A Florida doctor accused of swearing allegiance to al Qaeda and agreeing to treat wounded militants has been unfairly ensnared in the scheme of a longtime friend, a defense lawyer argued on Wednesday.
Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 52, was arrested in May 2005 and later charged in a four-person conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda and another group listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. His trial began with opening arguments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday.
Sabir and his longtime friend Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician, offered themselves as a "package," with Sabir providing skills as a doctor and Shah agreeing to train would-be warriors in hand-to-hand combat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Rodgers told jurors. "With these unique skills, Sabir and Shah knew that they could help al Qaeda," Rodgers said.
Excerpted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070425/us_nm/usa_qaeda_dc_1;_ylt=AhkG_PtseQaGpIL23g.jo2EwuecA
Pamphlets distributed in Bajaur for release of ‘mujahideen’
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
KHAR: Unidentified men distributed pamphlets in the Bajaur Agency on Tuesday, demanding the release of “mujahideen-e-Islam” by May 1, and warning the government that action would be taken if the demand was not met.
The pamphlets written in Pushto were distributed early on Tuesday morning in Inayat Kalay Bazaar, seven kilometres from Khar. The unidentified writers of the pamphlets told the political agent and the assistant political agent to free Afghan and Pakistani “mujahideen” from jails, otherwise they would take extreme steps against the government and the political administration would be responsible for any untoward situation. The political administration has seized the pamphlets, but did not comment on the issue.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/04/25/story_25-4-2007_pg7_14
Iran: Student pokesman Arrested
Tehran, 25 April 2007 - The spokesman of the Muslim Students Association at a Tehran polytechnic was arrested on Wednesday, Iranian news agency ILNA reports. Babak Zamanian was reportedly arrested because of interviews he gave to Farsi language radio stations that broadcast outside Iran. The students of the Amir Kabir Polytechnic made front page news around the world last December when they managed to prevent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on a visit to their campus, from making his speech. It was the first time since his landslide victory in June 2005 that Ahmadinejad had been challenged in public.
Dozens of protesters burned pictures of the Iranian president crying 'dictator go away', 'death to dictatorship' and threw firecrackers, forcing him to interrupt several times a speech and leave before scheduled.
"The direction of the university had been warned we didn't want Ahmadinejad here," Mehdi Hatefi, an activist with students' group Tahkim Vahdat told Adnkronos International (AKI) at the time, saying the organisers had tried to fill up the lecture hall with people from other universities.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.408483218&par=0
Kabul, 25 April 2007 - Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban commander in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, has said that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and he planned the attack in Afghanistan against US vice president Dick Cheney." Dadullah said this in an interview with Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera referring to the 27 February suicide attack on the main US military base in Bagram, when Cheney was there on a visit. The Taliban had claimed responsibility for that attack in which at least nine people were killed.
"We thank Allah that he [Osama bin Laden] is still alive," said the Taliban commander. "We know that he plans attacks whether in Iraq or in Afghanistan. As you know, there was an attack against the base in Bagram targeting an important representative of the American administration. The operation was successful and was the fruit of our work," he said.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=
Bomb Making Materials Seized In Jolo
Philippines: Military officials seized approximately 1,320 lb/600 kg of chemicals that are commonly used in manufacturing explosive devices on the southern island of Jolo on 25 April 2007.
The chemicals, which mainly consisted of ammonium nitrate, were found hidden inside a minibus that was traveling near Panamao. Although an investigation into the incident continues, military officials believe that the explosives were to be used in attacks in Jolo or Manila.
Thanks for the Florida doctor update Oorang.