By LARRY NEUMEISTER
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- A Washington, D.C., cab driver who admitted he attended terrorism training camps in Pakistan in 2002 pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to help a terrorist organization.
Mahmud Faruq Brent Al Mutazzim, of Gwynn Oak, Md., had been scheduled to go to trial April 24 along with a New York musician and a Florida doctor. A New York bookstore owner pleaded guilty to charges in the case in November.
Under a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Brent, 32, agreed to serve 15 years in prison rather than face a potential sentence of more than 20 years had he been convicted at trial.
He was not cooperating with the government and would not testify against his co-defendants, said his lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah. Sentencing was scheduled for July 10.
Brent, born in Akron, Ohio, was arrested in August 2005 and was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the United States designated a terrorist organization in December 2001.
Brent, answering “yes” to questions posed in court by his lawyer, said he attended the terrorist training camp even though he knew the sponsoring organization had been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. He admitted participating in terrorist training.
Prosecutors said Brent also received martial arts training from a co-defendant, Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician and martial arts expert awaiting trial along with Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a Florida doctor. Shah and Sabir have pleaded not guilty. A fourth defendant, bookstore owner Abdulrahman Farhane, of Brooklyn, is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
The government said Shah after his arrest agreed to meet Brent and let the FBI monitor their meeting at a Columbia, Md., hotel.
During the meeting, Brent encouraged Shah to travel overseas to the camps and told Shah it was a question of “how much” Shah was willing to “sacrifice” and whether Shah was willing to “take a risk,” prosecutors said.
According to court papers, Brent also indicated he had traveled to Pakistan and into the mountains for training with fighters.
Brent said that because of “treaties with (President) Bush,” it became dangerous for “foreigners” such as him to stay in the camps, so he was moved from place to place, prosecutors alleged in court papers.
Prosecutors said Brent, a former paramedic, indicated that he would never go back on his decision to go to the training camps operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002 and that it was “one of the better decisions in my life.”
Several dozen family members and friends of Brent attended his plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. They called out to him when he entered the courtroom, drawing smiles and a wave from the defendant. As he was taken from the court, they shouted, “We love you, Mahmud!”
A woman who identified herself only as his sister Atullah questioned outside court what the word terrorism means in America.
“What is terrorism? If you step on an ant, it’s terrorism,” she said.
Asked what her brother’s intentions were, she said: “To serve God, to pray and help mankind.”