Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

My earlier post about USF students Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed inspired quite a reaction. Winds of Jihad called me a “Islamofascist sympatyzer” and even Sticks readers suggested I was being too easy on the suspected “terrorists.”

Now, in what seems to be an unprecedented statement, the FBI says you should probably avoid linking these guys with terrorism. A former federal prosecutor called the statement “highly unusual,” though most of us have found ourselves in a work situation lending itself to the acronym “CYA.”

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko says they’re just fireworks:

There’s no (terrorism link) that we’ve identified at this point. They got pulled over and had just enough suspicious things to warrant investigation. We don’t think there’s that much to it. They had some materials to make some pretty good-sized homemade fireworks but not bomb stuff.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Buford T. Justice Sheriff’s captain Rick Ollic is confident he’s caught hisself some real turrists.

We made the proper charges against these people. We are continuing the investigation. These charges are appropriate.

The FBI’s not so sure, there, Rick. (”These people”?) Not that the FBI is the last bastion of investigative work, but when they release an “unprecedented” backtracking memo, you know they’re trying to get as far away from this case as possible.

That doesn’t help Youssef and Ahmed, who are still stuck in solitary confinement.

It also doesn’t help hatemongers from renaming USF “Jihad U”.

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