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Home Front: WoT
Arrested Memphis university student was a jihadi
2006-02-22
A University of Memphis student arrested last September with a pilot's uniform and other flight-training materials in his apartment was preparing for a terrorist attack on the United States, new documents in the case allege. Mahmoud Maawad was charged with wire fraud and using a false Social Security number, but authorities now say he was visiting online chatrooms and Web sites supporting radical Sunni Muslim organizations and Al Queda leaders in Iraq.

They said an examination of his computer also showed Maawad had searched the Internet for how guns and bombs could be smuggled through airport magnetometers and had used key words such as "car bomb" in other searches. "It is the United States' position that Mr. Maawad's motivation for fraudulent obtaining the flight training materials is because he was either planning or participating in a potential terrorist event inside the United States," Asst. U.S. Atty. Steve Parker wrote.

Parker declined comment Tuesday. Maawad, who is being held without bond, is scheduled for trial next month.

FBI agents raided the Egyptian student's campus apartment at 3557 Mynders No. 5 last Sept. 9, and found a pilot's uniform, a chart of Memphis International Airport, documents of Western Union transfers to and from Maawad, and instructional DVDs such as "Ups and Downs of Takeoffs and Landings" and "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."
Good gawd, don't tell me that manuals with those titles actually exist!
He has been in the United States illegally since 1999 and has used a phony Social Security number to open bank accounts and enroll in schools, Parker said soon after the arrest.

According to the indictment, between June 24 and Aug. 6 last year Maawad made 12 purchases totaling $3,544.78 via the Internet from Sporty's U.S.A., a pilot shop just east of Cincinnati. Newly disclosed evidence in the case includes printouts of chatroom discussions on a Web site with an opening message that thanks Allah "for all your Jihad" and says Iraq is "standing alone in the face of the Zionist crusader aggression." An entry posted by Mahmoud Maawad reads, "i union with you and i completely agree."

Also included are e-mails in which the Transportation Security Administration denied permission for Maawad to receive flight training and told him it would be a criminal offense to seek training without TSA approval. Authorities said Maawad replied with an "angry response stating he would violate the law."
Posted by:Dan Darling

#10  Google is your friend and should be available to everyone, regardless of nationality, and should stay that way. Amendment 1, etc. Strike me dood, or "poopie list me" or whatever sophmoric measures deemed appropriate.
Posted by: Besoeker   2006-02-22 10:05  

#9  Mine was posted toward Sea's #2, ex-lib. No problem here, but I see these cases being USED against us by the MSM on the NSA/wiretapping brewhaha. Just makin' a note, is all!
Posted by: BA   2006-02-22 13:17  

#8  Well, Berserk has a point. Without Maawad's access to the internet, they wouldn't have caught him, but B: no one's griping about it, so what's your problem?
Posted by: ex-lib   2006-02-22 11:13  

#7  Another case of an ILLEGAL immigrant here in the States plotting against us. That's the main difference in wiretapping to me. Here ILLEGALLY? NSA can tap away, in my book.
Posted by: BA   2006-02-22 11:07  

#6  Maawad needs to be forced to lead point in an IED detection team in Iraq, handcuffed and shackled with a transmitter/trigger on his belt
Posted by: Frank G   2006-02-22 10:23  

#5  A little touchy, Besoeker?
Posted by: too true   2006-02-22 10:13  

#4  And what's worse is that they don't need our computers to find them, just cooperation from Google or whomever.
Posted by: lotp   2006-02-22 09:46  

#3  Just thinkin' about the search terms on *my* computer...

Well, I got the same problem, but it's not exactly WOT-related, if you get my drift...
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-02-22 09:44  

#2  Just thinkin' about the search terms on *my* computer...
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-02-22 09:41  

#1  If we can't kill him outright, put this boyo in Gitmo and melt the key.
Posted by: mac   2006-02-22 05:28  

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