Ex-student guilty of aiding terror group
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ATLANTA - A former Georgia Tech student whom prosecutors called "one step removed from the bomb-throwers" was convicted yesterday of plotting to aid a terrorist group by videotaping landmarks around Washington, D.C.
US District Judge Bill Duffey found Syed Haris Ahmed, 24, guilty of one count of conspiracy to provide material to support terrorism in the United States and abroad.
Prosecutors said he wanted to use the videotapes to gain prestige with terrorist leaders overseas.
Ahmed, a US citizen, drove his pickup truck to Washington, D.C., in April 2005 with a suspected accomplice and made videos of national landmarks, a fuel depot, and a Masonic Temple in northern Virginia.
A few months later, prosecutors said, he traveled to Pakistan on a one-way ticket to seek out Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group linked with attacks in the disputed state of Kashmir.
