The Goose Creek Two, Egypt, and national security
The mystery of the Goose Creek Two continues to unravel. From the very beginning, the case smelled. Remember: “Fireworks?” Just fireworks. Just two innocent boys on a drive to the beach. Who just happened to be driving on an isolated road that leads to a naval station…which houses a military brig where enemy combatants are being held. Ho-hum.
When last we peeked in on the trial of the two accused bomb-transporter/builders, we learned about Ahmed Mohamed’s laptop containing jihad videos targeting American troops.
Fireworks.
Here’s the latest. Note the special interest and activities of the Egyptian government in the case:
One suspended University of South Florida student pleaded not guilty Wednesday to illegally transporting explosives, while a second made plans to hire a prominent Tampa lawyer.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo accepted the “notguilty” plea of Youssef Megahed, 21. He postponed a hearing for fellow student Ahmed Mohamed, 26, until Oct. 17, when he is expected to also plead not guilty. The delay came at the request of defense attorney John Fitzgibbons, who is finalizing arrangements to represent Mohamed…As a condition of Youssef Megahed’s bail, his family had to give up its passports. A judge has said he could be released on $200,000 bail, but prosecutors objected. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday will listen to those objections during a 1:30 p.m. hearing Friday.
Meanwhile, Fitzgibbons, a high-profile Tampa lawyer, asked for more time to enter Mohamed’s plea so he can finish arrangements with Egyptian Embassy officials hiring him to represent Mohamed.
CAIR is still in the middle of it all:
Ahmed Bedier, director of the Central Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, wondered if Fitzgibbons’ involvement signaled a possible plea deal for Mohamed.
“Usually if a person wants to cut a deal, Fitzgibbons is the man for it,” Bedier said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer said in court that the evidence against the pair was not complex. Pizzo set a tentative trial date as early as Dec. 3. But Fitzgibbons said that’s unlikely. He anticipates it taking longer to review the evidence and contact experts to testify.
Both men sat in court Wednesday, shackled at the feet and separated by their attorneys. They wore orange jumpsuits like most county jail defendants, but the beards they both have worn since their arrests were gone.
“I wouldn’t read anything into that,” Fitzgibbons said.
Tampa Bay 10 notes the unusual involvement of the Egyptian government, too:
While it may seem odd the Egyptian government is paying for the defense of Ahmed Mohamed, especially when you see the homes in his neighborhood, high profile attorney John Fitzgibbons says he doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t think it is unusual that a foreign government employs a lawyer,” Fitzgibbons says. “It happens all the time.”
In going after Fitzgibbons, Mohamed will have one of the best. The former assistant U.S. Attorney has been successful in a number of high profile cases. He was successful in keeping teacher Deborah LaFave out of jail after she was convicted of having sex with one of her students.
Fitzgibbons also got a not guilty verdict for Lawrence Storer, who chased and killed a robber who had fled his restaurant.
Meanwhile, as you probably heard, TSA is now screening remote-controlled toys:
People carrying remote-controlled toys in carry-on luggage should expect additional screening at the nation’s airports, according to an advisory released Monday by the Transportation Security Administration.
The advisory is not related to any incident or threat, according to TSA officials, who suggested travelers with these toys allow extra time before boarding. A “secondary screening” takes about three to four minutes.
“We always want to be at least one step ahead of an adaptive terrorist,” TSA Miami spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said. “We train our officers in looking at common devices.”
One of two University of South Florida students arrested recently in South Carolina has been indicted on a federal charge related to an Internet video posting showing him modifying a remote-controlled toy car, prosecutors have said.
Christopher White, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., did not specifically identify the student’s video as a concern in crafting the advisory. “A number of factors came together on this, including open-source information and classified channels,” White said.
A federal indictment unsealed Aug. 31 charges engineering students Ahmed Mohamed, 26, and Youssef Megahed, 21, with transporting explosives without a permit and Mohamed with trying to help terrorists by teaching or demonstrating the use of explosives.
That charge stems from a video that Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer says Mohamed acknowledged posting to the YouTube Web site in which he shows how to turn a remote-controlled toy car into a bomb detonator. On the video, Mohamed says the detonator could “save one who wants to be a martyr for another day, another battle,” Hoffer said.
Coinky-dinky? Methinks not.
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Categories: Goose Creek
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I wonder if one would get superstar legal representation and a complicit MSM/government over in the Middle East if you planned a similar plot in, say, Saudi Arabia.
I’m all for allowing a government to aid their own citizens with attorneys; the US does it, too. But a pipe-bomb is not “fireworks”. Ever. And the direction of the car and its contents says so much about the Goose Creek Two’s intentions, to me.
TSA just now figured out that RC (remote/radio) toys can be used as detonators? Didn’t they ever see the Dirty Harry movies? Sheesh.
In another news piece a high Egyptian official stated that they take responsibility for the actions of their citizens. Is he admitting to state sponsored terrorism?
Forget Dirty Harry, haven’t they been paying attention to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Terrorists can make a simple remote trigger out of MANY things, not just RC cars. If the TSA were truly tuned in, you wouldn’t be allowed to travel with most of the devices you need to function on a daily basis due to their usefulness in making RCIED’s. That said, it seems naive to focus on RC toys.
Sadly, these two jihadists are just the tip of the iceberg at the University of South Florida.
The school’s President Judy Genshaft has gone on record stating that it isn’t the school’s business to investigate their Middle Eastern students. This is insane, based on the shameful role USF played in the Sami Al Arian debacle.
And this State University continues to offer extraordinary incentives for these Middle Eastern students to attend USF. Incentives, for example, that are not offered to in-state students.
Stephen Emerson, who investigated Al Arian, should do an in depth look at the Middle Eastern invasion on this campus and the surrounding community of Temple Terrace, Fl.
How many terrorist connections need to be uncovered here before the grown ups get involved? And they can start with Adam Bedier, local spokesperson for CAIR!
Cell phone still tends to be one of the favorite detonators I have read about. Any electronic device emitting a radio frequency could be used. The Department of Hopeless Insecurity will switch to shake down kids and their toys now instead of the Middle Eastern male (17-39) with electronic devices.
I would really like to see someone at the Department of State grow a pair and stop the $2 billion we send Egypt every year as part of the Camp David Accord payoff that Jimmy “peanut brain” Carter used to make Egypt play nice with Israel. If you think about it the US taxpayer is the one really footing the bill for their defense. I’m sure our Congress Critters could do a great job of wasting those excess funds as pork to their respective districts instead. These “youths” to use the trendy European term are anything but innocent. The more that comes out in this case I am once again grateful we got lucky that we caught these knuckle heads before they were able to do some real damage.
Who in their right mind would grant bail to a suspected terrorist???
Well, it’s good to be back home after a week in the land of Oz, otherwise known as Tamps, the home of USF and the two Goose Creek terrorists who got “Goosed” themselves.
Fitzgibbons is very good. Since the Egyptian government is paying his bill, probably using US aid funds, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bail, I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a deal with a very light sentence, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a Not Guilty verdict. This guy is slick.
Scary, but I’ve come to learn that nothing is impossible when a jury is involved.
Will the USA government never learn. Sleeping with our enemies is not only crazy, it’s dangerous.
A scum-sucking defense lawyer objecting to a foreign government paying his fee? Ah, come on? Where’s our spirit of free markets and competition? (sarcasm ON)
Bail?
I am an alum of the University of South Florida. Honestly, they haven’t received a dime from since the Sami Al Arian fiasco. I tell them that everytime they call, which is frequently since I used to give to the College of Education $1500 every year as grad school was a breeze for me with what I learned there in the mid 80’s.
Remember this is the same Fitzgibbons who defended another USF alum-Debra LaFave.
Willie, I have friends who still live and teach in the area. They also talk about what has happened to Temple Terrace, which was once a neighborhood we all aspired to live along with Tampa Palms which is also seeing a change.
USF actually has a great football team this year and it was a great place to go when I went there even though there wasn’t a football team. It’s just a shame that this idiot Genshaft is running the show. Unfortunately, I believe that most college presidents are from the same mold.
On a flight a few months ago, my daughter’s stuffed dog, Coconut, got some extra screening. He has a little motor inside that vibrates when you squeeze his paw. (The motor died long ago, but I have not peformed surgery on him to extract it and the wires.) After he passed through the x-ray machine, the agents told my daughter that they had to give him a check-up to make sure she was taking good care of him. They tested him for explosives and we went on our way. I was actually thrilled to have this happen! Coconut has traveled extensively for several years, and nobody ever batted an eye. Of course, if I had been wearing a burka or hijab, we probably would have sailed on through for fear of being profiled.
Gitmo!!They had explosives,not “fireworks”.Wake up!
Gitmo,Gitmo!
This is yet another example of why we have lost trust in our law enforcement institutions and government in general.
Remember the Muslim convert (can’t recall his name) who blew himself up outside the Oklahoma University football stadium? The FBI and the University Prez immediately sprinted to the microphones to assure us this had nothing to do with terrorism.
Now, that one reeked of Jihad, too, especially with the explosives cache the cops found inside his home. Personally, I think he screwed up and detonated his charge early. This was most fortunate for the fans who would soon exit the stadium and walk past the bench where this Muslim was seated.
If these law enforcement spokesmen would just say it’s all under investigation and leave it at that, instead of immediately ruling out Jihad as the source of the crime, maybe we’d have a little more trust in the government.
I think the American people can deal with the truth.
Amen, again, Michelle. I never believed the fireworks story, either.
Our judicial system is a joke.
Rock on, terrig! I am also a USF alum (’90). I completed ROTC and earned a commission in the U.S. Army, and USF’s conduct in these two cases (Sami and the Goose Creek Goobers) is simply criminal. When I attended, it was a relatively moderate school that at least tolerated, if not welcomed ROTC students.
I cannot believe what has happened to that school and the surrounding area in the last two decades. I used to live in Temple Terrace, and now it appears that the aformentioned Goobers were renting (or something like that) from Sami? Good grief. And was it not in the Tampa area that two “young men” tried to board a schoolbus last year? Can anyone say, “dry run for Beslan?”
Anyone know where I can rent a backhoe cheap? I am going to start digging the shelter this weekend…
Roman Con, nice to see a fellow alum for there. I also graduated the same year (History-Social Science ED major) and went back and got a second degree in SPED finishing in 93. Actually my brother’s good friend and best man at his wedding was in the Army ROTC. My brother graduated in 87 and not sure when Mike graduated but it was after that.
I am also saddened by what happened to that school. My folks think it went down starting with Betty Castor.
Yes, it was in Tampa where those two guys boarded the bus. I remember my folks told me that the police pooh-pooh’d it as two confused men.
Do they still welcome ROTC there?
# 14 WORK949 said:
Happens all the time.
You cannot overestimate the intelligence, nor underestimate the incompetence of the bomb maker… Both are equally dangerous.
October 31 is the 9 year anniversary of EgyptAir flight 990 being flown into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of MA. Remember how helpful Egypt’s government was on that investigation?
This is simply a case of moon god worship.