University of South Florida students indicted on explosives, terrorism charges

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

Two Egyptian students at a south Florida university were indicted Friday on charges of carrying explosive materials across states lines and one was accused of 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 of South Florida, faces terrorism-related charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

He and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, an engineering student, were stopped for speeding Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, South Carolina, where they have been held on state charges. A federal grand jury in Tampa handed up the indictment.

Steve Cole, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Tampa, declined to talk about what the men may have been planning to do with the explosives.

"We expect more details may come out in their initial appearance, which will likely take place next week in Charleston, South Carolina, but we are making no further comment," Cole said.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/08/31/2007-08-31_university_of_south_florida_students_ind.html

[Ian David]

1. I'm going to guess that their only contact with "terrorists" were FBI agents conducting a sting...

that the car was purchased or loaned to them by their FBI handler, and that they had no money for the bomb-making material, except what The FBI gave them.

And that until they met the FBI agent conducting the sting, they barely had enough money to buy text books and Ramen noodles.

Then again, maybe they finally found REAL terrorists... after six years?


"So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you."

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Lemme guess.

pop rocks and coca cola.

[struggle4progress]

3. Charges filed against USF pair

The students face explosives charges after a stop in South Carolina last month.
By COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2007

... "At this point, we would not characterize it as a terrorism case," said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. "We would classify it as an explosives case." ...

The students remain jailed in Berkeley County, S.C. They were detained Aug. 4 on state explosives charges after a deputy pulled them over, accused Mohamed of speeding, then found "several pipe bombs" in the car's trunk, according to the arrest affidavit.

The men consented to the search. Initial news accounts said they told deputies they had fireworks in the trunk ...

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/01/Hillsborough/Charges_filed_against.shtml

[struggle4progress]

4. 2 Egyptians Indicted on Explosives Charge

By PHILIP SHENON
Published: September 2, 2007

... The local police said materials that could be used to make pipe bombs were found in the car in which the two men, Ahmed Abdellatif Mohamed, 24, and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, were traveling.

The federal indictment, returned in Tampa, where the University of South Florida is, does not accuse either of the men of being terrorists or of connections to extremist groups. Their lawyers have insisted that the two men, engineering students who are in the United States legally for their studies, are innocent of any crime and that the materials in the car were not meant to be used as explosives. Friends and family members of the men have suggested that there were fireworks in the car left over from the July Fourth holiday.

Mr. Mohamed, a graduate student and teaching assistant at the university, and Mr. Megahed, an undergraduate, were charged with transporting explosives without permits, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Mr. Mohamed was additionally charged with one count of explosives training, which carries a possible prison sentence of 20 years. The indictment does not assert that Mr. Megahed was trained by Mr. Mohamed, nor does it specify what violent act might have resulted from the explosives training. They have been held in South Carolina on a combined bail of $800,000.

Andrew J. Savage, a lawyer in Charleston, S.C., who is representing Mr. Megahed, said the chemical compounds found in the car belonged to Mr. Mohamed and were “not much more than a firecracker — this is no high-powered explosive.” Mr. Savage said he was convinced that Mr. Megahed was the victim of ethnic profiling ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/us/nationalspecial3/02suspects.html

[entanglement]

5. "They consented to a search, saying they had fireworks in the trunk?"

Hmmm...

[struggle4progress]

6. It's not entirely clear but it seems entirely possible that these guys ..

.. either bought some fireworks which they disassembled and reassembled for a bigger bang or decided to make their own fireworks from scratch, having no malicious motive.

They wouldn't be the first people to have done this.

A hundred years ago, dynamite was easily available, and folk sometimes set it off as a prank. And when I was a kid, various old-timers told me tales about explosive devices rigged up and set off purely for amusement purposes: sometimes, the whole thing really was harmless, and sometimes they thought in retrospect they'd been lucky to escape unharmed by unanticipated shrapnel. And, for many years, the newspapers once or twice a year contained yet another sad story about some kid injured by some incendiary or explosive device he had made for fun.