International (Egyptian) students, Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed were charged with transporting explosives, while one was also charged with distributing information about explosives. Both claimed the explosives (home-made pipe bombs) were actually altered firecrackers they bought from Wal-mart. They also said they were on the way to the beach in South Carolina. Mere college students on a beach trip or plotting terrorists on a mission? The police who investigated the incident wondered the same...
In the past month, after the arrest, the Tampa Bay police have been tracking these men and their whereabouts. They have searched their storage unit and a local park where the "firecrackers" might have been assembled and/or test-fired. Mohamed was charged with a maximum joint penalty of 30 years, and Megahed with a maximum of 10 years on a single charge. Were they let off too easy? Some wonder. They would have made it to "the beach" however, if they had not been speeding in South Carolina near a naval base. From there they were held on state charges. Their attorney was not open for questioning about the indictment picked up in Tampa, Florida.
Both students were here legally on student visas. LEGAL international students involved in terrorism related charges...? We trust our exchange students, international students, and what-not, and this is how it ends? Doesn't that make you think about all of the illegal immigrants and visitors in this country? What could they be plotting? Transporting? Making in our school playgrounds, and public parks? Security is at an all time high in airports. Investigating Americans in our own country, yet suspicious things are happening right under our noses by foreigners. I'm not trying to say that foreigners should be held under a microscope, I'm just saying that maybe we should take things like this more seriously, and wonder to ourselves...Is this a part of something larger? Is another September 11th on the way? Should we be prepared...
Information from: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/08/31/florida.explosives.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us
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