Happier timesDr. Rafiq Sabir celebrates the end of Ramadan at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton in November 2003. He has been charged with conspiracy and support for a foreign terrorist organisation.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/664
CAIR's legal advisor to defend terror doctor from Boca has own organisation named as defendent in 9/11 terror lawsuit
June 4, 2005
MIM: The arrest of Islamic Center of Boca Raton member doctor Rafiq Sabir ,and Tariq Shah,is now 'debated by analysts' who are questioning if planning and talking about waging Jihad could be . These issues were already discussed and analysed during the recent trial of Ali Al Tamimi, who was convicted in Virginia on charges of 'urging others to wage Jihad against America'. The guilty verdict will probably be used as an proof of the principal that "the law of conspiracy is the agreement to commit a crime" and the prosecution will have to prove that Sabir and Shah "really meant it". A tape of Shah and Tariq swearing allegiance to Al Qaeda is considered to be one of the strongest pieces of evidence against them.
The conviction of Dr. Ali Al Tamimi last month was seen as a victory on the war on terror and set a legal precedent, by making it a crime to recruit for Jihad. Al Tamimi's lawyer's had argued that urging Muslim to go to train and fight in a Jihad against the U.S. was an exercise in 'free speech'. The court convicted Al Tamimi on all 10 counts and he will be sentenced in July. The prosecutor in the Al Tamimi case argued that "He( Al Tamimi,)not only wanted Americans to die, he recruited others to his cause ...." http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/26/cleric.trial/
The Virginia prosecutors' arguments are echoed by that of Peter Magulies, a terrorism expert commenting the Sabir and Shah case who stated that; " providing terrorists with medical care so they can return to the clandestine theater in which they operate is no different then providing them with a gun.."( see article below).
MIM: It is also worth noting that Muslims who testified against Al Tamimi at his trial were members of the Virginia Jihad paintball network. A phone number of one of the groups members was found in the possession of Rafiq Sabir's accomplice Tariq Shah.
"....They(the FBI) also said Shah had names and telephone numbers of people who had attended training camps in the Middle East -- "including Seifullah Champan, a member of the Virginia Jihad Network, who was convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia of providing material support to a Pakistan-based terrorist group in March 2004 and who was sentenced to 85 years in prison." http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/31/sabir.shah/
Even more outrageous is the fact that Rafiq Sabir's lawyer Khurrum Basir Wahid, is the legal advisor for CAIR -The Council of American Islamic Relations. CAIR ,a Saudi funded front group for Hamas, was named as a defendant in a 9/11 terror lawsuit and is under investigation by a Senate Committee for ties to terrorism. Three CAIR officials have been jailed on terrorism charges . One of the CAIR officials jailed was Ismail Randall Royer who was a member of the Virginia Jihad network,( a member of the VJN's phone number was found with Sabir's co conspirator Shah). Ismail Royer, CAIR's communications director, was jailed on charges of plotting to wage Jihad against America, and recently testified at the trial of Ali Al Tamimi. http://hyscience.typepad.com/hyscience/2004/11/lets_say_it_cai.html
Khurrum Wahid is a legal council in a class action lawsuit brought by Muslims against the Department of Homeland Security . The Muslims complained that they were fingerprinted at the border when returning to the US after radical Islamist conference which had been described as a fundraising front and cover for terrorists . http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/360
Khurrum Wahid who was cited as CAIR NY legal advisor, was at a press conference announcing the lawsuit against the DHS . Arsalan Ifthikar of CAIR,( whose director Omar Ahmad stated that Islam should be the dominant religion in America, a reference to CAIR's intention of replacing the Constitution with the Koran), complained that interrogation of Muslims at the border was " unconstitutional and un-American." No doubt the arrest of Sabir will also be described using the same rhetoric, with the usual claims of anti Muslim bias thrown in .http://clarityandresolve.com/archives/2005/04/cair_aclu_unhol.php
"...(Altaf) Ali (executive director of CAIR FL), spoke with Sabir's wife and in all likelihood advised her to hire New York lawyer Khurrum Wahid, a former Miami-Dade County public defender who did volunteer work for the South Florida offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the ACLU..."
MIM :CAIR works closely together with the ACLU and Amnesty International. Amnesty chairman, Chip Pitts, spoke at a CAIR fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale in April and is on the board of The Muslim Legal Fund which raised money to defend the CAIR Texas founder Ghassan Elashi (and his brothers) who were jailed on terrorism related charges .http://www.muslimlegalfund.org/about.html http://www.aclusc.org/Page/Clipping/breaking.html
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Happier times
Dr. Rafiq Sabir celebrates the end of Ramadan at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton in November 2003. He has been charged with conspiracy and support for a foreign terrorist organisation.
Views of terror suspect from West Boca clash with charges
Analysts argue merits of Boca Terrorism Case
June 4, 2005
Are they aspiring al-Qaida terrorists or simply braggarts?
That is the central issue under the law being used to charge a West Boca Raton doctor and a New York jazz musician with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, said former federal prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in other terrorism-related cases.
"The law of conspiracy is the agreement to commit a crime," said Andrew Patel, an attorney for Jose Padilla, accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive bomb. "If you're just spouting your mouth off, it's different from seriously agreeing [to commit a crime]. The law makes a distinction between that. You have to really mean it."
The FBI's 18-page complaint -- which an agent says represents only part of the evidence against Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir and Tarik Ibn Osman Shah -- provides a strong case against the two, some analysts said.
The most damaging evidence, legal analysts said, appears to be an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden that Sabir and Shah both allegedly made during an audiotaped meeting May 20 with an undercover FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida operative.
"What they did here is get an FBI agent to go out and get these guys to do things that they wouldn't do on their own," said Thomas Nelson, who represented Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield, a Muslim arrested in connection with a Madrid bombing and then released in an embarrassing reversal for the government.
"What closed the case is this oath of allegiance," Nelson said after reviewing the complaint.
But Nelson and others said the case spotlights aggressive pursuit of an overly broad law and raises questions about the depth of Sabir's alleged offer of "material support" to terrorists.
The complaint accuses the pair of offering their services as a "package" -- Shah, a self-described martial-arts expert, would provide hand-to-hand combat training to al-Qaida members, while Sabir would treat "wounded jihadists" in Saudi Arabia who couldn't go to hospitals.
Shah also allegedly canvassed potential terrorist training sites in New York to teach "brothers how to use swords and machetes" and had a list of possible recruits.
"This does not appear to have been a witch hunt," George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor Stephen Saltzburg said after reviewing the complaint, which he called unusually detailed. "When you read this, this is not people sitting around having a cocktail and saying `maybe.' These are people who are involved in actual plans to assist in a war against Americans."
But Sabir and Shah's attorneys could point to several areas in a bid to show the two were less than zealous in their purported allegiance to al-Qaida, defense attorneys said.
Sabir appears to play a secondary role to Shah in the complaint, meeting with the agent once and refusing to help recruit others, saying, "I am only going to give myself," according to the document.
Even Shah, who had the majority of the meetings and conversations outlined in the complaint, failed to produce a training video and a syllabus to demonstrate what he would be able to teach the "brothers" about "close combat," despite having a year to do so, according to the document.
"A good lawyer might argue that that's evidence of his hesitancy of going through with the agreement," said James Thomas, a Detroit lawyer who represented Ahmed Hannan, who was acquitted of the same charge Sabir and Shah face in a bungled terror-related prosecution that ultimately cost a government prosecutor his job.
Prosecutors could counter that Shah was lazy, not hesitant, Saltzburg said.
Trying to show the undercover agent and the paid informant in the case attempted to manipulate the defendants is another area for the defense to mine, Thomas said.
"Maybe these people were pressing him and for some reason, morally or religiously, he went along," he said.
Khurrum Basir Wahid, a former Miami public defender and civil rights director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American Islamic-Relations, has been retained to represent Sabir, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said Friday. Wahid could not be reached for comment despite an e-mail and calls placed to his Miami and Lighthouse Point offices.
Sabir's alleged offer to treat wounded al-Qaida members also may not rise to the level of material support for a terrorist group, Patel said.
"That is a fairly extreme interpretation of what it means to give material support," Patel said. "Doctors take an oath to treat anyone."
The government is concerned that the doctor would treat al-Qaida agents so they could return to the field of battle, said Peter Margulies, a law professor at Roger Williams University who has written extensively about terrorism.
"Providing terrorists with medical care with the express purpose of helping them return to whatever clandestine theater they operate in is no different than providing them with a gun," Margulies said.
Nelson questioned the FBI's decision to dedicate substantial resources to Sabir and Shah and prosecute them under the sweeping conspiracy law.
"At the end of the day, you have to ask, was America threatened by this? Is anybody better off because they were arrested?" Nelson asked. Mary Cheh, another George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor, countered that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack, the FBI would be faulted if it failed to try to root out prospective terrorists, although she was concerned the agency could overreach.
Defense attorneys warn an environment of fear pervades the judicial system.
"Having tried enough of these cases, I don't think anyone can get a fair trial," said William Swor, who defended one of the Detroit terror suspects.
John Coté can be reached at [email protected] or 561-832-6550.
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MIM: It appears that Dan McBride, the spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, "doth protest too much, when he cynically laughs and asks why a father of 2 children and jazz musician would start a terrorist network. McBride's dissembling scepticism cannot change the fact that a terror trial of ex USF professor Sami Al Arian, a father of 4, in his 50's is going on trial in Tampa on Monday on charges of starting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organisation in America and being responsible for the murder of 100 people. Law enforcement has stated that 40% of the leadership of PIJ was headquartered in Tampa. One USF professor Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, left Florida in 1995 for Syria where he became the leader of Islamic Jihad and is directly responsible for sending suicide bombers against American troops in Iraq, to this day.
McBride's amusement is an attempt to divert attention from the fact that one of the people listed as a manager of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, is professor Bassem Alhalabi, who was a student researcher with Al Arian at USF and listed Al Arian as a reference on his resume when he applied to teach at FAU. McBride, Alhalabi,and former ICBR Imam Ibrahim Dremali are 3 of the founders of the ICBR. The Center has been under scrutiny for years and a Hamas linked charity scam called the Health Resource Center Palestine involving the Imam, his brother and co wife (Lamyaa Hashim) was closed down in 2003.
Al Arian is one of many examples of terrorists with children and professional degrees, who are more of the norm then some illiterate Jihadi in a cave . Both Khalid Sheik Mohammed the 9/11 mastermind and the 1993 WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef had studied in US universities .
Al Arian was a USF computer science professor had a wife and 4 children (some of whom work for congressman at present ) . Al Arian's daughter has been raising money for her fathers defense with the support of her university (Georgetown), Al Arian is accused of setting up the American branch of Islamic Jihad and being responsible for the murder of 100 people. At one time 40% of the leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was believed to be in Tampa, most of them professionals in the upper income bracket.
Sabir's accomplice Shah boasted to the FBI that being a jazz musician provided him with the' best cover' . It should also be remembered that Osama Bin Laden has several wives and more then 45 children. Bin Laden's deputy, Al Zawahiri was a children's doctor as was Hamas terror leader Rantisi. 9/11 hijacker Alomari , who lived in a house in Vero Beach ,Florida,sent his wife and 3 children back to Saudi Arabia after holding a party for the neighbors and their children a few days before crashing into the WTC with Mohammed Atta. At the party his wife served Happy Meals and told the guests they wanted to leave behind good memories.
As one commentor put it : Why should any terrorist hide in a cave in Afghanistan when they can come to Florida and get a tenured professorship?
Skeptic of terror charge against west Boca doctor cites previous dropped cases
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/06/05/s4a_sabir_side_0605.html
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Dan McBride laughs when he hears that the government thinks his friend Dr. Rafiq Sabir is a terrorist.
"You're going to choose a jazz musician and a 50-year-old with two children to start a terrorist network?" he said.
The government contends that Sabir and longtime friend Tariq Shah, a New York City musician, offered themselves to an undercover agent as a package deal to help foment a holy war in both the United States and the Middle East.
Excuse McBride if he's skeptical.
But like other devout Muslims, he said, since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he's seen too many government cases fall apart.
That's why the Council on American-Islamic Relations is watching the case, said Altaf Ali, who is Florida director of the national advocacy group.
"Any case involving a Muslim, we monitor to make sure his civil rights are protected," said Ali, who attended Sabir's court appearance last week even though he doesn't know the suburban Boca Raton resident.
Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, followers of Islam have been under intense scrutiny, and there have been many high-profile cases in which charges were dropped against Muslims who initially were branded terrorists, he said.
Two poster children for overzealous treatment of Muslims by the federal government are U.S. Army Capt. James Yee and Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon lawyer.
In 2003, Yee was held in solitary for 76 days after federal officials said they suspected the Muslim chaplain at the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of mutiny, sedition, espionage, spying and aiding the enemy. After he was vilified in the news media, no serious charges were filed against the 36-year-old West Point graduate.
Mayfield was jailed for two weeks last year when FBI officials identified him as a material witness to the March 11 bombing that killed 191 people in Madrid, Spain.
Ultimately, Mayfield, who had converted to Islam, was released by apologetic FBI officials, who blamed his improper arrest on a computer glitch.
Ali spoke with Sabir's wife and in all likelihood advised her to hire New York lawyer Khurrum Wahid, a former Miami-Dade County public defender who did volunteer work for the South Florida offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the ACLU.
McBride, who is raising money for Sabir's defense, said he believes Sabir was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. When agents discovered he was leaving the country, they arrested him without knowing much about him, he speculated.
Sabir had long planned to return to his medical practice in Saudi Arabia on June 2, McBride said.
Federal officials, however, said the May 28 arrests of Sabir and Shah were the culmination of a two-year investigation.
McBride, who is a chiropractor, said he has known Sabir since the physician moved to the county and joined the Islamic Center of Boca Raton about three years ago. He said his family is concerned that he's such an outspoken defender of Sabir. Both his wife and his mother worry that he will be arrested soon.
Such worries are nothing new, McBride said.
"I've felt that way since Sept. 11, 2001," he said.
He said his conscience gives him no choice but to stand by Sabir.
"He's just a great guy."
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MIM: Daniel McBride the spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton laughingly denied that his friend Rafiq Sabir has any ties to terrorism. The soundbytes given to the media by the heads of the Anti Defamation League and the American Jewish community not only fails to condemn CAIR and point out the groups ties to terrorism, they actually contain misinformation about the insidious role which the Saudi funded front group for Hamas is playing in the Muslim community. Both William Gralnick of the AJC and Arthur Teitelbaum of the ADL have a history of issuing non committal sound bytes after the fact when asked to comment on terrorism, and thr comments in the Boca News story yesterday are typical of how they have down played and misrepresented the terror threats posed by CAIR .http://www.bocaratonnews.com/index.php?src=news&category=Local%20News&prid=11773
| Published Saturday, June 4, 2005 1:00 am |
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Doctor's past offers no hint of terror tiesThis item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/664