New details released in bomb case

The FBI says a video on making a detonator was in a suspect's laptop.

By Times Staff Writer
Published November 24, 2007

TAMPA - Instead of carrying out "martyrdom operations," people can use remote explosives and save themselves for the real battles, an Egyptian student said on a homemade video, according to federal prosecutors.

A court filing released this week provided new details about the video, which is a key piece of evidence in the case against University of South Florida student Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, who faces federal explosive charges after his arrest in August.

Mohamed and fellow USF student Youssef Samir Megahed were pulled over by police for a traffic stop in Goose Creek, S.C., about 15 miles northwest of Charleston and near a Navy weapons station. Officers found explosives in their car and a laptop belonging to Mohamed that contained the video he made that demonstrates how to convert a remote-control toy car into a detonator for bombs, according to the FBI.

The men, who have been suspended by USF, are in jail pending trial set to start Dec. 3. They have pleaded not guilty.

Also on Mohamed's laptop - in a folder labeled "Bomb Shock" - were files about ingredients for explosive, according to the filing by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer in Tampa.

In addition, the laptop was used to upload the video onto YouTube, the filing said, and it contained a record of an e-mail sent to YouTube in July asking why the submitted video hadn't been posted on the Web site.

Mohamed said he made the video "to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries," the FBI said. He said "he considered American troops, and those military forces fighting with the American military, to be invaders of Arab countries."

Megahed's attorney, Adam Allen, has contended that Megahed didn't know anything about the explosives in the trunk or the video on the laptop.

Attorney John Fitzgibbons, who is representing Mohamed, declined to comment about the tape Thursday. Messages left by phone and e-mail for Allen were not immediately returned.

[Last modified November 24, 2007, 00:31:32]