Free Republic

A New York martial arts expert who is charged with conspiring to help train al Qaeda members is the victim of a "desperate prosecution on the government's behalf," his lawyer said on Tuesday. Tarik Ibn Osman Shah was arrested on Friday in New York after a two-year sting operation in which prosecutors said he had been taped pledging support to Osama bin Laden. He is charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Shah, who is also a professional jazz musician, was presented briefly in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday...

A Palm Beach County doctor arrested on terrorism-related charges plotted to treat "wounded jihadists" in a plan hatched with a New York martial-arts expert to recruit and train al-Qaida members, federal officials said Sunday. Both men were arrested during the weekend. The second suspect, Tarik Ibn Osman Shah, 42, was apprehended in the Bronx on Saturday in the same investigation that snared Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 50, an emergency-room doctor who lives in a gated community west of Boca Raton. The men, U.S. citizens, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, the terrorist organization led by Osama bin...