Boca Raton physician Arrested on Federal Terrorism Charges

Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Boca Raton physician was arrested on federal terrorism charges, and that he conspired to treat and train terrorists, federal prosecutors announced Sunday. Also arrested was Tarik Shah, a self-described martial arts expert in New York.

both charged in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaida, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Both men are American citizens.

Prosecutors said Sabir agreed to treat jihadists, or holy warriors, in Saudi Arabia. Shah agreed to train them in hand-to-hand combat.

The one-count complaint details a sting operation from 2003 to 2005 in which the two men took an oath pledging their allegiance to al-Qaida.

Spokesmen from the FBI declines to comment.

FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela also declined to comment. Spokesmen from the Department of Homeland Security could not be reached for comment, despite an attempt by phone.

The charge Sabir faces is from a 1996 law making it a crime for anyone in the United States to knowingly aid terrorist organizations. That includes providing money, lodging, training, false documentation or identification, weapons, equipment and transportation, according to the Department of Justice Web site.

Providing medical assistance or religious material is not a crime, according to the Justice Department.

However, Sabir’s co-workers seem to have only good things to say about him. One can only know what goes on behind the scenes.

Dr. Daniel McBride, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton and a friend of Sabir, said Sabir works in the emergency rooms of two hospitals in Palm Beach County.

“That’s absurd,” McBride said of the charge against Sabir. “He is a quality guy and a quality physician. He’s all about helping others. That’s why he became a doctor.

“It would shock me beyond belief if [the allegation] was true.”

According to the AP via Washington Post, the two year FBI sting operation engaged in multiple recorded conversations with FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida operatives.

The one-count complaint details a two-year sting operation in which the men allegedly took an oath pledging their allegiance to al-Qaida. The government said the men engaged in multiple recorded conversations with a confidential source and an FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida operative.

As recently as May 20, during a meeting at a Bronx apartment, Sabir indicated he would travel shortly to Saudi Arabia to treat the wounds of jihadists at a Saudi military base, prosecutors said. Travel records showed he was scheduled to leave Thursday.

During recorded conversations, Shah repeatedly indicated his desire to train Muslim “brothers” in the martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, the release said.

Shah took steps to find secret locations for jihad weapons training, at one point inspecting a Long Island warehouse, and described previous efforts to recruit others, prosecutors said.

Shah allegedly agreed to provide a training syllabus for hand-to-hand combat and a videotape so associates in the Middle East could evaluate his usefulness to the cause. He also described how he and Sabir tried to get to training camps in 1998 in Afghanistan, the release said.

More can be found at CNN

Prosecutors and the FBI said Shah described his efforts, including a recruiting trip to Phoenix, Arizona, and of his attempt to train in camps in Afghanistan during the late 1990s.

Shah also 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,” the complaint says.

It identifies Champan as a terrorist convicted of providing material support to a Pakistan-based terrorist group in March 2004 and who is serving an 85-year prison sentence.

Hat Tip: PoliPundit

Forgive Me If I Don’t Send a Get Well Wish

According to The London Times, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the justifier of killing Muslims fled the country for emergency surgery after an American airstrike left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest.

IRAQ’S most wanted terrorist has fled the country for emergency surgery after an American airstrike left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest, according to a senior insurgent commander in close contact with his group.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a $25m bounty on his head after being blamed for suicide bombings, assassinations and the beheadings of western hostages — including Ken Bigley, the Liverpool engineer — is now believed to be in Iran.

He has suffered from bouts of high fever since being wounded by a missile that struck his convoy three weeks ago as he fled an American offensive near the town of al-Qaim in northwestern Iraq, the commander said.

His condition late last week was described as stable, but supporters were said to be preparing to move him to another “non-Arab” country for an operation to remove the shrapnel.

“Shrapnel went in between the right shoulder and his chest, ripped it open and is still stuck in there,” said the commander.

Zarqawi was apparently treated with first aid, but a fever would suggest that the wound had become infected. He is said to have been taken to the Ramadi hospital four days after being hit but left soon afterward despite being urged by the doctor to let himself be admitted as a patient.

Bullet or infection; does anyone care what this butcher eventually dies of? A note to Zarqawi’s followers. please send his present address to the Pentagon so that they may send him flowers and a get well wish of their own.

Although there has been skepticism as to the condition of Zarqawi and if he had even been wounded as stories have swirled from every angle. There had been no previous Pentagon confirmation. This morning of Fox News Sunday General Richard Myers, CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF said the following regarding Zarqawi:

Well, I don’t know if seriously. We tend to believe what is said on the web site, and that is that he’s been injured. And we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s not — it hasn’t changed our operation at all. Our operation is go after Zarqawi, his lieutenants. We’ve been very, very successful. We’ve rounded up about 600 of the folks, some of his foot soldiers, some of his closest lieutenants.

The entire interview transcript with General Richard Myers and Chris Wallace can be seen here.

Also from Trey Jackson there is video from General Richard Myers from his Sunday interview on ‘Face The Nation’.

The entire Face The Nation transcript can be seen here.

Other posts:
Zarqawi; Alive, Wounded or Dead?
Iraqi Govt Confirms Zarqawi Wounded
Zarqawi evacuated from Iraq
Zarqawi Wounded?
Could It Be True; Zarqawi Killed?

TN State Senator John Ford; A Scandal Too Far

After months and months and scandal after scandal, Operation Tennessee Waltz put Tennesee State Senator John Ford over the brink. He resigned yesterday from a state Senate seat he had held for three decades.

Word of Ford’s resignation on the legislature’s last scheduled day in session sent shockwaves through an already punch-drunk General Assembly that has four of its members, including Ford, facing extortion, conspiracy and bribery charges. It also prompted Gov. Phil Bredesen to say he might call the legislature back to Nashville this year to tackle a political ethics overhaul.

I guess when one makes comments like the following comments during a recorded FBI sting one has no where it go but resignation.

Ford said if he caught someone trying to set him up he would shoot that person, kill them, so that there would be no witnesses.

[Ford] asked if [and undercover agent] and his “partner” were okay, because while he did not mind shooting the partner, he did not want to shoot [the undercover agent].

Senator John Ford’s indictment can be seen here.

Ford’s letter of resignation was short and sweet. He didn’t have to stay up too late at night writing this one.

Bill Hobbs states that Ford quit the Senate before they had a chance to throw him out on his ear. As the Tennessean reports:

Ford’s resignation comes just as the Senate’s Ethics Committee was preparing a six-count complaint against the Memphis senator that almost certainly would have lead to his impeachment.

“We would have had the votes to oust Sen. Ford from office,” Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, said. Ramsey also said the ethics committee, which he chairs, came to this decision after months of research and hundreds of interviews.

After three decades in politics and all the sudden ethics scandals that swirled around Senator Ford one does wonder what else may have occurred over the years that was never discovered?

Michelle Malkin brings up an interesting point that the AP seems to have neglected to mention what party affiliation of Senator Ford.

State Sen. John Ford, a member of one of Tennessee’s most powerful political families, has resigned after being placed under house arrest facing charges from a two-year FBI sting, the lieutenant governor said Saturday.

Scared Monkeys is willing to tell its readers that John Ford was a DEMOCRAT. His nephew is Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. a DEMOCRAT as well who is looking to run for TN Senator Frist’s seat in 2006.

I am sure this was just a deliberate act over sight on the part of AP.

Update: 1754 Blog has some findings about the questionable reporting as well. Tomahawk, can we give CNN & Fox the benefit of the doubt that the Holiday staff is on this weekend? Nah.

Yes, Harold Ford, Jr. is the nephew of John Ford that we posted on Friday and spoke of his filing for the TN US Senate seat in “Timing is Everything“. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall at this weekends Ford Memorial Day picnic?

Previous:
FBI Sting, Operation Tennessee Waltz, in the Volunteer State

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs; No Growth

Even before the announcement last week regarding a possible connection of Viagra to blindness; one might say the erectile dysfunction drug market was soft.

A sales plunge tied to Friday’s revelations isn’t expected because the incidence of blindness is so rare. The Food and Drug Administration said it has received a total of 42 reports of blindness, 38 among users of Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra, 4 among Cialis users and one for Levitra. In contrast, over 23 million men have taken Viagra while 5 million have used Cialis.

During the first quarter, both sales and prescriptions for the drugs grew only 1 percent in the United States, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical marketing and consulting company.

When Cialis and Levitra debuted in second half of 2003, joining market leader Viagra, analysts expected the market would expand as their makers poured money into advertising in the hopes of drawing more of the approximately 30 million American men with erectile dysfunction into doctors’ offices.

These are the most over-advertised medications on the market. I cannot go through one TV show anymore without seeing an ad for erectile dysfunction. I am still trying to understand marketing this product to individuals and not medical providers. To attain these drugs one needs a prescription from a physician not just your typical ad on the TV where the consumer just goes and buys the product themselves. Ease up on the ads as they are a waste of money and have been proved to have “no bang for the buck”.

The advertising flood materialized: erectile dysfunction drugs were the second most heavily advertised category of drugs last year with a total $382 million spent. But there have not been large numbers of additional patients, turning the market into a turf war to grab the limited number of males who want treatment.

“We thought that given the number of untreated men, we really thought there would be more use of the products,” said David Moskowitz, an analyst at Friedman Billings, Ramsey, who now expects total prescriptions to advance only 1 percent to 2 percent this year.

This industry thinks their market is weak now, wait until state’s Medicaid programs stop reimbursing. Now that’s going to leave a mark.

That Was Quick, One and Done

In its second box office week, Star Wars; EPISODE III – REVENGE OF THE SITH has fallen out of the top spot.

I could actually understand if it were beaten by MADAGASCAR, but Adam Sandler’s remake of ‘The Longest Yard’? Personally, I think it is sacrilege that they made a remake to the 1974 classic, The Longest Yard. There are some movies that stand the test of time and just should never be remade.

However, what happened to Star Wars? To many internet downloads? Or to much Bush bashing (video)?