Kung-Fu Bass Player Sentenced to 15 Years

Meet Tarik Shah. He was a bass player for jazz groups, and by some accounts, a pretty good one. He also claimed that he was a martial arts expert and wanted to show Al-Queda agents how to use their prayer beads as a garotte. Now he will rot in a prison for the next 15 years. I hope they make him listen to rap music too.

From MSNBC here:

A New York jazz musician who pledged to teach martial arts to al-Qaida members was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday by a judge who said it didn’t matter that no one from the terrorist group was actually involved in the case.

Tarik Shah, a martial arts expert, pleaded guilty in the spring to conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida.

U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, however, gave him the maximum sentence, noting that Shah was recorded embracing a chance to teach martial arts to al-Qaida operatives, and even boasting that he knew how to fashion prayer beads into a strangulation tool.

What a poltroon. Want to read how much the New York Times sympathizes with the terrorists that brought down the World Trade Center Towers? Read this disgusting story about how they have a boner for the jailed musician. They try to hide their sympathy by profiling his brother who is a mediocre pianist, but the Times really wanted to get the message out that a great musician was in jail, and he was innocently swept up in a zealous prosecution of the war on terror.

“For all these months Tarik has heard no music, but it’s still in his mind, and he doesn’t want to lose it,” she said. “You should see them in there, Tony playing his imaginary piano and Tarik playing scales up and down his imaginary bass, or singing a bass line for Tony. It’s a strange thing to see in that visiting area, but for that small window of time Tarik can feel like he’s free.”