CAIR’s involvement hardly puts me at ease:
Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization for Muslims, said the men arrested are Youseff Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Mohamed, 24 - two University of South Florida students.
Family members told Bedier they think the materials were leftover fireworks Megahed kept in his trunk since July 4.
“Both of them are really naïve kids,” Bedier said.
He said Megahed is a permanent legal resident of the United States and Mohamed was the passenger. Mohamed’s legal status was not known. Bedier said police will not tell them why they’re being held without charges.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Bedier said. “If they didn’t do anything wrong they need to be released.”
And they’re saying now that the explosives are merely fireworks.
Update:
The Post and Courier story has been updated to include word that the men have been charged:
Two men pulled over Saturday in Goose Creek and detained for carrying explosives in the trunk of a car have been charged with possession of an incendiary device, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt announced today.
If convicted of the charges, Youseff Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Mohamed, 24, could face between 2 to 15 years in prison.
Not much else has been said though. This case has been weird from the start and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.
Update II:
We should know more about the unspecified, but suspicious, substances Tuesday:
Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt says his officers thought the items to be something “other than fireworks.”
Authorities detonated something they described as an explosive device and Sheriff DeWitt says “materials and substances” have been sent to the FBI lab for analysis. It could be tomorrow before the results are known.
Dan Riehl has some interesting background on the area near Goose Creek.
Update III:
Dan has another update on the materials found in the car:
It’ll be interesting to see what John Little, who knows the rocket angle, has to say about this: See Allah and also Little for more.
“In the vehicle, investigators say they found potassium chlorate and sugar, which when combined with a catalyst create what has been dubbed “instant fire” releasing heat, flames and smoke in a spectacular fashion. As a result, they are used in making fireworks and as a fuel for model rockets.
In addition a can of gasoline, PVC pipe, four hobby store brand rocket launchers and hobby store brand fuses were found, investigators said. The four PVC pipes contained an unknown substance. Also taken into evidence was a laptop computer, a GPS unit and Trac cellular telephones. The laptop computer was sent to the FBI lab at Quantico for analysis.”
That material is sometimes used by hobbyists to create rocket motors. The fuel mixture is often referred to as a “sugar rocket” or “candy rocket.” You can see typical sugar motor hobbyist equipment here. PVC is not generally good rocket tubing material but some hobbyists do use it - especially when using this type of fuel. You can find videos, like this one, demonstrating similar rockets on YouTube. Many hobbyists also use laptops for model rocket design or to collect and manage data recorded by onboard instruments. So, it is quite plausible that these guys are harmless hobbyists.
Given the fuel, electronics, and location it’s also possible that they had other motives. I think this probably explains the lack of communication from law enforcement. They’re probably working quite hard to sort this one out.
Update IV:
This video shows sugar and sodium chlorate in action.
Updates will continue in new posts.
See Also:
Report: South Carolina Bomb Scare Suspects Car Contained Rocket Motors
Breaking: Bomb Scare in South Carolina
Right Click for URL
August 6th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Middle Eastern Men Arrested In South Carolina Had Bomb In Car…
Two Middle Eastern men arrested during a traffic stop in South Carolina had a bomb in their car and one bomb that was in the process of being constructed:
WCIV—Two men are being held in the Berkeley County Detention Center after police find explosiv…
August 6th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Fireworks they bought them from Pedro at South of the Border.
More fearmongering.
About 15-18000 Americans are murered each year. When the percentage that are killed by muslims reaches say 10% or 1500 people maybe then the fearmongering/scapegoating will work better.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I agree with John Ryan. Until Islamofascists kill more than 1499 Americans a year we should just ignore terrorism. Likewise, if we ignore bank robbery and carjacking that will take care of them, too.
Also, it looks like CAIR is arguing that young *adult* Muslim males university students (even grad students) are too stupid to realize that speeding with a car containing chemicals that possibly could be linked to making explosive devices is a bad idea. Jim Bob and Joe Bill would undoubtedly have known better. Of course, driving a fast car with a Confederate battle flag on it might help.
August 6th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Could this be like the Flying Imans? In other words, could these men be testing how far law enforcement will let them go with explosive materials and/or establishing plausible deniability so that others could escape scrutiny in the future?
August 6th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I’m having a lot of trouble believing the “hobbiest” angle.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:09 am
The so-called Feds say it was firecrackers. The local police who are a lot more sophisticated, being near a high-security nuke base, think otherwise. The FBI special agent squad is selected from people who fall off turnip trucks, so it’s a clear call in favor of the locals in this case.