AP Features, May 15th, 2007
A prosecutor urged a jury Tuesday to convict a Florida doctor of pledging allegiance to al-Qaida, saying a skilled FBI agent acting as a recruiter exposed him as a man with extreme views eager to support terrorists.
Otherwise, said Karl Metzner, deputy chief of the federal prosecutor's criminal division in Manhattan, "things could have turned out very differently."
In a closing argument, Metzner said Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir and a close friend, Tariq Shah, a Bronx martial arts expert and jazz musician, were "blood brothers" who shared the same militant view of Islam, which made them eager to assist al-Qaida in whatever way they could.
Metzner said that Shah had agreed to provide al-Qaida volunteers with training in martial arts and that Sabir had agreed to medically treat wounded al-Qaida members while he worked at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
Shah has pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization and agreed to serve 15 years in prison when he is sentenced this year. Two others, a Washington, D.C., cab driver and a Brooklyn bookstore owner, also have pleaded guilty in the case and face similar prison terms.
If convicted, Sabir, 52, could face up to 30 years in prison.
During five days of testimony, Sabir insisted Shah never told him he was talking with an al-Qaida recruiter before both men pledged allegiance to al-Qaida in a ceremony in Shah's apartment in May 2005.
Sabir, of Boca Raton, Fla., said he never heard the name al-Qaida when it was said 14 or more times during the pledging ceremony because the FBI agent, Ali Soufan, mispronounced it.
