Suspect's employer: 'I'm not involved' in terrorism

SPRING HILL -- Dr. Ayman Osman considers University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, arrested Thursday on charges that he financed terrorists, to be a casual acquaintance.

Osman, whose office manager -- Hatem Fariz -- was arrested with Al-Arian and others Thursday, said he met Fariz through the most innocent of means: a help wanted ad Osman placed in the St. Petersburg Times.

On Friday, a day after both of his Hernando County offices were searched by FBI agents, Osman went back to work, seeing patients at his Northcliffe Boulevard office. Osman said he thinks his patients, and the Hernando County community, are understanding of his situation.

"I think people will understand I'm not involved," Osman said.

Indeed, Osman was not mentioned in the 120-page indictment the federal government issued relating to a terrorist fundraising circle that allegedly centered on Al-Arian.

Yet that hasn't stopped FBI agents from asking questions about Osman, even as they asked him to open his office to a search by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. The bureau's Tampa office would not say if he is a suspect.

Such a contradiction makes no sense to Osman.

"They called me to open the office for them," he said. "They didn't break in. They were very friendly."

Osman said he has advised everyone on his staff to cooperate with the investigation. And he said he took comfort in the knowledge the government was working to protect America and its allies from those who would do it harm. He has expressed doubts that Fariz had done anything illegal while working for him. Certainly, Osman said, Fariz had never asked him for money for terrorist causes.

Osman said he has no sympathy for the beliefs of groups like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which Al-Arian and Fariz are alleged to have been supporting. The problems in the Middle East are something he is willing to trust to the American government.

"I'm here in America and I have a lot to do. It's a difficult problem to solve," Osman said.

He bears no ill will toward Israel and says terrorism against Israel -- a tactic of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad -- is never justified. "I've always felt that this would never really solve any problems."

Born in Syria, Osman came to Hernando County seven years ago. He has privileges at all three Hernando County hospitals. He became president of the Hernando County Medical Society in 2001.

Dr. Samar Shakfeh-Elgendy, an associate in Osman's Abbey PrimeCare practice, described her colleague as a very good physician who has been highly successful in internal medicine. She is convinced Osman has done nothing wrong. And she feels the same about Fariz.

Educated at the University of Damascus, Osman had a medical internship in the early 1990s in Chicago. Fariz was living there, though Osman says he did not know him.

Fariz apparently answered Osman's classified ad while visiting Tampa.

Osman, who lives in Tampa, owns two properties in Hernando -- a vacant lot on Irving Street in Spring Hill and the Northcliffe Boulevard office building. He has lived in rental properties on Gates Circle and Keysville Avenue in Spring Hill.

Spring Hill resident Lubomir Ondracek, who once rented his Gates Circle home to Osman, said an FBI agent asked him on Thursday morning where Osman lives. Ondracek didn't know.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office, which has been assisting the FBI for months in its terrorism investigation, said the information it has about Osman is confidential.

-- Staff writers Will Van Sant and Jeffrey Solochek contributed to this report.

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