Vehicle With Explosives Stopped in South Carolina

A vehicle with explosives being driven by two Middle Eastern men were stopped in Charleston:

Local police outside Charleston, South Carolina stopped a vehicle in which they found what were suspected to be explosives, according to media reports late Saturday.

Two men described as being of possibly Middle Eastern origin were in the vehicle, which was stopped on a highway.

A police bomb squad was at the scene and preparing to examine the vehicle, a local television reported told the Cable News Network

Still early in the investigation but more news should be out soon.

UPDATE

A bit more:

The FBI and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department are investigating what they think are explosives found in a car in Goose Creek.

Police say part of Highway 176 in Berkeley County is closed, and traffic is limited to local residents around Mount Holly Road.

WIS News 10’s sister station in Charleston, WCBD, reports authorities pulled over a suspicious car at around 6:00pm Saturday. Officers asked to search the vehicles, and discovered what investigators say are "possible explosives" located in the trunk.

Once federal agents were brought in and analyzed the situation, an FBI-controlled robot pulled a bag filled with the suspicious items from the vehicle.    

The two men inside the vehicle, which is reported to have Florida tags, have been detained at the scene.

UPDATE II

Even more:

According to Lt. Vince Lombardo, deputies discovered the suspicious items in the trunk during a traffic stop. The two men inside the vehicle are detained at the scene.  Lombardo also said information from an investigation in another jurisdiction raised the suspicions of the deputies.

And from a commenter at FR:

Goose Creek is the location of a large naval base. The base is open many areas. There are some areas on the base where the number of military casualties could be fairly sizable on a Saturday night. For that matter, a lot of military dependents could be included. These guys need 50 feet of rope between them after six months with an Egyptian interrogator.

The plot grows thicker

UPDATE III

Well, it appears it went from explosives to items of interest overnight:

A highway was shut down outside Charleston after police found a "suspicious item" in a car during a traffic stop, authorities said Sunday.

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon would not say what the item was, but said that a bomb squad planned to demolish it.

Cannon said two men who were in the car were still at the scene at 2 a.m. An FBI agent said officials were trying to determine whether a crime had been committed.

Julie Johnson, assistant special agent-in-charge for the FBI in Columbia, said there was "no immediate threat," The (Charleston) Post and Courier reported late Saturday.

Law enforcement officials closed the road about 7 p.m. after the traffic stop in Goose Creek, home to the Naval Weapons Station. The station houses the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, a military prison where enemy combatants have been held.

The traffic stop took place about 7 miles from the sprawling Navy facility.

Johnson said the FBI was still trying to determine whether a crime had been committed but that there was "no immediate threat" related to the traffic stop.

But it does appear it was an explosive of some kind, just not a huge one.  The bomb squad detonated it and it went "pop"…not "boom":

The item made a loud bang, similar to a firecracker, when it was demolished, authorities said.

But the men were being held for possession of explosives:

Berkeley County sheriff’s Lt. Vince Lombard said the men were being held pending a charge of unlawful possession of an explosive device.

Now, I’m guessing a pipe bomb.  It would not be illegal fireworks because I’ve never heard of anyone calling out the bomb squad over fireworks.  From a commenter:

176 leads right into the Naval Weapons Station. It isn’t military families at risk. NWS is the home of 2 sub squadrons and also the storage depot for our nukes and up to 60 million lbs. of conventional ordinance.

Hmmm

UPDATE IV

Just saw on CNN that the two men were not US citizens, were of Middle Eastern decent, and aged 21 and 24.  Trying to find word of this on the wires right now.

UPDATE V

CNN, which seems to be the only station reporting on this, is reporting that illegal firearms were found in the car along with one explosive device and igniters.  Still haven’t seen anything in print.

UPDATE VI

Finally!  ABC news via The Corner:

Two men are being held in the Berkeley County Detention Center after police find explosive making devices in their car.  The men had at least one ready to go bomb and bomb making materials that include chemicals.  The men 21-year-old Yousef Megahed and 24-year-old Ahmed Mohamed were pulled over Saturday evening during a routine traffic stop near Myers Road and Highway 176.  Among the explosive devices found were igniters and fusers.  Few details about the suspects are known at this time.  They are believed to be students at a Florida college.  They are of Middle Eastern descent and are not US citizens.  Neither man has been charged, but charges are expected Monday.  A press conference will be held at the Berkeley County Sheriff’s office Monday at 11:30 in the morning.  Among the potential charges is possession of unlawful explosives.  Officials are not at this time releasing any additional information on the number of charges or types of explosive devices they found.

Could be fireworks, could be something else.  Either way its mighty strange for these two to have this stuff near that Navy base.

UPDATE VII

Changed the title and took out "loaded" since it now appears that explosives was indeed found but not a huge amount.  Enough to cause suspicion tho.  Two non-US Middle Eastern men driving by a Nuclear training base with explosive making material is just a bit suspicious.

Dan Riehl has the pictures of the suspects:

UPDATE VIII 08-06-07

Andy McCarthy with some additional information:

In the late evening on Saturday, two non-Americans of Middle Eastern descent, Ahmed Mohamed and Yousef Megahed, who appear to be in the U.S. to pursue engineering studies in Florida, were pulled over for speeding in a van on Highway 176 in Goose Creek, near Charleston, South Carolina.  Goose Creek is home to the United States Naval Weapons Station, which, among other things, houses the brig where some U.S. citizens alleged to be unlawful enemy combatants have been held.

One of the men reportedly tried to hide a laptop computer.  Police became suspicious.  Eventually, the vehicle was searched.  Initially, there was a report that one completed bomb and other explosives related compounds were found.  Later reports indicate that police found PVC (polyvinyl Chloride) piping (which can be used in making pipe bombs but also has many other industrial uses), model rocket motors (model rocket engine igniters can also be used as charges for pipe bombs), and other "suspicious" materials which have not been revealed yet (to make pipe bombs you would need some kind of explosive substance).

Police closed the highway for several hours, well into Sunday morning.  Moreover, at about 2:45 a.m., they did a controlled detonation of something — not yet described although it apparently sounded to witnesses like fireworks.

The FBI is said to be casting doubt on whether there really was a bomb.  Based on what we think we know, this sounds to me like there could be a dispute about whether the components were assembled into something that would qualify under the federal bomb laws (18 USC Sec. 841) as an "explosive material" — as opposed to either (a) uncoupled "blasting agents" and "detonators," which might indicate an intention to assemble bombs, or (b) something totally innocent, which would suggest there has been misreporting about what was found in the van.  I do not know whether South Carolina law defines bombs (or "explosive materials") the same way federal law does.

An FBI spokesman is also reported to have said there are no "links to terrorism."  As the possession of a bomb would actually be an incident of terrorism, not merely a link to it, I have to think this means there is — at least as yet — no indication that the men being detained have ties to known foreign terrorist organizations.   As the intelligence community’s recently released NIE related, however, the mass availability of jihadist ideology (via the Internet in particular) is catalyzing jihadism even in the absence of formal connections to a group like al Qaeda.  Thus, the lack of links to known terrorist groups would not be very comforting.  I’d also observe that it’s been less than two days since these guys were arrested (on a late Saturday night no less), so there has hardly been time yet to do a thorough investigation of their backgrounds and associations.

It will be interesting to hear what the state authorities have to say. 

UPDATE:  Charleston Post & Courier reports that the vehicle was a sedan, not a van.  Press conference is scheduled for 11:30 a.m.  Any charges filed at this point will be state, not federal.  A CAIR spokesman says it’s all a misunderstanding according to the family — the two men are "really naive kids" who were riding around on a pleasure trip to South Carolina in a car that happened to have fireworks left over from the 4th of July.  Feds are continuing to investigate but, again, saying that there are no known links to terrorism at this point.

All just a misunderstanding you see?  Out for a pleasure ride.

Yeah….

UPDATE IX 1155hrs PST

Andy McCarthy with some update info:

Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed, 24, and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, have been charged by authorities in South Carolina with possession of an incendiary advice, a felony punishable by at least two and up to fifteen years’ imprisonment.  AP quotes the sheriff as saying:  "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."  Authorities remain tight-lipped about exactly what they found in the car.  Their bomb technicians did detonate something seized from the car at 2:45 a.m. Sunday.

The two are engineering students at the University of South Florida’s campus at Tampa — the same school where Prof. Sami al-Arian, while a computer science professor USF’s College of Engineering, was running an outpost of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.  Al-Arian pled guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide services to PIJ.  The FBI, it should be noted, has not altered its earlier statement that no terror ties have been established.

Got to love the FBI, play down anything related to terrorism.

Middle Eastern men driving around with explosives….what terrorism?

UPDATE X 1935hrs PST

Pretty high bail set for a couple of rocket enthusiasts huh?

Now the men will have to post a combined $800,000 in bond to get out of jail, a circuit judge decided this afternoon.

Youseff Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Mohamed, 24, have been charged with possession of an incendiary device, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt announced today. If convicted of the charges, the men could face between 2 to 15 years in prison.

Mohamed’s bond was set at $500,000 while Megahed’s was set at $300,000.

Just out for a little Sunday drive with their toy rockets.  Nothing to see here folks, move along.

UPDATE XI 08-07-07 0820hrs PST

Now these guys were on the way to North Carolina on a road which would not get them there and the passenger was on his laptop while the driver sped by the base. 

The leader of a Muslim advocacy group who has been talking with Megahed’s family said the two were heading to North Carolina to celebrate Mohamed’s birthday, which was Sunday.

"Family members are very concerned, shocked about what has developed," said Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The contents of the trunk might have been part of the celebration, he said.

~~~

An affidavit from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office said officers from the bomb squad determined that pipe bombs were in the trunk. Pipe bombs are homemade explosives, and making or having them is a felony.

~~~

A Berkeley County deputy said he pulled over the 2000 Toyota Camry for going more than 60 mph in a 45 mph zone. Megahed was driving. Mohamed was using a laptop computer in the passenger’s seat and closed it when a deputy approached, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said.

The deputy asked to search the car, and the two consented, DeWitt said. When the deputy asked if there was anything in the car he should be aware of, the men said there were fireworks in the trunk, DeWitt said.

The laptop, along with everything else seized from the car, was handed over to the FBI for processing, DeWitt said, declining to elaborate on what they seized or the specific materials found in the trunk.

The FBI also wasn’t saying anything definite about what they found. "Right now, we’re still in the investigative stages," said Denise Taiste, an FBI spokeswoman in Columbia.

Mike in the comment section:

Interesting that the two men claim they were on their way to a brother’s birthday party in North Carolina. If so, they were seriously on the wrong road. If they were heading from Florida to North Carolina there’s no good reason they would have gotten off I-95 and gone East.

Nope, the whole story seems a bit too made up for me.