Mohamed gets 15 years in terrorism case

TAMPA -- Former University of South Florida student Ahmed Mohamed got a 15-year sentence today for providing material support to terrorism.

"I still wonder why this young man in front of me at his age, at his intelligence, how he has become committed to this path," said U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday, who gave Mohamed, 27, the harshest penalty allowed by law.

Ahmed Mohamed admitted in a plea agreement that he created a 12-minute YouTube video showing how to turn a child's remote control toy into a detonator. He admitted that he intended the video to be used by martyrs fighting "invaders" of Arab countries, including the United States military.

Federal prosecutors displayed the video today in court for the first time.

"I admit that this video was something that wasn't a wise idea," Mohamed told the judge in a letter read by defense attorney Lyann Goudie. "I do apologize . . . I am no more than a college guy."

Prosecutors also disclosed for the first time today that Mohamed uploaded the video from an engineering computer at the USF where he attended classes. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Monk said the video was viewed 782 times before it was removed from the site.

Federal agents superimposed English subtitles onto the video to translate Mohamed's words as he spoke in Arabic in the demonstration. He used a blue remote control truck to show how it could be reassembled for use as a remote control detonator. Mohamed's face isn't shown on the video, but he admitted to law enforcement that he produced, narrated and uploaded it to the Internet.

Mohamed and fellow student Youssef Megahed, 22, were arrested Aug. 4, 2007, and charged with illegally transporting explosive materials after a South Carolina deputy stopped them for speeding and found the materials in their trunk.

Megahed's trial has been postponed while the government appeals a judge's ruling to exclude certain evidence against him.

Mohamed's guilty plea to the one count of providing material support to terrorists spared him from facing a life sentence in the prison on other charges.

When federal marshals escorted Mohamed into the courtroom at 8:30 a.m., the jovial smile that usually greeted his parents was replaced with a solemn grin. He appeared to have gained weight since the last time he appeared in court.

Defense attorney Linda Moreno asked the judge to not just focus on Mohamed's criminal action that brought him to court but to consider his entire history.

"There is no question that he made a very, very bad mistake when he made this video," Moreno said.

She provided the court with his school transcripts and said he maintained a 4.0 grade point average while in USF's engineering doctoral program.

Monk, the prosecutor, attempted to portray a more sinister Mohamed.

"The government believes the defendant is an individual who is violent," Monk said, "(and) who embraces a violent, extreme ideology."

Monk read excerpts from a poem Mohamed wrote just more than a month after he arrived to the United States from Egypt in early 2007. Mohamed referred to Americans as pig, stupid and easily deceived.

"Americans, he said, are scum," Monk said.

In the poem, Mohamed referred to "exalted companions," which included Osama bin Laden, Monk said.

Prosecutors also gave more details about letters Mohamed had written while being housed at the Hillsborough County jail.

In a letter to a guard, Mohamed wrote, "You guys are seriously pathetic." He taunted them by calling them desperate housewives and housekeepers.

Kevin Graham, Times staff writer


LOL

The boys in prison are going have fun with him...