ABC News: Chocolate Terrorists Seized.
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March 6 — With the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed this week came information that future al Qaeda operations might include an attack on dams at key lakes and reservoirs.
So when an alert Tennessee Valley Authority police officer spotted a man and his girlfriend taking photos of the Norris Dam at approximately 4 a.m Sunday morning, the FBI's joint-terrorism task force sprang into action.
FBI agents in Knoxville, Tenn., put out an alert asking for help in locating the man, identified as Ahmed Helmy Mostafa, 23, as well as his brother Hatem M. Elsakaan, 26. Both men were wanted on warrants in Virginia for using false information to obtain driver's licenses.
"In our minds, if you're going out to Norris Dam at 4:30 in the morning taking pictures, that's suspicious," said Knoxville FBI Agent Joe Clark "If you have a warrant out for your arrest and you take pictures, that just adds to it."
On Monday, FBI agents in Virginia arrested Mostafa and Elsakaan on the fraudulent identification charge. But the unanswered question remained: why were Mostafa and his girlfriend taking pictures of a dam at 4 a.m.?
On Tuesday, a local reporter tracked down the woman who had been with Mostafa at the dam at 4 a.m. Her explanation for the "suspicious activity" at the dam? It was all about chocolate.
The woman says she had given up eating chocolate for an entire year, and after she got off her early morning shift at work Sunday, she and Mostafa, went out to celebrate.
They went bowling, decided they weren't ready to call it a night, and then headed over to the dam to continue their celebration. "We were having a chocolate fest," she said.
At the dam, Mostafa took photos of his girlfriend holding her reward for abstaining from chocolate: a previously off-limits Hershey bar.
The FBI did not obtain the photos taken at the dam, but ABCNEWS did. While Nestle Crunch bars, Snickers and M&Ms are prominently displayed, the dam can barely be seen in the background.
"I never even thought about national security. That was the last thing on my mind," the woman said, adding that if she had to do it all over again, "I would have just came home, parked in my driveway, sit out here and ate chocolate on my own property."
Mostafa and Elsakaan waived their right to counsel at an appearance in U.S. District on Tuesday, then were led away in leg chains. |
