media spin is regarding
these cases.
I’ve been posting and reading the posts at The Threat Matrix on FreeRepublic.com since its inception; so nothing really surprises me anymore.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/threatmatrix
http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/592.pdf
#
http://internet-haganah.com/harchives/006337.html
21 June 2008
“POOR MOHAMED, THE FRUGAL JIHADI”
December 18, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/December/08-nsd-1127.html
Tampa Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Providing Material Support to Terrorists
TAMPA, FLA — Patrick Rowan, Assistant Attorney for National Security, and A. Brian Albritton, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced that Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, a resident of Tampa and native of Egypt, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday to 15 years imprisonment on a charge that he provided material support to terrorists. Mohamed entered a guilty plea to this charge on June 18, 2008.
U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton said, “Fighting terrorism remains the top priority of the Department of Justice and this Office. We are satisfied with the Court’s sentence, the maximum allowed by law, which reflects the seriousness of the crime. The FBI did a tremendous job in investigating this case, and their efforts contributed significantly to the successful prosecution.”
According to court documents, on August 4, 2007, at about 5:30 P.M., Berkeley County (South Carolina) Sheriff’s Office (“BCSO”) deputies stopped a Toyota Camry for speeding in Goose Creek, South Carolina. Defendant Mohamed was driving the car.
During a consensual search of the vehicle, authorities recovered from the trunk a number of items, including several sections of PVC pipe containing a potassium nitrate mixture and approximately 20 feet of safety fuse. These items, which constitute “explosive materials” under applicable federal law, had been transported by Defendant Mohamed from Florida. Also in the trunk of the Toyota Camry were separate containers filled with several gallons of gasoline and a potassium nitrate mixture.
Subsequent FBI analysis of Defendant Mohamed’s laptop computer recovered from the car disclosed a large number of file folders containing information relating to the manufacture and use of bombs, rockets, and other explosives, including several video recordings showing the use of such devices to attack and destroy manned United States military vehicles. The FBI analysis also disclosed the viewing history of the laptop computer prior to the time of the Goose Creek traffic stop. The last item played on the laptop computer, prior to the traffic stop, was a video recording relating to the use and firing of Qassam rockets in the Middle East.
Also on the hard drive of Mohamed’s laptop computer was an audio/video recording, approximately twelve minutes in length, produced by Defendant Mohamed. In that recording, Defendant Mohamed personally demonstrated and explained, in Arabic, how a remote-control toy car could be disassembled and how the components of its chassis could be rewired and converted into a detonator for an explosive device. Sometime in July 2007, Defendant Mohamed had uploaded the aforementioned twelve-minute audio/video recording to the YouTube website. The audio/video recording that Defendant Mohamed produced was thus made accessible for viewing by others, both in the United States and abroad, through the internet. The recording was accessed hundreds of times by other persons.
Following his arrest, Defendant Mohamed was interviewed and, among other matters, addressed the aforementioned audio/video recording. He stated that he filmed the video and then uploaded it onto YouTube. He stated that his purpose in producing the audio/video recording was to teach “martyrdoms” and “suiciders” how to save themselves so that they could continue to fight the invaders. He said that he considered the United States military, and those fighting with the United States military in Arab countries, to be invaders. He said that he intended the technology demonstrated in his audio/video recording to be used against those who fight for the United States.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorist Task Force, with assistance from the Berkeley County (South Carolina) Sheriff’s Office . The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jay L. Hoffer and Robert T. Monk.
###
08-1127
US DOJ.gov/opa - Press Release: Tampa, Florida - "TAMPA MAN SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS IN PRISON FOR PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO TERRORISTS" (SNIPPET: "... Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, a resident of Tampa and native of Egypt...") (December 15, 2008)
Thanks Cindy. Good news.
Yes.
Thanks to Velveeta for the ping to this article:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jan/21/211648/ruling-hampers-prosecution-megahed-case/
“Ruling Hampers Prosecution In Megahed Case”
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 21, 2009
Updated: 01/21/2009 04:48 pm
SNIPPET: “A federal appeals court handed prosecutors a defeat this afternoon in the case of a former University of South Florida student awaiting trial on charges he illegally transported explosives.
The prosecution lost its appeal of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday in the case of Youssef Megahed. Prosecutors wanted to be allowed to show jurors videos investigators found on Megahed’s family computer of rockets firing in the Middle East.”
SNIPPET: “Prosecutors said showing the videos was crucial to proving Megahed’s intent when he traveled with Mohamed to South Carolina. The two were arrested in 2007 after deputies in South Carolina found what they said were explosive devices in the trunk.
The defense argued the videos were irrelevant and inflammatory and that the only issue to be decided at trial is whether the items in the trunk meet the legal definition of explosives.”
bookmark
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2221913/posts
Jurors acquit Megahed of both counts in explosives trial
St. Pete Times ^ | Apr 03, 2009 04:27 PM | Justin George
Posted on April 3, 2009 4:45:59 PM PDT by dawn53
Twenty months after a traffic stop in Goose Creek, S.C., catapulted two University of South Florida students into a federal explosives case that raised the specter of terrorism, one of those students has been set free by a panel of 12 jurors.
Youssef Megahed, 23, is not guilty, the jury said.
Not guilty of illegally transporting explosives materials.
Not guilty of possessing a destructive device.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025569.php
April 7, 2009
“Unindicted co-conspirator in Hamas jihad funding case wants release of Muslim student found with explosives in car”
#
“CAIR seeks Megahed release; father: ‘No freedom for Muslims’”
News Channel 8 photo by JOE MARTIN
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 7, 2009
Updated: 02:48 pm
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1022/megahed-on-ice
“Megahed on ICE”
by Bill West
IPT News
April 10, 2009
SNIPPET: “Youssef Megahed, a 23-year-old former student at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, last week was acquitted of federal explosives and related charges in U.S. District Court in Tampa. Those charges stemmed from Megahed traveling with a fellow Egyptian USF student in South Carolina in August 2007 with explosive material found in the trunk after a stop by local deputies. His confederate, Ahmed Mohamed, pled guilty to providing material support to terrorists after investigators discovered a how-to video on his computer showing wanna-be jihadis how to build remote control bombs out of simple toys so they might live to fight another day.”
SNIPPET: “Since removal proceedings are administrative/civil in nature, the rules of evidence are somewhat different and less restrictive than in criminal proceedings. The standard of proof (being found “removable”) in such proceedings is “clear, convincing and unequivocal” as opposed to “beyond a reasonable doubt” in criminal cases. This is important because the level of proof required of the Government in removal proceedings is less than in criminal proceedings, though it is higher than in “normal” civil matters like a lawsuit.
They also are different because someone “found guilty” of a removal violation is ordered to leave the United States and, essentially, go back to where they were born - they cannot be sentenced to prison like they could be if convicted of a crime. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld this duality between deportation matters and criminal proceedings. There is no double jeopardy if an alien is subject to removal based on the same activity that may have also realized the alien being charged in criminal proceedings, even if those criminal charges resulted in an acquittal. The proceedings and violations are completely separate, even if based on the same underlying activity.”
http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2009/06/al-caponing-youssef-megahed.html
“Al Caponing Youssef Megahed”
by IPT News
Thu, 4 Jun 2009 at 12:35 PM
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/24/megahed-wants-begin-process-becoming-us-citizen/
“Megahed wants to begin process of becoming U.S. citizen”
By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: August 24, 2009
SNIPPET: “TAMPA - The attorney for former University of South Florida student Youssef Megahed, who last week defeated an attempt to be deported, will ask the federal government today to act on his client’s application for citizenship.
Megahed, 23, filed for citizenship about two years ago, the same time as the rest of his family applied, his attorney, Charles Kuck, said.
Three days before the Department of Homeland Security started presenting its evidence to deport Megahed as a terrorist, his parents and older brother became American citizens.
His father, Samir Megahed, mother, Ahlam, and older brother Yahia waved American flags and pledged to fight for the United States if called to arms.
Now, Kuck wants the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to begin the process of making Youssef Megahed a citizen.”
Previously...
blog:
Note: Photo included.
http://infidelsunite.typepad.com/counter_jihad/2009/08/megahed-heading-home.html
17 August 2009
“Megahed heading home”
“The deportation proceedings for 23-year-old Youssef Megahed are underway in Miami.”
###
###
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1189313.html
Posted on Monday, 08.17.09
“Man acquitted of terror charges fights deportation”
Student held as family becomes US Citizens
BY SARAH LARIMER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MIAMI —
SNIPPET: “Authorities found Mohamed’s laptop computer in the car during the 2007 arrest, and videos on the computer showed that he sympathized with Palestinian terrorists. The computer contained a video that demonstrated how to convert a remote-controlled toy into bomb detonator.
FBI special agent Frederick Humphries rehashed the 2007 arrest during his testimony Monday, explaining why authorities believed Megahed could also be associated with terrorist activities. Humphries said investigators were wary of Megahed and Mohamed’s story about road trip, wondering why the pair would leave the coastal state of Florida in search of other beaches.
Humphries also said authorities also thought it was odd that Megahed and Mohamed stopped to try and buy a firearm along the way.”
Note: Photo included.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1393/youssef-megahed-the-question-is-why
“Youssef Megahed—The Question is Why?”
by Dan Vara
for IPT News
August 25, 2009
SNIPPET: “Youssef Megahed, a permanent resident alien of the United States, was in immigration court in Miami last week. According to published reports, Megahed faced deportation based on terrorism charges stemming from much publicized arrest in South Carolina in 2007 along with his friend Ahmed Mohamed.
After a five-day hearing before Immigration Judge Kenneth Hurewitz, however, the deportation case against Mr. Megahed was terminated because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to prove its case.
The question the American public should be asking is “Why?””
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