Moncks Corner, S.C. – Two men who were stopped for speeding near Goose Creek Navy base were charged Monday with possession of an explosive device after several such devices were found in their car, authorities said.
A joint state-federal investigation was underway to determine whether there was any terrorism connection, said FBI spokeswoman Denise Taiste, but no link had been found. The Navy base is the site of a brig where enemy combatants have been held.
Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed, 24, and Yousef Samir Megahed, 21, both students at the University of South Florida in Tampa, were driving through the area Saturday to vacation at a North Carolina beach for Mohamed’s birthday, their defense attorney 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 the devices from items he bought at Wal-Mart, according to an affidavit with his arrest warrant.
Mohamed is a native of Kuwait and Megahed is Egyptian, the sheriff said. Both are in the country legally.
The executive director of a civil rights organization for Muslims in Tampa criticized the arrest as racial profiling, an accusation South Carolina police denied.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad
Three ordered to U.S.; accused in airport plot
A judge Monday ordered that three men be extradited to the U.S. to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential U.S. document said they had planned to seek help from Iran.
Taped conversations among the alleged conspirators show they planned to seek Tehran’s help in a strike intended to dwarf the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a 28-page document signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Miller.
“We can try to send someone to Iran to get the movement, the revolutionary movement, and they can discuss that plan there,” suspect Kareem Ibrahim was quoted as saying.
Officials at the Iranian Embassy in Washington did not return a phone message seeking comment Monday evening.
The three men were arrested in Trinidad in June. U.S. authorities alleged they were part of a cell led by U.S. citizen Russell Defreitas, a Guyana native who worked as a cargo handler at the airport until 1995. Defreitas is in custody in New York.
OAKLAND, Calif.
Handyman faces charges in killing
A handyman for a Black Muslim splinter group has confessed and will be charged with murder in the shooting death of an Oakland journalist who was investigating the group’s finances, police said Monday.
Devaughndre Broussard, 19, was one of seven people arrested in raids on Your Black Muslim Bakery and nearby houses. He is expected to be charged this week in Thursday’s killing of Chauncey Bailey, 57, Oakland Post editor, officials said.
The raids on the bakery organization, founded nearly 40 years ago to empower Oakland’s poor, capped off a year-long investigation into a series of violent crimes allegedly tied to the group.
KHARTOUM, Sudan
Actress offers herself to help ailing rebel
Actress Mia Farrow has offered to give up her freedom so that an ailing Darfur rebel leader can get safe passage out of the country, according to a letter Farrow wrote to Sudan’s president and posted online Monday.
Suleiman Jamous, a moderate who has been a key link between Darfur rebels and aid workers, fears arrest if he leaves the U.N. hospital outside Darfur.
Farrow, who has visited Darfur as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, wrote: “I am therefore offering to take Mr. Jamous’s place … in the knowledge of his importance to the civilians of Darfur.”
Attempts to reach Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman early today were not successful.
ELMIRA, N.Y.
Spouse desperate to find buyer of ash urn
A woman hosting a rummage sale mistakenly accepted 50 cents for a ceramic turtle containing the ashes of her husband’s previous wife inside.
Now, Anita Lewis is desperately searching for the buyer, who said she planned to use the urn as a cookie jar. The lid was sealed.
Lewis said she started the sale early Saturday while her husband slept. Her husband’s previous wife collected turtles.
“We have lots of turtles,” she said. “It didn’t even register that this was the one” with the ashes.
JERUSALEM
Traveling Israelis warned of threat
Israeli officials on Monday warned citizens traveling in Egypt, Jordan and other Muslim countries to leave immediately because of a “concrete and severe” threat of terrorist attacks.
Israelis anywhere in the world should also be alert to the danger of being kidnapped by operatives from Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, according to the announcement from Israel’s National Security Council.
