Debbie Schlussel: Is FBI Sabotaging the "Just Fireworks" Smiling Terrorists Case?
I've written so many times on this site about how the FBI either bungles or deliberately sabotages so many cases involving domestic Islamic terrorism.
The latest is the case of Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, the smiling "Just Fireworks" terrorists. They were South Florida college students caught on an obscure highway in South Carolina close to a military base that houses "Enemy Combatants" and nuclear weapons.
As I reported then, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko claimed the case was not related to terrorism, even as his agents told the students' neighbors they were, indeed, Islamic terrorists.
Now, it appears the FBI is sabotaging this case. AP reported:
The FBI says two Egyptian college students arrested near the Navy weapons station at Goose Creek, South Carolina, last year were carrying low-grade fireworks as they claimed.The FBI says the University of South Florida engineering students were not carrying dangerous explosives.
Twenty-six-year-old Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and 21-year-old Youssef Samir Megahed have been in jail since sheriff's deputies found what they called bomb-making materials in their car during a traffic stop.
They were indicted on federal charges of transporting explosives illegally.
But an FBI report submitted to the court Wednesday in Tampa, Florida, by Megahed's public defender says the items explode in tests.
U.S. attorney's office spokesman Steve Cole would not talk about the filing Thursday.
I think we all know--as the prosecutors know--that these two were not only carrying pipe bombs, but they lied about what they were doing and gave a million different stories. We also know that they went to shooting ranges, were tied to another Muslim, Karim Moussaoui, who was engaged in a sham marriage and violated his student visa, and made videos posted on the internet on how to rig electronic toys as bombs.
Just fireworks? Maybe the FBI thinks so. But real law enforcement personnel--ie., those concerned about enforcing the law and protecting the public more than outreaching to Muslims--know otherwise.
These guys are terrorists, and their cargo when they were caught in the middle of the night on August 4, 2007, was not "just fireworks."
Thank the Keystone Kops at the FBI, if this case goes down the drain, and these terrorists go free.
Posted by Debbie on February 4, 2008 10:19 AM to Debbie Schlussel