CAIR Stands By SC Suspects Even as Terror Past Surfaces...

[Soldier4Christ]

CAIR Stands By SC Suspects Even as Terror Past Surfaces...

Indicted USF Student has Terror Past in Egypt

Two Egyptian students enrolled at the University of South Florida have been indicted for carrying explosive materials across states lines. One of the defendants also is charged with 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, faces terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

According to officials familiar with the case, Mohamed has been arrested previously in Egypt on terrorism-related charges. He is said to have produced an Internet video showing how to build a remote-controlled car bomb.

Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, also an engineering student, were stopped for speeding Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., where they have been held on state charges. Police found pipe bombs in their car near a Navy base in South Carolina where enemy combatants have been held. They have been held in a South Carolina jail while the FBI continued to investigate whether there was a terrorism link.

The men reportedly made police officer suspicious during a traffic stop when one of them tried to quickly put away a laptop computer. The computer was seized.

Mohamed faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the count of demonstrating how to make and use an explosive device. He and Megahed both face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of transporting explosives across state lines without permits.

Their defense attorney, Andy Savage, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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.

Both Mohamed and Megahed are in the country legally on student visas, officials said.

Mohamed had rented a room in a house in Temple Terrace, a suburb of Tampa, which was used as the office for the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE), a think-tank founded by former USF Professor Sami Al-Arian. WISE rented the same home on Pampas Place during the early 1990s.

Al-Arian then lied to local code enforcement officials after neighbors complained about the traffic in and out of the house. It was against city codes to run a business in the residential neighborhood. Al-Arian denied the home was an office, city records show.

In 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Evidence presented at his trial showed Al-Arian served on the PIJ governing board.

A grand jury in Tampa heard Wednesday from the home's owner, Noor Salhab, and Salhab's son. In addition, Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), testified under subpoena. He told reporters that he was asked questions similar to what he would get at a press conference.

Bedier has acted as a family spokesman for the Megahed family. Initially, he criticized the investigation for what he termed "the lack of evidence."

"They brought in the bomb squad and detonated the evidence they had. That was premature to charge somebody and rush to judgment without evidence."

In addition, he told the Tampa Tribune that the men were being scrutinized due to their ethnicity.

"Obviously their heritage and background is playing a major role in blowing this out of proportion," Bedier said. "If these were some good old boys, I doubt this [story] would be played around the world."

[Soldier4Christ]

"If these were some good old boys

Sounds like a racist statement to me.

Let's get real here. With their background history, material in hand and the location they were in it doesn't matter what their ethnicity is. It would still need to be investigated even if the persons terrorist history was not know at the time.

Like usual CAIR is on the side of terrorists and are grabbing at straws to support their islamic ideology.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

I'll just speak for myself and say that I'm sick of hearing ethnicity, race, or religion being used as a smoke screen by terrorists. This is absolute baloney, but it works in our pitiful "Politically Correct" society. These pitiful things are a weakness in our societies, and they are being exploited to the limit by all kinds of folks up to NO GOOD of any kind. These weaknesses will eventually result in the deaths of many more people, but I seriously doubt that we will learn anything or make the necessary changes to protect innocent people.

At this point, I really don't know what it would take to wake people up, and this includes our leaders and government we have elected to serve us. After all, many of our elected representatives have their own agendas that are more important than serving the people who elected them. I'll just say that when circumstances warrant it, existing laws should be used to the limit to put these folks in prison. YES - you heard me RIGHT! Those who grossly neglect their duties and/or commit treason and other crimes need to be put in prison or punished to the limit of the law, including the death penalty for treason.

[Soldier4Christ]

The majority of our current government is to busy and to stuck on themselves and their socialist agenda that they cannot perceive of any threat to them except by Christians. In this stance they are willing to side with anyone else that is also against Christians in order to achieve their goals.

I know this may sound a lot like a conspiracy theory but it is far from that. The Progressive Caucus makes up a large part of the House right now. From it's founding in 1991 by newly-elected House Representative Bernie Sanders, up until 1999, the website of the Progressive Caucus was hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America. After this fact was reported in the news the web pages suddenly split to two separate entities. There are also several Senators that are or were members. Nancy Pelosi was a member until she assumed the position of House Minority Leader.

The socialist manifesto claims that they are about the people and a government run by the people and that everything including real estate belongs to all the people and not to individuals. All too often though it is about an elite group (government) that owns and controls everything with those in control living high and the people having nothing.