Former Pitt student accused of threatening FBI agents will remain in custody, judge rules

A former University of Pittsburgh student who has a “fascination with terrorism” will remain incarcerated pending trial on charges that he threatened an FBI agent.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Lanzillo ruled that Khaled Miah, 27, poses a potential threat to the community and a risk of flight.

“Anyone who seems to come within the defendant’s orbit … becomes subject to his surveillance and scrutiny,” Lanzillo said. “This is all with a backdrop of fascination with terrorism and terrorists that cannot be explained by academic interest.”

Miah is charged with interstate threatening communications, influencing a federal officer by threat and destruction of records in a federal investigation. Investigators said he surveilled the home of one of the FBI agents working his case repeatedly.

During a three-hour hearing Friday, FBI Special Agent Gary Morgan described evidence investigators uncovered over several months detailing Miah’s preoccupation with terrorism. Included in that evidence, Morgan said, were images on Miah’s phone taken from online videos of beheadings committed by ISIS, as well as images of explosive devices.

A search of Miah’s electronic devices revealed internet research of terrorist attacks. Morgan said Miah had recently visited the sites of the Boston Marathon bombing; the World Trade Center site in New York City, and Shanksville, where United Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Defense attorney Adrian Roe attempted to argue to the court that Miah needs mental health treatment. He urged the court to allow his client to undergo such an evaluation at a federal prison facility and then potentially release him to the custody of his brother.

Limon Miah testified that his brother’s personality changed after their father died — that he stopped going to his high school classes and stopped eating at normal times. The family took Khaled Miah for treatment at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, his brother said, but the doctors said there was nothing wrong.

Morgan testified that Miah was committed twice for mental health treatment.

Lanzillo said he appreciated that the defendant’s brother was willing to take him in, but said he could not allow that. He also said he didn’t have the ability to order Miah be transferred to a federal facility for mental health care.

Limon Miah testified that he did not know his brother had stopped attending the University of Pittsburgh in December because of the cost.

Miah’s grade point average at Pitt was a 1.9, Morgan said.

Agents first began investigating Miah, who was born in Bangladesh and came to the United States with his family in 2003, when a threat was reported against him on YouTube.

In September, FBI agents visited Miah’s apartment to speak with him, and since that time, Morgan testified, the man’s behavior “began escalating.”

The agent described Miah surveilling another agent’s home, gathering information online about him and making sexual comments about the man’s wife. Miah also changed a profile picture on one of the Twitter accounts he used to the agent’s dog, Morgan said.

The charges filed this week stem from threats investigators say Miah made on Twitter.

He was seen surveilling the home of one of the agents investigating him, and also went to the airport on a number of occasions “for no discernible reason,” Morgan said. Further, the agent testified that Miah was in the vicinity of the Pittsburgh FBI headquarters at least 11 times, including on the morning of his arrest, when he was in the area from 12:40 to 1:10 a.m.

Arrest paperwork listed his residence on Kittanning Street in Etna.

The prosecution expressed concern over items that were found this week during a search of Miah’s home. On his desk, they found the original search warrant they had served on him in November, Morgan said.

On it, he had circled the name of the magistrate judge who signed it. With that paperwork, the agent continued, they found a sheath of papers showing an online search of that judge’s name that were printed out the same day.

During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Smolar showed the court images found on Miah’s electronic devices, including dozens he took of unsuspecting women. They included videos of him following a female ROTC student at Pitt. He wrote on the video “Revenge for Baghdadi. I been following her for 10 minutes.”

Other behavior that caused concern for agents, Morgan said, was Miah’s visit to a Mars shooting range nine times — including twice in the last two weeks of December. During those visits, he rented handguns and long guns six times, the agent said.

Investigators found several selfies of Miah holding weapons and wearing tactical gear.

One image showed him in the common area of his home, Morgan said, wearing a camouflage jacket with his arms across a backpack strapped to his chest.

“That’s a common pose or stance you see in ISIS propaganda,” Morgan testified.

The agent testified that Miah had a fascination for the Tsarnaev brothers, who were responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. He had an image in which Miah had placed a headshot of himself next to one of the brothers.