Kamran Akhtar, a Pakistani native, pled guilty to several charges in Federal Court this morning. He is the man who was caught video taping buildings in Charlotte, NC.
Kamran Akhtar reportedly signed a deal last week agreeing to spend up to six months in prison before being deported to his native Pakistan.
Appearing in court Tuesday morning, Akhtar pleaded guilty to five of the six charges in the indictment related to immigration violations, making false statements, failing to leave the United States and possessing false identification.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Knight told a magistrate that the investigation is continuing and that additional charges could be filed against Akhtar. Knight didn’t specify what kind of charges.
Akhtar has been jailed since he was taken into custody July 20th. Investigators found a videotape in his camera showing the 60-story Bank of America tower and the skyscraper that houses the Charlotte office of the FBI.
When he was originally arrested, someone on a political forum asked me what’s the big deal? It’s Charlotte, not NYC, or DC, or LA. I wish I had kept my original answer, as it involved several hours of research into Charlotte. The best place to get info about Charlotte is the Chamber of Commerce.
Is Charlotte really a good target? Yes. Headquarters 7 Fortune 500 companies, including Bank of America, Wachovia, and Duke Energy. Consider destroying any of those offices, especially the banks. And, Charlotte is home to 32 companies that do more then $1 Billion in annual sales.
Charlotte also has: Over 440 foreign-owned firms, representing 33 countries, provide jobs to nearly 25,000 workers in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County. Another 145 foreign-owned firms operate in the 13-county metro region surrounding Mecklenburg County.
How about this? The Charlotte region is at the center of the largest consolidated rail system in the country. Two major rail systems, Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation, link 44,880 miles of rail to 23 states East of the Mississippi River. They bring more than 300 trains through Charlotte weekly. Norfolk Southern’s $50 million computerized yard can classify up to 28,000 cars a day. And: North Carolina is currently the 9th largest trucking center, while Charlotte employs 19% of the state’s work force in the industry. Located here are 279 trucking companies and 31,252 transportation employees, including truckers. Charlotte is the sixth largest trading area in the nation.
You also have easy access to the city through the road ways. Easy access to blowing up Ericsson Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers. The point is, terrorists live on terror. And targets are everywhere.
And don’t forget the two nuclear plants near civilian areas and the entire downtown area.
Had forgotten about those. Here in the Triangle area, plenty of good targets.