Two years before accused al-Qaeda supporter Tarek Mehanna's arrest, authorities conducted a clandestine search of his home, copying computer files and photographing jihadi propaganda, a state trooper testified yesterday. Thomas Sarrouf, a trooper assigned to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, said he and other investigators carried out the search in August 2006, while the now 29-year-old Mehanna and his family were in Egypt.
Sarrouf, the government's first witness in Mehanna's trial, said investigators also photographed his address book and videos of "jihadist combat scenes" in Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq, as well as documents urging people to leave their studies and jobs to take up arms because "no amount of demonstrations, speeches and flag-burnings" would be enough to defeat the "Israeli barbarians."
| Sounds a lot like a speech you might hear at Occupy Wall Street. |