ATLANTA — A former Georgia Tech student whom prosecutors called “one step removed from the bomb-throwers” was convicted Wednesday of plotting to aid a terrorist group by videotaping landmarks around Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey found Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, guilty of one count of conspiracy to provide material to support terrorism in the U.S. and abroad. Prosecutors said he wanted to use the videotapes to gain prestige with terrorist leaders overseas.
Ahmed drove his pickup truck to Washington, D.C., in April 2005 with a suspected cohort and made videos of U.S. landmarks as well as a fuel depot and a Masonic Temple in northern Virginia.
A few months later, prosecutors said, he traveled to Pakistan on a one- way ticket to seek out Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan- based group linked with attacks in the disputed state of Kashmir. He returned to Atlanta about a month later after unsuccessfully attempting to join.
Ahmed, a U.S. citizen, waived a jury trial so he could deliver closing statements last week.
He could face up to 15 years in prison, but Duffey delayed the sentencing until the conclusion of an August trial set for a suspected conspirator, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee.
