USF Student Arrested In Bizarre Gunman/Bomb Probe

A strange case unfolded Monday on  the USF campus, beginning with a report of an armed gunman on campus.

A chilling alert went out Monday at University of South Florida: “Armed intruder on campus at the library. Officers are on scene searching the area. Avoid the area and report anything suspicious.”

Students watched police storm the school library with guns drawn as the campus remained on lock-down.

Authorities arrested Vincent Thomas-Perry McCoy on a university shuttle bus after he stood up and proclaimed he was the man authorities were looking for. Witnesses said he claimed to have a bomb; he faces charges of making false claims and remained in jail late Monday.

At the end of the day, authorities didn’t know if McCoy was connected to the initial report of a man with a gun near the library. If the suspect truly was on campus, he slipped away. If it was a hoax, police are looking into that too.

“We have to take it seriously every time,” said USF police Lt. Meg Ross. “Until we know otherwise, we have to treat it as a real situation.”

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Additional Details can be found here.

Former USF Student Sentenced To 15 Years In Terror Trial

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 had once managed a 4.0 GPA.

“I still wonder why this young man in front of me at his age, at his intelligence, how he has become committed to this path,” Merryday said. Read more

Ahmed Mohamed – Former USF Student Pleads Guilty in Fla. Terrorism Case

Former University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed, who admitted producing a video for YouTube about making a remote-controlled car bomb, formally pleaded guilty today to a charge of providing material support to terrorists.

Mohamed, 26, an Egyptian citizen who was studying for a graduate degree in engineering, was stopped by police in South Carolina last August in a routine traffic stop. Read more

Ahmed Mohamed, Former USF Student Admits To Supporting Terrorists

Former University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed has agreed to plead guilty to providing material support to terrorists, according to a signed 12-page plea agreement entered onto the docket in U.S. District Court. Read more

FBI Investigates Gas Station Explosion

Many questions are left surrounding the death of a young Palestinian man. And, the FBI wants answers.

22-year-old Farid Karaka was burned alive after a gas station explosion early Wednesday morning on Busch Boulevard.

How did it happen? Read more

Goose Creek Terror Incident Update – USF Student Pleads Not Guilty to Bomb Charge

An Egyptian college student accused of making an Internet video demonstrating the construction of a detonator for terrorist bombs pleaded not guilty to federal charges Wednesday.

We’vebeen following this story for some time. For additional info, you can read previous posts, here.

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, remained jailed on charges of distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction. His arraignment was set for Thursday.

Mohamed, an engineering student suspended by the University of South Florida, and another Egyptian student, Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, also are charged with carrying explosive materials across state lines.

They were arrested during an Aug. 5 traffic stop in Goose Creek, S.C., about 15 miles northwest of Charleston and near a Navy weapons station.

In the trunk of their car, according an FBI agent’s statement, police found 20 feet of fuse, a box of .22-caliber bullets, a drill, several gallons of gasoline, PVC piping and gun powder.

The agent also said Mohamed’s laptop contained a video he made demonstrating how to convert a remote-control toy into a detonator.

Mohamed said he made the video “to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries,” according to the agent’s statement. He said “he considered American troops, and those military forces fighting with the American military, to be invaders of Arab countries,” the statement said.

The students told authorities they were carrying fireworks; Megahed’s attorney now contends that his client didn’t know anything about the items in the trunk.

Megahed is a permanent U.S. resident from Egypt and Mohamed is in the U.S. on a student visa

Mohamed’s attorney, John Fitzgibbons, hired for him by the Egyptian government, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Megahed, represented by a federal public defender, pleaded not guilty earlier this month.

If convicted, Mohamed could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. Megahed faces up to 10 years.

Source 

Goose Creek Terror Case – USF Student’s Brother Caught Sending “Sinister” Coded Signals

An odd video raises new questions about the USF students involved in the Goose Creek terror case. Ahmed Mohamed and Yousef Megahed are already charged with driving explosives across state lines. Now prosecutors say Megahed’s brother Yehia, was caught sending a sinister code through a closed circuit jail-house camera.

In the video captured on closed circuit cameras in the jail where Megahed is being held, Megaheds brother clearly appears to be sending disturbing signals and some type of sign language.

Prosecutors are arguing that this tape alone should be enough to keep him in jail however they also argue that Megahed is dangerous and a flight risk.

When questioned about the coded signals outside the jail, Youseffs brother said he finds the video “funny” and that they have had a good laugh.

Prosecutors say the signals being given were a “sinister” code that they have broken, but they are not saying what it means.

Watch Video

And there is more… As agents dug deeper into the men’s background, they found troubling information.

Among the discoveries:

In July, Mohamed posted a video on YouTube that explained how to transform a toy remote controlled car into a detonator, Hoffer said. The 12-minute video is narrated by a man speaking Arabic with an Egyptian accent. It shows no face, only hands.

Megahed recently purchased a .22-caliber rifle and had inquired about a Berreta handgun. Agents found the rifle inside a storage shed, along with welding and scuba diving equipment.

Megahed had joined a shooting range.

Megahed also had “multiple Egyptian passports” and went to Sears in late July to get more passport-sized photos. There were two passports for Megahed with two different names.

Was this enough for the judge to not allow bail? Apparently not.

The judge found the evidence to be “strong” but not “overwhelming” enough to prove Megahed was a dangerous flight risk that must be jailed until trial. “I do agree that he poses danger,” she said.

She ordered him to post $200,000 bail, to remain at his family’s home, and to leave only for religious services and to meet with his attorneys. His family also was required to consent to a search at any time.

Read related posts and articles here

UPDATE: Atlas Shrugs is watching this story also and has put together some very good links and detailed background info HERE.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit has uploaded a portion of the video HERE.

Goose Creek Terror Trial – Egypt to Hire Lawyer for Accused USF Student

Interesting news out of Goose Creek.

It looks as though Egypt’s government will be paying for the legal representation of at least one of the two suspects in the Goose Creek terror case.

Attorney John Fitzgibbons told a judge he was in talks with the Egyptian embassy in Washington and likely will be hired to represent suspended University of South Florida student Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed.

Ahmed el-Qawassni, an official in Egypt’s foreign ministry, said the government is closely monitoring the case and confirmed that an attorney is being hired for Mohamed, who was born in Kuwait to Egyptian parents.

“We are responsible for the sons of Egypt abroad with no exception,” el-Qawassni said.

Mohamed, 24, and another USF student, Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, are charged with carrying explosive materials across state lines.

Mohamed also is charged with distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. Authorities allege he made an Internet video showing how to use remote-controlled toys to detonate terrorist bombs.

Read related posts and articles here.

Source

TSA Airport Security Alert for Toys With Remote Controls

Citing “credible specific information” about terror tactics Monday, Transportation Security Administration officers stepped up scrutiny of passengers carrying remote control toys aboard airplanes.

The action was not motivated by a specific terror plot, said Kip Hawley, the assistant secretary in charge of aviation security at the Department of Homeland Security. But both in the United States, and internationally, there is concern that common remote control toys could be used to detonate terrorists’ bombs.

The aviation authorities decided against banning the devices in carry-on bags. But passengers carrying remote control toys “including children” could be subject to more intense searches, like having their bags checked by hand and the passengers subject to pat-downs, officials said.

The new policy was established just days after the federal authorities in South Carolina disclosed that a college student being held on terrorism-related charges had made a video that he posted on YouTube, showing how to use a remote controlled toy as a detonator.

Hawley acknowledged in an interview Monday that the video had affected the new policy. But it was just one piece of intelligence that led to the change, he said.

In the South Carolina case, the authorities found a 12-minute Arabic-language videotape on the computer of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, a student at University of South Florida, that had been uploaded to YouTube. In it, a narrator explains how to convert a toy car into a detonator, an affidavit filed in federal court Thursday says.

Mohamed is also charged with a terror related offense for allegedly posting a YouTube video showing how to turn a radio controlled toy car into a remote bomb detonator.

Court documents show searches in the USF case found remote control cars and a boat, along with dissembled watches and fuses.

Experts say Middle Eastern terrorists are using the toys to counter US jamming of cell phone detonators, because the toys operate on a lower, harder to jam frequency.

Read our related posts covering the arrest and investigation of the two University of Florida students whose activities triggered this alert HERE

Goose Creek Terror Case – Prosecutors Show Case Against USF Students

The U.S. Attorney’s Office opened up about what was found in the car of two USF students: pipes stuffed with fertilizer, Karo syrup, kitty litter, bullets and fuses, a laptop with Internet searches about martyrdom, Hamas and Qassam rockets and video instructions for turning a child’s toy into a detonator.

Pipes stuffed with fertilizer, Karo syrup and kitty litter. Bullets and fuses. A laptop with Internet searches about martyrdom, Hamas and Qassam rockets. Video instructions for turning a child’s toy into a detonator.

After weeks of silence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office opened up about its case against two University of South Florida engineering students facing explosives charges, implying that Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed had something sinister in mind when they left Tampa in early August and headed north.

Despite the grim implications of what the government presented, prosecutors said they had no “hard, specific evidence” of a motive or answers for a judge’s questions about what the men intended to do with the items, prompting U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Jenkins to set bail for one of the men, although he remains in custody pending appeal.

The question of intent has been the biggest puzzle since Aug. 4, when Megahed, 21, and Mohamed, 26, were pulled over for speeding in Goose Creek, S.C., and arrested after a deputy became suspicious and searched the pair’s car.

From the start, Megahed’s family has said the young man went on a harmless road trip, the whims of college students on summer vacation. The family and supporters filled Courtroom 14B on Friday afternoon, and Megahed’s siblings were beaming after the judge’s ruling.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer laid out the government’s case, saying they view the men as dangerous and at risk of fleeing to their home country of Egypt, a place that doesn’t always return fugitives to the United States.

Here’s what Hoffer said:

When federal agents searched the men’s car, a Toyota Camry registered to Megahed’s brother, Yahia Megahed, they found the stuffed pipes wrapped in plastic bags in the trunk alongside a 5-gallon container of gasoline.

Explosives experts categorized the items in the trunk as incomplete pipe bombs, each large enough to blow out windows in a room but not strong enough to destroy a house. Potassium nitrate is a low-grade explosive otherwise used as fertilizer. Kitty litter bound the ingredients while syrup could add fuel.

“I think you can safely say it’s a bomb,” said Edward Dreizin, a New Jersey Institute of Technology chemical engineering professor.

Agents also found a box of bullets underneath the front passenger seat, where Megahed sat. On a laptop hastily unplugged, agents discovered sites that concerned them, including searches of Qassam rockets, weapons developed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, often made with steel pipe, liquid sugar and potassium nitrate.

Read Full Story

See our previous stories on this case here.

Attorney Assists Two USF Goose Creek Terror Suspects Seeking Release

We’re not sure what exactly troubles us the most about this story… Is it the attorney attempting to get these two released into the community, or the journalistic slant and apparent inability to spell by the reporter?

Tampa, Fl — The lawyer from South Carolina that has represented the pair flew in to help the suspects find new council.

He met with the family to come up with a strategy for the release of Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed.

They were arrested in August for carrying explosives in their car. He predicts the government will fight hard to keep the men detained. He says had the men been of any other ethnicity they would have been ticket for speeding and continued on.

Andy Savage, Attorney

“The Justice Department now in these types of cases, no matter how minor the charges is to detain them, as long as you can. To keep them under diress. To investigate, investigate, and investigate to find anything you can negative about these fellows. It’s an uphill battle but it is one that can be won.”

Savage says he thinks the government has held the evidence too long, and it’s causing fear in the communities instead of yielding answers.

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For additional background on this story please read from a couple of our previous posts.

Goose Creek Arrests Lead To Felony Charges

FBI Seizes Computers, Store Video In Goose Creek Bomb Case

Goose Creek Suspect Has Terror Past in Egypt

FBI Searches Home Linked To Goose Creek Pipe Bomb Arrests

The FBI searched a Temple Terrace home Saturday morning in connection with the two University of South Florida students jailed in South Carolina on charges of possessing a pipe bomb.

Authorities had a search warrant for 12402 Pampas Place, FBI special agent Dave Couvertier said. He would not say what authorities were looking for, what was removed or how the house is connected to the two students.

The house is owned by Noor and Ana Salhab, according to the Hillsborough County property appraiser’s Web site.

Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said late Saturday he and the family of one of the students, Youssef Megahed, were unaware of the search warrant.

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Michelle Malkin provides additional details and links about the ongoing investigation including the following:

• 12402 Pampas Place just happens to be the address of a home that had been rented previously to WISE (World and Islam Studies Enterprise), one of two groups founded by convicted jihad supporter Sami Al-Arian, who was a professor at University of South Florida–the same university that Megahed and Mohamed attend.
• One of the names tied to the address is FBI Most Wanted terrorist Ramadan Shallah.
• Records show the owner of that house is Sameeh Hammoudeh, a co-defendant in the trial of Sami Al-Arian. Al-Arian is the former USF professor who was acquitted on most charges of funding terror-related organizations. He pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• Investigators searched a car Saturday that records showed is registered to Noor Salhab’s son, Ghassan Salhab. Neighbors say he and two other men are the current residents of the house that was raided.

FBI Seizes Computers, Store Video In Goose Creek Bomb Case

Video News Clip Tampa Bay News 10
Updated:
A third roomate, Ghassan Salhab, 27, from Mauritania moved here from Canada recently and returned there Monday. (as in left the country)

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Investigators have removed computers from the family home of a University of South Florida student accused of having pipe bombs in his car.

It’s reported that the FBI contacted the parents of Yousseff Samir Megahed of Tampa, who were on vacation, and got permission to search their home. When they returned, their computers were gone.

Megahed is one of two USF students arrested near a naval base in South Carolina over the weekend.

Ahmed Abda Mohamed’s family questioned why the men are being held on such a high bail amount.

“They know their son is innocent,” said M. Nachabe, faculty adviser for student Mohamed, after speaking by telephone with the man’s parents in Egypt.

Mohamed’s age is listed variously as 24 and 26 in law enforcement records.

The men were arrested Saturday afternoon in Goose Creek, S.C., on charges of possession of an explosive device. After a prosecutor argued the men were flight risks, a judge set bail at $500,000 for Mohamed and $300,000 for Megahed. (See related stories below)

The FBI declined to discuss the case. An arrest affidavit from the Berkeley County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office says that Mohamed told deputies he made the devices from components he bought at Wal-Mart.

The men told deputies that the explosives were fireworks, according to Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said the FBI had gone to a store for surveillance footage but declined to say which store or what is on the tape.

“The FBI has been to a store and picked up videotape,” she said. “It’s an open investigation. I don’t think it would be appropriate to respond to specific questions.”

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