Fla. Neighbors’ Impressions of Terror Suspect

The doctor kept mostly to himself, neighbors remembered Monday. He lived in a gated South Florida community west of the exclusive town of Boca Raton with a woman and two children. The couple drove a black SUV and a white two-door sedan, and fixed up the garage of their rented villa to serve as the youngsters’ rumpus room.

Dan Kozan, an advertising consultant, had one encounter with his neighbor across the street when he moved into Villa San Remo three years ago, but it was enough. Kozan, 51, said he asked the doctor to move the cars of people visiting so Kozan could back out of his driveway more easily. The doctor, he said, ignored him.

“I’m friendly with most of the neighbors around here,” Kozan said. “Not him.”

Early Saturday, the FBI arrested the physician, Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 50, as an alleged participant in a terrorist plot. Along with Tarik Shah, 42, a self-described martial arts expert who had been arrested the previous day in New York, Sabir was accused of conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda.

According to federal prosecutors, Shah had agreed to train Islamic holy warriors in hand-to-hand combat techniques, and Sabir had agreed to treat their wounds at a military base in Saudi Arabia.

The men were scheduled to be arraigned in separate federal court appearances today, according to a statement from U.S. Atty. David N. Kelley in New York. Judy Orihuela, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Miami office, said Monday that Sabir was being held in Palm Beach County Jail until his arraignment in Fort Pierce, Fla.

The federal complaint -- the result of a two-year sting operation -- said Shah and Sabir, both U.S. citizens, took an oath of loyalty to Al Qaeda, the shadowy Islamic terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and some of the violence against the U.S. occupation in Iraq.

Federal prosecutors said Shah had searched for locations suitable for secret weapons training, at one point inspecting a warehouse on Long Island, and had agreed to provide a curriculum for hand-to-hand combat training.

The two men may have known each other for more than a decade. Records show they shared a common address on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. in Harlem, where in 1993, Shah set up a business called the Expansion of Knowledge Center. Sabir listed the same address as his residence in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

If found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization, each man could be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.

Sabir’s arrest was not a complete surprise to some residents of Villa San Remo, a quiet Palm Beach County community of 381 villas, condominiums and coach homes with red tile roofs and off-white exteriors. Because the community is gated, the FBI had to alert security guards before conducting a surveillance operation, said Otto Freund, president of the homeowners association.

“Some of us knew there was activity going on in here,” Freund said.

About a month ago, said resident Sally Schneider, a friend of hers asked two men who were in a car parked in a cul-de-sac why they were there. The men said they were watching somebody, said Schneider, 73.

Sabir had lived on her block for four years, Schneider said Monday. The doctor and his female companion, she said, “didn’t bother anyone. They were real quiet.”

Daniel McBride, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, told Associated Press that Sabir had been living with Arleen Morgan, a registered nurse, and their two young sons. Neighbors told reporters that Sabir and the other occupants of the home on Via Giulia left for extended periods, and that when the physician wasn’t in doctor’s attire, he sometimes wore what appeared to be traditional Muslim dress.

The criminal complaint filed by Kelley’s office said Sabir had planned to depart for Saudi Arabia on Thursday.

Freund, though, noted that no crime had been proved. “I’m glad to see the FBI and our law enforcement people are in fact continuing to ensure our safety,” the retired telecommunications worker said. “As always, for me, you’re not guilty till [authorities] prove it. We know that many times, mistakes get made.”

Court and other records indicate that Sabir came to Florida with a string of debts and a failed marriage behind him in the New York area. A bank initiated foreclosure proceedings against him and his then-wife, Ingrid, for a property on Long Island. He was hit with federal and state tax liens for failure to pay assessments of about $56,000. And he was sued by Columbia University for $2,420 in 1997.

He obtained a physician’s license in Pennsylvania in 1996, records show, but it expired two years later and was not renewed. The state medical board’s website showed no record of any complaint against him.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported Monday that Ingrid Doyle, 47, of New York said she had been married to Sabir from 1981 to 1992 and had two children by him.

Doyle, the newspaper reported, said that Sabir was born into a large Roman Catholic family in New York and converted to Islam in high school. His father left the family when Sabir was young, and the boy was placed in a group home, she reportedly said. He went on to earn a medical degree from Columbia, she reportedly said.

“When we were married he was a lovely father and husband and nothing if not a hardworking man,” the newspaper quoted Sabir’s ex-wife as saying.

Dahlburg reported from Miami, Roche from Washington.