Prosecutor: Islamic students had pipe bombs

By: Mike Deeson

Tampa, Florida - When 24-year-old Ahmed Mohamed and 21-year-old Yousef Megahed appeared in court, there was no question in the prosecutor's mind what this was all about. She says Mohamed was in possession of pipe bombs and materials that could have been made to make more bombs.

Sherri Jackson who was Megahed's neighbor until March says FBI agents told her they were terrorists.

Jackson says the FBI came to question her Sunday.

Jackson says things seemed suspicious

She says she saw lot of traffic, a lot of people going back and forth, oxygen tanks being delivered UPS and Fed Ex deliveries and a lot going on.

Former FBI agent and terrorist expert Oscar Westerfield if they are terrorist the FBI must find out who is involved in this thing and how far does it go.

Westerfield says much investigation has to be done, but he is concerned that the car was stopped with explosives 7 miles from a naval base that housed detainees, adding it doesn't look good.

But Council of American Islamic Relations head Ahmed Bedier says people are moving too quickly to convict they two students and his information is that they just had firecrackers

Bedier says it's a little concerning that there has been no positive evidence to show explosive material has been found.

Sherri Jackson is positive of one thing, her former neighbor left as if he didn't want to be found.

Jackson says they left in a hurry. She adds when they moved in they never looked like they were settled instead they looked like they could be gone in five minutes.

And these arrests focus attention on the University of South Florida which is the former employer of one of the founders of the terrorist organization, The Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as Professor Sami Al-Arian who was convicted for conspiracy for helping that organization. And now once again USF is under the microscope.

USF spokesman Ken Gullette says to focus on things like that is grossly unfair.

It may seem unfair to the university, but the arrests make it a fact USF will have to live with again.

USF bristles at the thought it could be a hot bed of terrorist activity, but in the 90's the FBI warned the university that problems were brewing and our sources say the University didn't want to hear it.

Meantime we talked to Ahmed Bedier after the prosecutor said there were pipe bombs in the car; he maintains what some call pipe bombs others call fire works.

Bedier also says the FBI has told him there is not a terrorist investigation and there will be not be federal charges filed. That contradicts what neighbor Sherri Jackson told us.