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The commanding officer of the Charleston Naval Weapons Station has been temporarily relieved of his command after being busted in an undercover prostitution sting by North Charleston police. Capt. Glen Melvin Little, 55, of Goose Creek, has been temporarily reassigned to the office of the commander, Navy Region Southeast, in Jacksonville, Fla., said Scott Bassett, public affairs officer at the Weapons Station. According to a North Charleston police report, Little was arrested about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after having approached an undercover female police officer who was posing as a prostitute in the Charleston Farms area on Remount Road.

Youssef Megahed was freed this evening after a judge dismissed the deportation case against the former University of South Florida student. Megahed was driven out of a detention facility by his father about 6:30 p.m. He is expected to return home to Tampa on Saturday. "I'm very happy for this," Megahed said, smiling and surrounded by his family. "This was the only correct decision the judge could have given." He said he wants to return to USF to take the remaining class he needs for his engineering degree. Megahed said he holds no bitterness toward the government but described his...

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?””

A federal immigration judge denied bail Friday to a 23-year-old engineering student from Tampa who has been charged by the U.S. government for engaging in terrorism. The defendant, Youssef Megahed, has already been acquitted by a federal jury of related charges. But now, he faces essentially the same charges again in an immigration court, where if he is found guilty he faces deportation back to his native Egypt. The case has inflamed Muslim immigrant groups, and has become a cause célèbre in Egypt, where President Barack Obama makes a much anticipated trip next week. The issue: Whether an immigrant defendant...

Youssef Megahed, fresh off being acquitted by a federal jury on explosives charge, was shopping with his father, Samir, Monday..."We were surrounded by men...," said Samir. "They did not allow me to talk to Youssef...Then Youssef was whisked away... Megahed...was arrested on an immigration warrant, according to his attorney...agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made the arrest. "Mr. Megahed has been placed into removal proceedings and is being held in ICE custody pending the outcome of his case," said James P. Judge, local ICE spokesman.... Allen said he thinks Megahed will be taken from Tampa to ICE's Krome...

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).

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.

TAMPA, Fla. — An Egyptian college student charged with carrying explosives is facing trial in Tampa federal court. Jury selection for Youssef Samir Megahed's trial is scheduled to begin Monday. The former University of South Florida engineering student is charged with transporting explosives and possessing a destructive device. ... Megahed's companion, 27-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, was sent to prison for 15 years for making a YouTube video showing would-be terrorists how to turn a remote-control toy into a bomb detonator.

Ahmed Mohamed, one half of the Goose Creek two, received the maximum sentence yesterday for creating a jihad video that was to be used by Muslim “martyrs” fighting American soldiers in Arab countries. He and his apologists still insist on painting Mohamed as a regular college guy. The judge didn’t buy it. Good: ~~~ Former University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed received a maximum 15-year federal prison sentence Thursday for providing material support to terrorists. In court, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday pondered the 27-year-old’s potential aloud, gazing at the former engineering doctoral student and teaching assistant who...

TAMPA - A former University of South Florida student will be sentenced today for holding a rifle at a shooting range for less than three minutes. Karim Moussaoui was convicted in April of a federal weapons charge of possessing a firearm in violation of his student visa. The Moroccan native and engineering student had gone to the Shoot Straight Tampa shooting range with a friend, Youssef Megahed, last summer and posed for pictures holding a .22-caliber rifle Megahed had rented. Because Megahed is a legal, permanent resident of the United States, he was allowed to posses and rent the weapon....

Remember Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, one half of the Muslim duo caught driving on an obscure highway near Goose Creek, South Carolina in the middle of the night, with pipe bombs, laptops, and Korans, back in August of last year? The claimed it was "just fireworks" and that they were going to spend a weekend grilling or something. Yup, "grilling" Americans. They were driving near a military installation which stores nuclear weapons and held terrorist enemy combatants. With the Yemeni Mohamed was Yousef Megahed, an Egyptian. They both smiled in their mugshots and in court proceedings. "Just Fireworks" Terrorist Ahmed...

TAMPA – The explosives trial of a former University of South Florida student will likely be put on hold after prosecutors appealed a judge's evidence ruling this afternoon. A judge ruled today that prosecutors may not use certain evidence in the trial, which had been scheduled to start Monday, of a former University of South Florida student accused of transporting explosives. Ruling in the case of Youssef Megahed, Judge Steven D. Merryday said prosecutors had missed a court deadline for sharing evidence with the defense and barred the government from using files taken from the Megahed family home computer. Late...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

After Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed were arrested in South Carolina, deputies recorded the men talking to each other in Arabic in the back of a patrol car. Megahed's attorneys want a judge to limit the use of the recording at the men's upcoming trial, arguing that the recording largely is unintelligible. Consequently, they argue, transcripts of translations of the conversations are so limited that any comments that are intelligible are out of context. Megahed and Mohamed were arrested Aug. 4 after deputies found pipe bombs in the trunk of their car, authorities said. The defense has filed different transcripts...

Twelve days before they were scheduled to go on trial, two former University of South Florida students are facing new charges handed up by a federal grand jury. The new seven-count indictment adds terrorism and weapons charges against one of the defendants, Ahmed Mohamed. It also includes a new charge against Mohamed and Youssef Megahed relating to the devices found in the trunk of their car when they were arrested Aug. 4 in South Carolina. It replaces a two-count indictment handed up last year. Experts say the new indictment shows the prosecution trying to ensure success at trial by offering...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- USF student Youssef Megahed has been granted bail on federal explosives charges and could be released on house arrest next week. Bail was set at $200,000. The government has filed an appeal. A U.S. District Court Judge is expected to review that appeal next week. Megahed will remain in jail until that time. Megahed, 21, and fellow USF student Megahed Ahmed Mohamed, 26, were arrested in August after being pulled over for speeding near Charleston, S.C. Police said the pair had pipe bombs and other items in their car. The students have said they...

TAMPA, Fla. - A judge on Thursday ordered that a terrorism-related charge against an Egyptian student accused of transporting explosives will be handled in a separate trial from the explosives counts. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and another Egyptian student, Youssef Samir Megahed, were arrested last summer in South Carolina over material found in their trunk. Prosecutors say it was explosive material; the defense says it was homemade fireworks. Mohamed also is charged with a terrorism-related count stemming from a video found on a laptop computer in the car. The video, which Mohamed is accused of producing, shows how to turn...

Two days before he was to graduate, a University of South Florida student was arrested Thursday on a weapons charge in connection with a case against two other students accused of transporting explosives. Karim Moussaoui, 28, went to a shooting range with the two other students, Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, on July 11, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Moussaoui told the FBI he took pictures and didn't fire any weapons, the complaint states. Mohamed, 26, and Megahed, 21, both Egyptian nationals, were arrested in South Carolina on Aug. 4 and charged with having explosives in...

In the terrorism case of two young Egyptian nationals and University of South Florida students arrested August 4 in South Carolina, fascinating twists and turns abound. There’s a secret recording of the defendants discussing strategy shortly after their arrest. There’s a You Tube video in which one of the defendants gave instructions in Arabic on converting a remote-control toy into a bomb detonator, which one defendant allegedly told police was made to help people in Arab countries “defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries,” specifically “against those who fought for the United States.” That’s not all. The father of...