A jazz bass player from the Bronx pleaded guilty this week to having the inclination to teach hand-to-hand combat skills to Islamic extremists. Tarik Shah, whose childhood influence was Cannonball Adderly [2], will be going to prison for 15 years for disclosing his secret desire to help terrorists to an FBI undercover agent after being set up by a prison stool pigeon. [NYT [3], April 5] Mr. Shah did not actually teach any martial arts skills to any jihadists, nor did he provide any material support for their cause, although he claims to have tried to attend a training camp in Afghanistan. He is simply a jazz musician with an attitude who got caught up in a witch hunt. Since when does anyone listen to what musicians have to say anyway? Is Tarik Shah going into the slammer to keep some US soldier from a potential karate chop or just because, failing to crack the real al-Qaida network, the US Government needs to find someone to investigate and imprison?
Carl Hultberg for the RagMag e-list
See our last posts on fear in New York City and specious terror busts [4], and the Tarik Shah [5] case.
