Car's Explosive Contents Revealed at Hearing for USF Students

Car's Explosive Contents Revealed at Hearing for USF Students

blogs.tampabay.com

PVC pipe filled with homemade "low-grade explosive mixture'' and a videotape instruction for turning a remote-controlled toy car into a detonator were among the items found in the car driven by two University of South Florida students arrested in South Carolina and now facing federal explosives charges, according to a federal prosecutor.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Two "Middle Eastern" Men Pulled Over in SC with Explosives (Updated)

They also had a laptop with a video on how to make a detonating device from a remote control toy.

This quote from one of the defendants is disturbing:

Defendant Ahmed Mohamed has admitted making the tape, and in it he says he intended the instruction "to save one who wants to be a martyr for another battle.''

blogs.tampabay.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Hmm, not so innocent IMO as some here proclaimed when these persons were originally arrested.

More in this article including the government's immediate appeal on the $200,000 bail defendant, this will keep him locked up until a judge can review the appeal.

Government Appeals Bail For USF Student


One of two University of South Florida students and Egyptian nationals will be allowed pretrial release on $200,000 fully secured bail and house arrest with an electronic monitor, a U.S. magistrate determined at a hearing today.

Although Magistrate Elizabeth Jenkins agreed with the prosecution that Youssef Megahed is a dangerous man, she said the government did not prove a specific danger.

Unbelievable, the Magistrate thinks the guy is dangerous, but not specifically dangerous?

Another article, which adds to the first 2 stories:

Details Emerge in S.C. Explosives Case

Megahed, 21, and Sherif Mohamed, 24, both students at the University of South Florida in Tampa, were indicted Aug. 31 on federal charges of transporting explosives across state lines. Mohamed also faces terrorism-related charges on suspicion of demonstrating how to use the explosives.

They were arrested on state charges of possession of an explosive device after an Aug. 5 traffic stop in South Carolina. The state charge was dropped after the federal indictment.

reply to post by djohnsto77


Yeah, thats me.
I still say PVC is a piss-poor vessel for pipe bombs, but I'm no expert.
I still say low grade explosives encased in PVC would be about as deadly as silly putty, but hey, if you guys (and the Feds) want to fear a small quantity of low grade explosives in PVC then go right ahead.
These dudes could have plowed their car into a group of pedestrians and caused more death and mayhem.
Are they thought criminals? Perhaps....perhaps.
Could they have gone on to build bigger and better bombs? Perhaps.
Could they have gone on to do absolutely nothing? Perhaps.
Who knows? All I know is that that this isnt the first couple of college kids to play around with explosives, and your kidding yourself if you think otherwise.
You guys want to link this to some massive plot with dark skinned men around every corner waiting to blow # up, wanting to 'take over America' and 'impose Islamic rule', and that is about as realistic as the sun getting pregnant and spitting out planets.

Sounds to me like two more have been stopped, at least for the short time that is.
to those officials that caught them.

Originally posted by RedGolem
Sounds to me like two more have been stopped, at least for the short time that is.

to those officials that caught them.

You see this is what I find odd, how the hell out of all the cars, do they find these couple of guys, why is it they always catch some guy with hidden things in their car. It seems a little too easy.

Originally posted by 11Bravo
Who knows? All I know is that that this isnt the first couple of college kids to play around with explosives, and your kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

I understand what you are trying to say but how many of those college pranksters are running around with explosives and instructions on remote detonators "to save one who wants to be a martyr for another battle''?

I think it is worth an arrest and trial in this case.

we'll see how the case proceedes,
my take is that the prosecutors will label these two as two men who had a notion of promoting terrorism,

the PVC pipe packed with low grade explosive.combustables?

that was only intended as a proto-type stage model...
or perhaps the PVC (+ a detonator) was designed to be Inserted into a larger metal-pipe bomb... the PVC insert would allow a static free handling
& packing of explosives, up to the time of arming the terror bomb...

for instance using 1 1/2" steel pipe of suitable length, treaded at both ends
then being packed with a more robust explosive, and capped at both ends.
which the two 'instuctors' would tell their audience to use in an actual usable device


the remote control detonator was just another prototype/stage model,
for the pairs terrorist seminars they were advancing,
i suspect they were building up a touring seminar/workshop,
an introduction to terrorist bombs made from off the shelf merchandise available most anywhere in America.

Just being unlucky at being stopped for driving too fast, and then the search....was the rason for their being discovered.
neither the DHS, or FBI, or Patriot Acts, or any counter-terrorism programs had anything to do with their being apprehended




I deliberately created this post, for the purpose of disqualfying myself from the unlikely event i am called for Jury duty in this case.

thanks,

(PS I'm printing this single post, and filing it along with my National Do Not Call registration)



[edit on 15-9-2007 by St Udio]

reply to post by 11Bravo


Yeah well I guess terrorists can be dumb.

Potassium nitrate based explosives are hardly silly putty. The Oklahoma City bombing was your classic potassium nitrate (agricultural fertilizer) and fuel bomb. A lot more than a couple pipe fulls, but if placed in or near a good source of shrapnel, these could easily have killed a lot of people.

As far as why they got searched, they most likely fit a profile (which is a lot more than just having brown skin and Mohammad in your name). I haven't kept up on this story, but if they did not consent to search a dog could have easily hit on the explosives from outside the vehicle.

Bottom line is that these were not kids with rocket parts, they were men, adults, with explosives and the means to distribute the ways to create to others, and admit to it. What more do you want?

They also, both families, have ties to known terror funding operations investigated and tried in court.

The arrests happened about twenty five miles from here.

The men were arrested for speeding initially.

The Naval Weapons Station where Jose Pedia was held was nearby, and this also occurred around the time that Jose Pedia's trial was going in Miami.

Dident they also have pictures of the naval base and descriptions of the base's security systems and guard posts?

+2 for the good guys! Lets not forget though that this was stopped because of good police work, not some Patriot Act related investigation so the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office gets the kudos in my book as it was they who made the traffic stop.

Any remote controlled device can be turned into a remote detonator. It's just an electronic signal.

Originally posted by ChrisF231

Lets not forget though that this was stopped because of good police work, not some Patriot Act related investigation so the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office gets the kudos in my book as it was they who made the traffic stop.

amen to that thought,
a lot of the rest of America more or less disparages the folks in SC
as red-neck bumpkins...i'm glad we see without rose colored glasses

and aren't chained to the P.C. mentality that would have left these two people to their own devices, without interference, in 95% of the rest of the nation !

(rant)
Yeah, that's right stop and detain and threaten arrest to a kid parking in a commuter lot after hours, but let the terrorists go, with all the connections to other groups, and explosives?

That's right, harass grandmothers in the Airport, do full body searches on them, but be sure and let the ACTUAL terrorists go on a technicality.

We need a T-shirt with these guy's faces and list of contraband and 'RELEASED' printed across it...uh, just to remind the cops to arrest those low key old pensioners. Much much less risk to the cops.

I mean, really, people, do we want to put our cops in harm's way? Should they go on really dangerous assignments, or do we want them ticketing bicyclists for riding on the sidewalks of our Great Nation!

Protect our Cops. Let terrorists, muggers, rapists, murderers fend for themselves. Go after those 'easy' threats, Mr Policeman, so you can go home at night and beat your wives in safety.
(/rant)

UPDATE to the story,

Judge orders the suspect held in custody pending a hearing on an appeal by the prosecution to deny bail.

The article did not say when the appeal would be heard.

Tampa judge puts off bail for USF student

TAMPA - A suspended University of South Florida student in jail on explosives charges cannot post bail until a hearing on an appeal by federal prosecutors who oppose his release, a judge ruled.

Originally posted by Badge01
but let the terrorists go, with all the connections to other groups, and explosives?

I can almost guarantee that if released they will be under surveillance. If so, would those "connections to other groups" only lead us to more bad guys?

It is possibly a very good thing that they are being "released."