This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3267
November 29, 2007
Mastermind In Terror Plot, Rafiq Sabir, Gets 25 Year Sentence
By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz
November 29, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Rafiq Sabir, a physician based in Florida who had previously been convicted along with an accomplice of participating in a conspiracy to provide aid to al-Qaeda was sentenced on Wednesday to serve 25 years in prison.
Sabir and a martial arts instructor, Tarik Shah were filmed by an undercover FBI agent in 2005 swearing allegiance, the bayyat to al-Qaeda and "Sheikh Osama," and indicated that it was their intent to deliver medical aid and martial arts training to the world's most infamous terrorist group.
As we wrote on May 31, 2005:
"On Saturday May 28th the FBI arrested a member of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton - Dr. Rafiq Sabir - on charges which included aiding al-Qaeda and plotting to open a terrorist training camp in Long Island.
Dr. Sabir had been under surveillance for years while a member of the Islamic Center and its spokesman - Daniel McBride - stated that he was a friend of the terrorist suspect."
During Sabir's trial U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia proved that he conspired with a friend, Tarik Shah – working with a man whom they believed to be an al-Qaeda recruiter – to provide martial arts training and render medical assistance to members of the terrorist group.
Unbeknownst to the conspirators, the al-Qaeda "recruiter" was an informant. Sabir, a graduate of Columbia University faces a maximum sentence of thirty years.
Sabir was a congregant at the Islamic Center of Boca Raton [ICBR] and is another example of how American mosques have become radicalized.
ICBR has figured prominently in high level terror prosecutions. Several of the ICBR founders and trustees had links to Sami Al Arian, ICBR key player Bassem Al Halabi, was implicated for exporting thermal imaging equipment to Syria, and the mosque spokesman [a convert to Islam] fled to Saudi Arabia in 2003. The current spokesman, Dan McBride was arrested for tax fraud.
Such events serve to explain the hasty retreat from the ICBR by its former imam, Ibrahim Dremali, a controversial figure in his own right."
Of particular note in the Sabir case, both he and his accomplice Shah [previously sentenced to 15 years in the matter] had been at times represented by Khurrum Basir Wahid , the former civil rights director of the Florida branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] itself designated as an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation HAMAS terror funding prosecution. Wahid had for a time also served as an unpaid legal consultant for CAIR New York.
"The Broward County office of attorney Khurrum Basir Wahid, a former civil rights director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) confirmed Friday that he agreed to represent Sabir in a letter to U.S. Magistrate James Hopkins… As recently as two years ago, he served as an unpaid legal consultant to CAIR's New York chapter." [source, Boca Raton News, http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:ibbaJKCVFXUJ:www.bocaratonnews.com/index.php%3Fsrc%3Dnews%26category%3DLocal%2520News%26prid%3D11773+cair+%2B+Khurrum+Basir+Wahid&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us]
Upon sentencing Sabir was unrepentant and stated that, "I had no clue I was being asked to treat al Qaeda members." He also claimed, contrary to the evidence, that he had no idea what the bayyat was or to whom he was pledging loyalty because his Arabic was bad.
Sabir's failure to show any contrition combined with what trial judge Loretta A. Preska described as his" deeply held views regarding militant fundamentalist Islam," resulted in his 25 year, near maximum sentence.
1. Criminal Court Docket Report for Sabir/Shah case, http://www.milnet.com/terr-cases/Bronx/Docket%20Report%20-%20Bronx%20Conspiracy.html http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=sabir11.29.07%2EhtmNotes:
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3267