In June 2008, University of South Florida student Ahmed Abellatif Sherif Mohamed pled guilty to providing material support to terrorists. In a sentencing document filed in federal court, DOJ argued that "the evidence gathered during this investigation also revealed that the defendant used his admission to the United States in order to focus his attention on gathering information about explosives and acquiring components in this country to construct explosives to cause harm within this country."
 
Further, "The defendant...supported a radical brand of jihadist thought and often expressed his commitment to that violent ideology. A cursory examination of the contents of his laptop computer proves that fact. That computer contained numerous images and videos which extolled and endorsed that violent ideology. It included images of Osama bin Laden and others connected with violent jihad in the Middle East..." According to DOJ, "Nowhere did the defendant make his commitment to jihad more clear than in a 37 line poem which FBI agents discovered on his laptop computer. It appears to be the defendant's personal poem.

The author of the poem extols various figures such as the 'exalted Osama Bin Laden' and other members of Al Qaeda...The text of his poetry provides a clear expression of the defendant's disaffection with the current Egyptian government, his disdain for the 'infidel,' his support for Islamic law, his dislike for torture and prisons, his support for jihad, and his support for current and former jihadi leaders, including Osama bin Laden, Sayyid Qutb, Hussan al-Banna, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, Fawzy al-Sa'id, Mohammed bin Abb-al-Maqsud, Abdul-Hamid Kishk al-Zawahry, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Ibn Taymyyah."