Two American citizens have been arrested for conspiring aid terrorists after an FBI sting netted Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 50, a Boca Raton physician, and Tarik Shah, 42, a self-described martial arts expert in New York.

The one-count complaint claims the men allegedly took an oath pledging their allegiance to al-Qaida. The government said the men engaged in multiple recorded conversations with a confidential source and an FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida operative.

During the conversations, Shah also described how he and Sabir in 1998 tried to get to training camps in Afghanistan and said they were a “package” deal, Kelley said in the release.

[snip]

As recently as May 20, during a meeting at a New York City apartment, Sabir indicated he would travel shortly to Saudi Arabia to treat the wounds of jihadists at a Saudi military base, prosecutors said. Travel records showed he was scheduled to leave Thursday.

During recorded conversations, Shah also repeatedly indicated his desire to train Muslim “brothers” in the martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, the release said.

Apparently Shah has not paid much attention to the tactics of Al Qaida as the group does not engage in much hand to hand combat. What I find most interesting regarding this story is that the two had tried to join Al Qaida back in 1998 while the group was stationed in Afghanistan but were unable to. They kept their desire to join the terror group for seven years until an FBI informant recorded a pledge to Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden.

Maybe it’s just me, but if I wanted to join the group, I’d go to the source and not live in a country accross the globe. Sure, there are Al Qaida recruiters in the United States, or were at some time, but there are many more actually in the Middle East. For these two men, desire and dedication were not on the same levels.