Syed Haris Ahmed (born 1984) is a naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan who was convicted on June 9, 2009, of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism in the United States and abroad. His trial was a bench trial. He was sentenced in 2009 to 13 years in prison, to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. At the time of his arrest (on March 23, 2006), he was an undergraduate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in mechanical engineering. Life Ahmed's family immigrated from Pakistan to the United States when he was about 12 years old, settling in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He became a U.S. citizen in 2003. His father, Syed Riaz Ahmed, is a faculty member at North Georgia College & State University. Arrest In March 2005, Ahmed traveled along with Ehsanul Islam Sadequee to Toronto, Ontario, Canada aboard a Greyhound bus to meet with Fahim Ahmad, Jahmaal James and another youth with whom they had spoken online about their mutual interpretation of Islam and jihad. Although the five had discussed hypothetical scenarios in which North America would be attacked, government documents noted there was "no imminent danger". Police informant Mubin Shaikh later stated that he believed the two Americans had been asking whether they would be able to hide in Canada if they were to carry out attacks in the United States. Witnesses later testified that Sadequee and Ahmed might have been inspired by a 2005 film, Paradise Now, about two Palestinian friends being trained to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel. Ahmed was further alleged to have traveled to Pakistan in late 2005 in an attempt to meet with members of the terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba. On March 23, 2006, Ahmed and Sadequee were arrested after recording so called "casing videos" of "significant commercial buildings". They were charged with providing material support to a terrorist group, and pleaded not guilty. After several men were arrested in Toronto in June 2006 on charges of terrorism, Ahmed and Sadequee were identified as a co-conspirators and both were indicted on July 19, 2006 (this indictment superseding the original one) for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to provide support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba ("Army of the Righteous"). Initially, all documents in the case were sealed at the joint request of the government and the defense, but the indictment was