Gov't: Bookseller tried to help terrorists

modbee ^ | 2-8-06

[LouAvul]

NEW YORK (AP) - A bookstore owner and a jazz musician agreed soon after the Sept. 11 attacks to try to help terrorists in Afghanistan buy weapons and communications equipment to fight American soldiers, the government charged Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Victor Hou said Abdulrahman Farhane, 51, and the musician, Tarik Shah, 42, spoke with an FBI informant about the plot in Farhane's bookstore in December 2001 "while the ruins of 9/11 were still smoldering."

The prosecutor asked that Farhane be held without bail on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and trying to cover up his actions by lying to the FBI last year.

Farhane's lawyer, Michael Hueston, told U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska that his client was wrongly accused and had been framed by the FBI informant, Mohamed Alanssi, who set himself on fire outside the White House in November 2004 in what he later said was an effort to get money from the FBI.

"My client is not involved with terrorists," Hueston told the judge.

Asked to enter a plea to the indictment, Farhane, who was born in Morocco but is a U.S. citizen, said: "I'm not guilty. I didn't do anything. This is my country. I love my country."

Farhane, who came to the United States in 1987, has been free on bail since he was charged last November in a criminal complaint with making false statements.

The judge agreed to let him remain free at least until she listens to FBI tapes in the case on Friday.

Hou insisted that the FBI informant was reliable and had helped in 25 convictions.

Farhane was the fourth man charged in a case in which prosecutors already had charged Shah; Washington, D.C., cab driver Mahmud Faruq Brent; and Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Florida doctor.

[Mears]

"

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his client was wrongly accused and had been framed by the FBI informant"

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Of COURSE he was,aren't they all?

[TASMANIANRED]

I'd be willing to bet that everyone in hell claims they were framed too.

[piasa]

...The one-count complaint claims the men allegedly took an oath pledging their allegiance to Al Qaeda. The government said the men engaged in multiple recorded conversations with a confidential source and an FBI agent posing as an Al Qaeda operative.
During the conversations, Shah also described how he and Sabir in 1998 tried to get to training camps in Afghanistan and said they were a "package" deal, Kelley said in the release.... --------- "Two Americans Charged With Aiding Al Qaeda," AP via Fox News, May 30, 2005

[piasa]

Kelley said [Tarik] Shah - son of Lieutenant X, one of Malcolm X's top aides - even bragged to an undercover FBI agent and a federal informant that he could kill with prayer beads. ...Officials said Shah, who also went by the names Tarik Jenkins and Abu Musab, took steps to find a secret location in the New York area to house a terror training camp. "At one point, in the company of the [informant], Shah allegedly inspected a warehouse on Long Island to determine its suitability as a training facility," said the statement... ------- "Two busted in Al Qaeda plot in U.S.," by ROBERT F. MOORE and BILL HUTCHINSONWith Kerry Burke, Tamer El-Ghobashy, James Gordon Meek and Greg B. Smith, NY Daily News, May 30 2005

[piasa]

Sabir, also described as "the Doctor," pledged to provide medical assistance to terrorists in Saudi Arabia who couldn't visit hospitals, the statement said. Both men had staked out possible training centers for terrorists, including a Long Island warehouse, and had a list of possible recruits, some who already had traveled overseas to attend training camps in the Middle East, officials said in the complaint.
One name on the list confiscated by officials was that of Seifullah Chapman, a member of the Virginia Jihad Network, convicted in Virginia in 2004 for supporting terrorists and sentenced to 85 years in prison.
Shah allegedly had traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., to recruit for al-Qaida. He and Sabir also had attempted to travel to Afghanistan for training in 1998, the statement said. In their bid to be recruited by the undercover agent, officials said, Shah and Sabir took a loyalty oath and "committed themselves to the path of Holy War." 16 posted on 05/29/2005 10:50:38 PM PDT by kcvl

[piasa]

* Dr. Daniel McBride, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton and a friend of [Dr. Rafiq] Sabir, said Sabir works in the emergency rooms of two hospitals in Palm Beach County.
"That's absurd," McBride said of the charges 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."
32 posted on 05/29/2005 11:43:33 PM PDT by kcvl

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McBride is a convert to Islam...http://www.jannah.org/morearticles/31.html long and very interesting history on McBride.

This article references backlash of anti-semitic comments McBride made... http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2001/09/26/muslims/index3.html

This link shows the islamist militant ties of McBride http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/177 This link details the ties to Global Relief - terrorist funding and McBride's mosque http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=7982

Enough info for a start... 36 posted on 05/30/2005 5:01:23 AM PDT by milford421 | To 32

[gaspar]

Its hard to figure why Ibrahim Dremali, former Imam of the Boca Raton mosque, who was under investigation and moved to take over the mosque in Des Moines, has been allowed to walk.

[gr8eman]

Maybe they turned him?

[milford421]

Thanks for posting.

[piasa]

Here’s an old thread linking LeT terrorists like those in the Mumbai attacks to Nation of Islam / Malcolm X groups.