Thankfully this guy was a huge douchebag:
A university student from Egypt was ordered held without bond after prosecutors said they found a pilot’s uniform, chart of Memphis International Airport and a DVD titled “How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act” in his apartment.
The FBI is investigating whether Mahmoud Maawad, 29, had any connection to terrorists. He is awaiting trial on charges of wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number.
Maawad, who is in the United States illegally, told the judge during a hearing Thursday that he is studying science and economics at the University of Memphis.
“My school is everything. I stay in this country for seven years; I stay for the school,” he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Parker said Thursday that the airport-related items were found during a Sept. 9 search.
“The specific facts and circumstances are scary,” Parker said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Thomas Anderson ruled that Maawad be held without bond.
“It is hard for the court to understand why he has a large concentration of those (aviation) items, and nothing else to indicate Mr. Maawad plans to stay in the community,” Anderson said.
Maawad had ordered $3,000 in aviation materials, including DVDs titled “Ups and Downs of Takeoffs and Landings,” “Airplane Talk,” “Mental Math for Pilots” and “Mastering GPS Flying,” FBI agent Thad Gulczynski testified.
The company reported Maawad to authorities when he didn’t pay for $2,500 of merchandise it had delivered, Gulczynski said.
Ok, not the smartest wannabe terrorist to hit our shores but still makes you think. But I believe any terrorists who attempt to take over a plane after 9/11 is in for a surprise. They will quite literally be torn to shred’s. No one in their right mind would believe that a terrorist is taking over a plane to free “freedom fighters” anymore.
This arrest follow’s the recent arrests in Los Angeles:
Terrorist’s In Los Angeles, Update III
Terrorist’s In Los Angeles, Update II
Terrorist’s In Los Angeles, Update
Terrorists In Los Angeles
Plus remember that Memphis has had two other recent arrests for possible terrorism and things getting more disturbing: (via Fishkite)
On April 4th, nine FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Raleigh home of a convicted felon named Rafat Jamal Mawlawi, a Syrian with dual citizenship in the United States. Mawlawi is suspected of organizing a scam to illegally bring Moroccan men into the United States by arranging sham marriages and engagements to women from Memphis.
What the FBI found was much more troubling: a hidden stash of loaded weapons and ammunition clips, $34,000 in cash, two pictures of Mawlawi shouldering a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a gruesome videotape of war casualties with Arabic text and voiceover, and more than 20 passports to Morocco, Syria, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries.
The agents were members of the FBI?s Joint Terrorism Task Force. As outlined by prosecutors and agents in a federal courtroom last week, what they found could be evidence of a possible terrorist link in Memphis or something less sinister, as has proven to be the case in other investigations of Middle Easterners caught up in our legal system. The FBI investigation is ongoing. (much more here)
and
An investigation by a terrorism task force has led to the conviction of a convenience store owner who unlawfully withdrew millions of dollars and sent much of it overseas.
Hasan Ali Ayesh, a Palestinian who became a U.S. citizen in 2002, had his citizenship revoked and was sentenced to five years probation, the U.S. Attorney?s Office said Tuesday.
At first glance it seems as if Memphis might be becoming another Lodi, California. But now I think they may have surpassed it.
Then take a look at Virginia:
A Maryland man was charged with conspiracy to help a terrorist organization, part of an investigation of the “Virginia jihad network” that has so far resulted in 10 convictions, U.S. law enforcement officials said Friday.
Ali Asad Chandia of College Park, Md., was a personal assistant to Ali al-Timimi, whom authorities called the spiritual leader of the Virginia jihad network, according to a four-count indictment unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
The indictment charges Chandia, a Pakistani, with conspiring to provide material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization, which the United States designated a terrorist organization in 2001. Chandia visited the group’s office in Lahore, Pakistan, in November 2001, the indictment said. Chandia was arrested Thursday at his home, assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher said.
Also charged is Mohammed Ajmal Khan of Coventry, England, who prosecutors say is a senior official in Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic rebel group fighting for independence in the India-controlled portion of Kashmir. Khan already is in custody in England on terrorism charges.
Al-Timimi was sentenced to life in prison in July after being convicted of soliciting treason and other charges. Prosecutors say al-Timimi wielded enormous influence among a group of young Muslim men in northern Virginia who played paintball games in 2000 and 2001 in preparation for holy war around the globe.
Nine other members of the group have been convicted for their roles in the conspiracy, with prison terms ranging from three years to life.
The fact that Gorelick and the other Clinton cronies were booted out WITH their policies seems to have led to better enforcement by our intelligence and law enforcement communities. But all the recent arrests mean we all must be vigilant in the war on terror. The cities we live in are the front lines.
Check out Jihad Watch, Sister Toldjah, In The Bullpen, Brutally Honest, Ace of Trump, Michelle Malkin, & Area417 for more.
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