Egypt to Bank-Roll Mohamed's Legal Team: Update

The Egyptian government is paying for the defense of Ahmed Mohamed, but this is not unusual, at least according to his federal criminal defense attorney, John Fitzgibbons.^[1] "I don't think it is unusual that a foreign government employs a lawyer, it happens all the time……The Egyptian government stands by their people, as we do," he said. "It's part of the process," Fitzgibbons says.^[2]

The Egyptian government is defending one of two University of South Florida students who are Egyptian citizens. ^[3]Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, two Egyptian students at South Florida University, were indicted for carrying explosive materials across state lines, and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons.^[4]

Egypt will only cover Mohamed however, because Megahed has been a legal permanent resident of the United States and has lived here since he was a child.^[5] He has secured his own defense, whereas Mohamed's visit to the United States was on a student visa sponsored by the Egyptian government.^[6]

The government is asserting in this case that when Mohamed and Yusef Megahed were stopped in South Carolina, they had 20 feet of fuse, a box of .22-caliber bullets, a drill, several gallons of gasoline, PVC piping and gun powder; additionally police found as a laptop that allegedly had a YouTube video showing how to make a detonator.^[7] The FBI is asserting that these items evidence intent to harm the public, this assertion seems to be based on the fact that the YouTube video was made in reference to hurting American troops.^[8]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously written about this terrorism case here.

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^[1] Mike Deeson, Egypt hires lawyer for USF student accused of terrorism, www.tampabays10.com, October 4, 2007, available at http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=64583 (last visited October 4, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Elaine Silvestrini, Egypt Taps VIP Counsel, The Tampa Tribune, October 4, 2007, available at http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBZG80MC7F.html (last visited October 4, 2007).
^[4] AP Staff, Two Egyptian students in Florida charged with terror-related crimes, Associated Press Newswire, August 31, 2007, available at available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File
^[5] Silvestrini, supra note 3.
^[6] Id.
^[7] AP Staff, supra note 4.
^[8] Id.

Two Students Indicted on Terror Charges in South Carolina

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, two Egyptian students at South Florida University, were indicted Friday for carrying explosive materials across state lines, and one of them was charged with teaching the other how to use them for violent reasons.^[1]

Mohamed and Megahed are both engineering students who face terrorism charges for teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.^[2] The two students were stopped for speeding in Goose Creek, South Carolina, on Aug. 4, where they have been held ever since.^[3]

They allegedly were stopped with pipe bombs in their car near a U.S. Navy base in South Carolina where it is thought that enemy combatants have been held in the past.^[4] They were held on state charges while the FBI continued to investigate whether or not they should be charged with terrorism crimes.^[5]

Mohamed was charged with distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction, which is a crime that carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.^[6]

Distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction is covered under 18 U.S.C. § 842(p)(2)(A) wherein it states that it shall be unlawful for any person to teach or demonstrate the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction, with the intent that the teaching, demonstration, or information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence; ^[7]or to teach or demonstrate to any person the making or use of an explosive, a destructive device, or a weapon of mass destruction, or to distribute to any person, by any means, information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction, knowing that such person intends to use the teaching, demonstration, or information for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime of violence.^[8]

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^[1] AP Staff, Two Egyptian students in Florida charged with terror-related crimes, Associated Press Newswire, August 31, 2007, available at available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] 18 U.S.C. § 842(p)(2)(A) (2007)
^[8] Id., at § 842 (p)(2)(B).

Interpol Pleads for More Funds to Combat Terror

David Gork, Interpol's director of specialized crime and analysis, appealed to the international community for more funding so the agency can adequately combat nuclear terrorism.^[1] The agency operates on an annual budget of about $70 million and that is not enough money to implement all the necessary programs to battle the various types of terrorism, said Gork.^[2]

''It's ludicrous, but again it comes down to the member countries providing the funding to support us……We are not being given sufficient resources to be able to do it,'' Gork said during a nuclear terrorism conference, although Gork refrained from naming specific countries that needed to pay more, he asserted that Western countries must give the agency more money to increase training programs.^[3] ''That's the only way we are going to stop this. Otherwise, forget it…..We don't have enough participation in some of the countries to do it and I don't mean the countries that require the training. I am talking about the countries that can provide the training,'' he said.^[4]

Gork said Interpol has so far trained 350 people in 130 different countries on aspects of bioterrorism, but more must be done; according to Interpol's Web site, bioterrorism involves the use of biological agents or germs.^[5]Gork made the comments during the five-day Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference, where the world's nuclear powers and other countries have gathered to find ways and exchange practices to prevent nuclear attacks.^[6]

Intelligence, sharing of information between countries and preventative measures such as training law enforcement to interdict the movement of nuclear materials are what can prevent such attacks, Gork said.[7]

The United States gives 13.2 percent of Interpol's budget, which was abut $5.6 million last year, an official at the Department of State said.^[8]Francis Fragos Townsend, assistant to the president on homeland security and counter terrorism, said the threat of nuclear attacks can be countered by international cooperation.^[9] ''The probability that a nuclear attack could occur will never be zero... But through understanding the enemy, fostering the collective strength of the international community and taking concerted action, we will continue to counter this grave threat.'' Townsend said.^[10]

We have previously blogged about the international collaborative effort to combat nuclear terror, here.

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^[1] Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, Interpol official appeals for funding, Associated Press Newswire, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.

Pakistan Joins Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terror

Pakistan will join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism(GICNT) which is an international initiative aimed at keeping nuclear materials away from terrorists.^[1] The initiative, only applies to civilian "facilities and activities, and Pakistan has been careful to clarify that the global initiative does not cover Pakistan's military nuclear facilities or activities.^[2]

The GICNT calls on states to improve accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances as well as the security of nuclear facilities.^[3] It was built on an existing "Proliferation Security Initiative," which a U.S.-led group of of nations that worked jointly to help seize illicit weapons as they were transported around the world.^[4]

Pakistan did not help its anti-terror image when in 2004, the scientist considered to be the father of the Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, confessed that he had leaked nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.^[5] President Gen. Pervez Musharraf then pardoned Khan for spreading the nuclear technology, citing his contribution in making Pakistan a nuclear weapons state, the only country in the Muslim world to possess the capability.^[6] Now Pakistan is trying to show that they have moved on from the past.^[7] "Pakistan's participation in the global initiative is a manifestation of the fact that nuclear security and export control measures in Pakistan are at par with latest international standards," the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.^[8]

The stated objectives of the Global Initiative To Combat Nuclear Terrorism are to build the capacity of willing partner nations to combat the global threat of nuclear terrorism. It was originally conceived to be between Russia and the U.S., however many other nations have joined. "This cooperation includes efforts to:

• Improve accounting, control, and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances, as well as security of nuclear facilities;
• Detect and suppress illicit trafficking or other illicit activities involving such materials, especially measures to prevent their acquisition and use by terrorists;
• Respond to and mitigate the consequences of acts of nuclear terrorism;
• Ensure cooperation in the development of technical means to combat nuclear terrorism;
• Ensure that states takes all possible measures to deny safe haven to terrorists seeking to acquire or use nuclear materials; and
• Strengthen our respective national legal frameworks to ensure the effective prosecution of, and the certainty of punishment for, terrorists and those who facilitate such acts."^[9]
  
  

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^[1] Sadaqat Jan, Pakistan Joins Fight on Nuke Terror, Associated Press Newswire, June 10, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id. The world's five leading nuclear powers form the core of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France).
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] GICNT Fact Sheet, White House Website, July 15 , 2006, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060715-3.html (last visited June 10, 2007).

FBI on the Trail of the "Kitchen Sink Bomb"

Kirk Yeager works for the FBI making bombs; he does it to help the U.S. defend against the next frontier for terrorists in the United States, bombs made from household products.^[1] As the head of the explosives unit at the FBI's laboratory in Quantico, VA., Yeager helps the FBI solve bombing cases by investigating the crime scene debris.^[2]

The "Mother of Satan" explosives are considered the most likely weapon that terrorists will use against the U.S., more so than a nuclear or radiological dirty bomb. "Every serious terrorist group knows about them and knows how to make them….[and] you don't have to have the level of sophistication to make a bomb that you need to get nuclear materials."^[3] Yeager said. Yeager is the only U.S. official who makes TATP and similar explosives in mass quantities.^[4] Authorities have been worried for sometime that homemade suicide bombs were a larger threat to the U.S. than any other form of terrorist activity.^[5]

Ten years ago, peroxide-based bombs were mostly used by street punks, sub-urban pranksters, and chemistry teachers. But the easy-to-make yet deadly chemical mixtures were embraced in the late 1990s by Palestinian militants and suicide bombers bent on killing large groups of people.^[6] The bombs are made by mixing chemicals that are used in common household items, including hydrogen peroxide and paint thinner.^[7] Experts know them as TATP, short for triacetone triperoxide, and HMTD, or hexamethylene triperoxide diamine.^[8]

John Rollins, a counter-terrorism expert at Congressional Research Service and a former U.S. intelligence official, said TATP and other varieties of peroxide-based bombs are most likely to show up in the hands of homegrown extremists and other splinter sympathizers of international terrorist groups.^[9] The larger and centrally organized groups, such as al-Qaida, are more interested in "big bang" weapons that he said would cause widespread deaths and economic losses.^[10]

Under 18 U.S.C. § 2332a(a), any person, without lawful authority, uses, threatens, or attempts or conspires to use a weapon of mass destruction against any person in the United States can be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.^[11]

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^[1] Lara Jakes Jordan, FBI Prepares Defense Against Kitchen Sink Bombs, Possible New Terror Weaponry, AP (via Canadian Press), February 19, 2007.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Bernd Debusmann, Suicide Bombs Biggest Threat to US: Experts, Reuters, Jun. 13, 2006.
^[6] Jordan, supra note 1.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Recent cases of explosions or thwarted attacks with TATP or HMTD in the U.S. include: Millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam. He was carrying HMTD among the 56 kilograms of explosives in the trunk of his car when he was arrested near the U.S.-Canadian border in December 1999; Richard Reid. The would-be British shoe bomber tried unsuccessfully to detonate 227 grams of TATP hidden in his high-top sneaker during a Paris-to-Miami flight in 2001; University of Oklahoma suicide bomber Joel Henry Hinrichs III. He used TATP to blow himself up near a packed football stadium in October 2005; College student Matthew Rugo in Texas City, Texas. He was killed last July when a plastic storage container of TATP that was mixed in his apartment exploded. The FBI has not found any connection in the case to international terrorist groups, but the investigation continues. Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] A weapon of mass destruction under this statute has a more expansive definition than many people realize, it is found in 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(4)(a)(1) (2006).

First American Citizen to Stand Accused of Terrorist Activity: Maldonado

Daniel Joseph Maldonado, a former Houston man who was arrested in Kenya last month, and extradited to Texas where he has been charged teaming with Al-Qaeda to overthrow the Somali government and replace it with an Islamic state.^[1] Maldonado, also known as Daniel Aljughaifi, is the first American citizen to stand accused of terrorist activity in Somalia, where US troops recently conducted strikes on suspected terrorists in the wake of an Islamic insurrection there.^[2]

According to the criminal complaint, Maldonado, a Boston native, traveled from Houston to Africa in November 2005.^[3] A year later, in Somalia, he became a member of the Islamic Courts Union and joined with elements of al-Qaida to attempt the overthrow of the Somali government.^[4] According to Maldonado, he was provided with an AK-47 assault rifle, ammunition, camouflage uniforms, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and combat training in Mogadishu.^[5] He was then taken to the city of Kismaayo, a stronghold for rebel Islamic militias, where he assisted in forcibly interrogating an alleged spy, a flight attendant who was eventually killed.^[6]

"I would be fighting the Somali militia, and that turned into fighting the Ethiopians, and if Americans came, I would fight them, too," Maldonado said to his FBI interrogators.^[7] He also asserted that he had "no problem" with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that he was prepared to become a suicide bomber if he was wounded or unable to fight.^[8]

Maldonado is charged with, among other things, conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction,^[9] he is also charged with knowingly receiving military type training from a terrorist organization.^[10]

To be guilty of use of weapons of mass destruction by a national of the United States, outside of the United States a person must first be a national of the U.S.^[11] Then the person, without lawful authority, must use, or threaten, attempt, or conspire to use, a weapon of mass destruction outside of the United States.^[12] The punishment for this offense shall be imprisonment for any term of years or for life, and if a death results, shall be punished by death, or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life.^[13]

To be guilty of receiving military training from a terrorist organization, one must knowingly receive military-type training from or on behalf of any organization designated at the time of the training by the Secretary of State under section 219(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act as a foreign terrorist organization.^[14] The person must have knowledge that the organization is a designated terrorist organization, that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorist, or that the organization has engaged or engages in terrorism.^[15] A person found guilty under this law shall be fined or imprisoned for ten years, or both.

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^[1] Joe Stinebaker, Ex-Texan Charged With Aiding Terrorists, AP (via ABC News), February 13, 2007.
^[2] Raja Mishra, Mass. Native Held in Terror Case, Boston Globe, February 14, 2007.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Stinebaker, supra note 1.
^[5] Mishra, supra note 2.
^[6] Stinebaker, supra note 1.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] 18 U.S.C §2332a(B) (2006); the definition of destructive device is found in 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(4)(a)(1) (2006).
^[10]18 U.S.C. §2339D (2006).
^[11] 18 U.S.C §2332a(B).
^[12] Id.
^[13] Id.
^[14] 18 U.S.C. §2339D
^[15] The definitionfor these offenses can be found in section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989, Id.