Goose Creek Indictments
August 31st 2007 21:19
Via AP Breaking News:
Two University of South Florida men have been indicted on charges of carrying explosives across state lines and one has been indicted on terrorism charges, The Associated Press has learned.
On August 4, Ahmed Mohamed and Yousef Megahed, two students of the University of South Florida in Tampa (yes, former employer of convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian), were pulled over in Goose Creek, South Carolina by Berkeley County police during a routine traffic stop. Inside the car, police found explosive devices, prompting them to alert the FBI and the Charleston County bomb squad. Among the items discovered were bomb and bomb-making materials, including chemicals, fusers and igniters. The Middle Eastern men were not US citizens and had initially claimed that the materials had been made from fireworks they'd bought at Wal-Mart on their way to the beach.
However, a four-week investigation has revealed much more insidious intentions, resulting in their indictment :
In South Carolina, where Mohamed and Megahed have been held in the Berkeley County jail, U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd praised state and federal authorities for cooperating in the four-week investigation that initially did not look like a terrorism case.
"The arresting deputy's vigilance and the immediate response of our local investigators and prosecutors are highly commendable," Lloyd said in a statement.
Since the Aug. 4 arrest, authorities sought to determine whether Mohamed and Megahed were fledgling terrorists or merely college students headed to the beach with devices made from fireworks they bought at Wal-Mart in their car, as they claimed. The local sheriff in South Carolina said the explosives were "other than fireworks."
The charges follow several searches in Tampa, including of a storage facility and a park where the explosives might have been tested, authorities said.
It was an interesting case from the beginning. Goose Creek is home to the Naval Weapons Station, accessible via highway 176 -- the road on which the men had been driving when they were detained. Were it not for the diligence of the local authorities, who knows the extent of the destruction these two would have wrought. So much for the FBI's initial admonition that this was not a terrorism case.
Score it a victory for national security -- that is, if the Justice Department doesn't find a way to screw up the trial.
Two University of South Florida men have been indicted on charges of carrying explosives across state lines and one has been indicted on terrorism charges, The Associated Press has learned.
On August 4, Ahmed Mohamed and Yousef Megahed, two students of the University of South Florida in Tampa (yes, former employer of convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian), were pulled over in Goose Creek, South Carolina by Berkeley County police during a routine traffic stop. Inside the car, police found explosive devices, prompting them to alert the FBI and the Charleston County bomb squad. Among the items discovered were bomb and bomb-making materials, including chemicals, fusers and igniters. The Middle Eastern men were not US citizens and had initially claimed that the materials had been made from fireworks they'd bought at Wal-Mart on their way to the beach.
However, a four-week investigation has revealed much more insidious intentions, resulting in their indictment :
In South Carolina, where Mohamed and Megahed have been held in the Berkeley County jail, U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd praised state and federal authorities for cooperating in the four-week investigation that initially did not look like a terrorism case.
"The arresting deputy's vigilance and the immediate response of our local investigators and prosecutors are highly commendable," Lloyd said in a statement.
Since the Aug. 4 arrest, authorities sought to determine whether Mohamed and Megahed were fledgling terrorists or merely college students headed to the beach with devices made from fireworks they bought at Wal-Mart in their car, as they claimed. The local sheriff in South Carolina said the explosives were "other than fireworks."
The charges follow several searches in Tampa, including of a storage facility and a park where the explosives might have been tested, authorities said.
It was an interesting case from the beginning. Goose Creek is home to the Naval Weapons Station, accessible via highway 176 -- the road on which the men had been driving when they were detained. Were it not for the diligence of the local authorities, who knows the extent of the destruction these two would have wrought. So much for the FBI's initial admonition that this was not a terrorism case.
Score it a victory for national security -- that is, if the Justice Department doesn't find a way to screw up the trial.
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