![Gitmo the last stop for Nutjobs](https://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/gitmo-sun.jpg?w=450)
Gretchen Parker, Tampa Tribune, Sep 2, 2007
MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – In a jail chapel, with two renderings of the Last Supper overhead, the family of a 21-year-old University of South Florida student gathered around him Saturday. His father did most of the talking, as they delivered the bad news. The accusations that he and a fellow student had a pipe bomb in the trunk of their Toyota Camry as they drove near a Naval weapons station had turned into a federal indictment. Their hopes that state charges, filed by South Carolina authorities, would be dropped after a hearing this month were dashed. Instead, the two now face the likelihood they’ll be held in federal custody without bail, their attorneys said.
– So far all good news.
Youssef Megahed’s reaction was shock, and then despair, his family said. Sitting in solitary confinement, he’s terrified of the warnings FBI agents have given him and his family – that he’ll be held interminably in a military prison like Guantanamo Bay.
– Excellent
Adding to their anxiety was a quote in the Charleston newspaper Saturday from the local sheriff, predicting Megahed and fellow student Ahmed Mohamed soon will be moved from this jail in Berkeley County to the brig on the nearby Naval complex. The Megaheds know the brig is used to hold prisoners the president has deemed “enemy combatants.”
Worse for Megahed’s father, Samir, was the moment he was leaving and saw Mohamed talking to his own attorney. Mohamed, teary, had also just heard about the indictment.
He hugged and kissed Samir and asked him to deliver a message to his own father in Egypt: “Tell my father I am not going to meet him in this life again.”
– Poor pop, who knew his kid was a terrorist?
Mohamed, 24, fears he will be imprisoned longer than his father will be alive, Samir said.
Samir stood with hands clasped, tears in his eyes, on Saturday as he related the story outside the Berkeley County Detention Center. His wife and three other children stood next to him, as they ducked out of a steady, gray rain and relived the miserable afternoon.
– It has always amazed me that Muslims show little regard for their family when they rush off to jihad. Who takes care of their parents as they age? Who builds a strong economic base to ensure the families future is stable? Do all Muslims hate their parents or just the Jihadi?
Mohamed, Samir said, was focused on the maximum 30 years that he faces if he’s convicted of the federal charges that are connected to, but more serious than, Megahed’s. Investigators say Mohamed tried to help terrorists by teaching and demonstrating how to use explosives. Authorities suspect the civil engineering student exchanged information over the Internet about how to miniaturize bombs.
That charge carries 20 years, in addition to the 10 years that both students face if convicted of transporting explosives. Federal authorities haven’t revealed exactly what kind of explosives were in the trunk of the car after the two were stopped for speeding on Aug. 4; a sheriff’s report described them as pipe bombs.
Federal investigators also haven’t revealed what was on the laptop they took from the car, which belonged to Mohamed.
– I’m sure it did not include a link to this website (more…)
Opinionated Infidels