South Carolina police officers say two men stopped for speeding acted suspiously, agreed to a search of their vehicle, and pipe bombs were found in the trunk. Here is the lead, from WIS TV:
Aug 6, 2007 05:34 PM MONCKS CORNER, SC (AP/WIS) – Authorities say two Middle Eastern men arrested near a Navy base had a pipe bomb in their car. Authorities pulled over the car for speeding at around 6:00pm Saturday. Officers asked to search the vehicle, and discovered the suspicious items located in the trunk… Authorities say 24-year-old Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed and 21-year-old Yousef Samir Megahed were charged Monday with possession of an incendiary device. An FBI spokeswoman says a joint state-federal investigation is under way to see if there was any terrorism connection but no link had been found yet.
A member of CAIR responded with what sounds to me like a stereotype of South Carolina police officers. This from NewsPress.com:
“Definitely this is not related to terrorism,” said [Ahmed] Bedier, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Had these been two good ol’ boys from South Carolina driving through and speeding — and even if they did have some fireworks — nobody would have been arrested,” Bedier said. The two men were stopped for speeding Saturday night near Goose Creek on U.S. Highway 176. Goose Creek is the site of the Naval Weapons Station, which houses the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, a military prison where enemy combatants have been held. They were heading west, away from Goose Creek, when they were pulled over about seven miles from the sprawling Navy facility, police said. Officers became suspicious because the men quickly put away a laptop computer and couldn’t immediately say what they were doing in the area or where they were going, [Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne] DeWitt said.
They were arraigned and bail was set. This from Associated Press:
Two men found with several pipe bombs in their car near a Navy base were charged Monday with possession of an explosive device, authorities said… “They admitted to having what they said were fireworks. Based on the officer’s judgment at hand, based on what he had seen, we judged it to be other than fireworks,” Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said. Mohamed, 24, said he made pipe bombs from items he bought at Wal-Mart, according to an affidavit with his arrest warrant. Defense attorney, Dennis Rhoad, said the men have a reason for having the devices and it would become clear in later court hearings. “The defendants deny the allegations the state and the sheriff have made against them,” Rhoad said. Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson asked for high bond, which was set at $500,000 for Mohamed and $300,000 for Megahed, because she said the men were dangerous and a risk to flee. Mohamed is a native of Kuwait and Megahed is Egyptian, the sheriff said. Both are in the country legally. Before details about the pipe bombs were released, the executive director of a civil rights organization for Muslims in Tampa criticized the arrest as racial profiling, an accusation South Carolina police denied.
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