Prosecutors Cite Video Of Suspected Fla. Terrorist

TAMPA, Nov. 22 -- Instead of carrying out "martyrdom operations," people can use remote explosives and save themselves for the real battles, an Egyptian student said on a homemade video, according to federal prosecutors.

A court filing released earlier this week provided new details about the video. It is a key piece of evidence in the case against University of South Florida student Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, who faces federal explosives charges after his arrest in August.

Mohamed and fellow USF student Youssef Samir Megahed were pulled over by police for a traffic stop in Goose Creek, S.C., about 15 miles northwest of Charleston and near a Navy weapons station. Officers found explosives in their car and a laptop belonging to Mohamed. It contained the video he made that demonstrates how to convert a remote-control toy car into a detonator for bombs, according to the FBI.

The men are in jail pending trial. They have pleaded not guilty.

Also on Mohamed's laptop -- in a folder labeled "Bomb Shock" -- were files about ingredients for explosive, according to the filing by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer in Tampa.

In addition, the laptop was used to upload the video onto YouTube, the filing said, and it contained a record of an e-mail sent to YouTube in July asking why the submitted video had not been posted on the Web site.

Mohamed said he made the video "to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries," the FBI said. He said "he considered American troops, and those military forces fighting with the American military, to be invaders of Arab countries."

Megahed's attorney, Adam Allen, has contended that Megahed did not know anything about the explosives in the trunk or the video on the laptop.

Attorney John Fitzgibbons, who is representing Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, declined to comment about the tape Thursday. Messages left by phone and e-mail for Allen were not immediately returned.

The students had said that they were on their way to a North Carolina beach and that they ended up in Goose Creek because they were looking for cheap gas.

A trial has been set for Dec. 3. If convicted, Mohamed could get 30 years in prison and Megahed 10 years.