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AMP Report – June 10, 2005
Federal judge denies bail to Lodi terror suspect
Sacramento, June 10: Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski denied bail Friday to Hamid Hayat, a Pakistani American, suspected of training at an al-Qaida terrorist camp in Pakistan and planning attacks in the U.S. The judge ordered Hamid Hayat, 22, held without bail as both a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Hayat's attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, reminded the judge that her client was born in Stockton, California, and has significant ties to the community of the city of Lodi. He lives there, she said, with his father, mother, brothers and sisters. She pointed out that he is charged only with lying to FBI agents, which is normally a bail-able offense, and he has surrendered his passport.
Assistant U. S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham, disputed Mojaddidi's statement that Hayat has close ties to the community. The prosecutor said he has traveled to Pakistan a number of times in his 22 years. He said Hayat stopped going to school in this country after the sixth grade, and "has little chance of getting a job that would support him."
Mojaddidi acknowledged that Hayat has a wife and an extended family in (Attock) Pakistan, and that the family recently built a new home there. She said the family traveled to Pakistan on one occasion to seek medical treatment for the mother.
Friday's hearing was the latest development in a federal investigation that authorities said has been ongoing for an extended period into the Pakistani community in Lodi.
As a teenager, Hamid Hayat lived in Pakistan and attended a madrassah, or religious training school in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, that was operated by Umer Hayat's father-in-law, according to an FBI affidavit. His father said that's where he was drawn to jihadist training camps, the document said.
"We believe they have been painted, based on the affidavit, as terrorists ... but they have not been charged with that," Umer Hayat's attorney, Johnny Griffin III, told reporters outside court. "They are only charged with one thing, and that one thing is making a false statement to the government."
Meanwhile, the FBI agents continued to fan across Lodi which suddenly became the spotlight of a high-profile terrorism probe, drawing sharp rebuke from some leaders of the Muslim community who say the FBI is spreading fear with aggressive tactics.
Lodi Mayor John Beckman and other city officials met with representatives of the Lodi Mosque, seeking to ease mounting tensions. "Today, the challenge of balancing freedom and security has been brought to us on a national level," he said.
William Youmans, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim civil rights organization, objected to how the FBI is following leads in Lodi. He said agents have agitated the community by questioning high-profile members and others at random. He also said some Muslims were forced to take polygraph tests.
Basim Elkarra, executive director of the council's Sacramento Valley chapter, said the FBI has harassed many people over the past few days in this community of about 4,000 Pakistanis.
Two recognized religious figures in the Lodi Pakistani community, Shabbir Ahmed and Mohammed Adil Khan, were also detained early this week on immigration violations. "That leaves everyone thinking if two well-respected people can be detained, anybody can be detained," said Youmans. "The whole community feels under assault."
Agents also detained Khan's son, 19-year-old Mohammed Hassan Adil, on a similar violation Wednesday.
June 10, 2005
Terror allegations disappear from court filing:
Different affidavit in Lodi father-son case
given to media than used for court
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation apparently gave the media a different, far more damaging version of an affidavit against a Lodi, California father and son charged with lying to federal officials than the one that was finally given to a court in Sacramento Thursday.
Under the title, “Affidavit Changed in Terrorism Accusation:The FBI version filed in court lacks several prominent details in the publicized original,” the Los Angeles Times reported that the affidavit filed Thursday did not contain any of the sensation material from earlier in the week which said the son's "potential terrorist targets included hospitals and groceries, and contained names of key individuals and statements about the international origins of 'hundreds' of participants in alleged Al Qaeda terrorist training camps in Pakistan."
Attorneys for the two men now say they will challenge the government on this discrepancy, which they say as a deliberate move by the FBI to prejudice the case against their clients. Defense attorney Johnny Griffin III, who represents the father, Umer Hayat, accused the government of "releasing information it knew it could not authenticate." The FBI said the different versions were the result of "unfortunate oversight due to miscommunication."
Different wording
The affidavit filed in court by an FBI agent in Sacramento did not include the following two allegations, which appeared in an affidavit released Tuesday to news media:
"Hamid observed hundreds of attendees from various parts of the world at this camp. According to Hamid, these attendees rotated into the camp depending on their stage of training. Camp attendees were given the opportunity to choose the country in which to carry out their jihadi mission including the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir and other countries."
"Potential targets for attack would include hospitals and large food stores."
Source: Federal court affidavits
Tracy Press - June 9, 2005
Area Muslims dismiss allegations
LODI — Muslims in and around Lodi were in disbelief Wednesday after hearing that a Pakistani Lodi man and his son are accused of having links to terrorists and that two Muslim religious leaders had been taken into custody on immigration charges.
“It is just shocking for all of us,” said Pamela Parvez, who knows Muslim leader Mohammad Adil Khan through preparations for an Islamic center he planned to build in Lodi. Speaking of Khan and Imam Shabbir Ahmed, also arrested, she said, “I don’t believe they’re involved in terrorist activities or would teach violence.”
She said she does not know Hamid Hayat, 22, or his father, Umer Hayat, 47.
Others in Lodi’s Muslim community found it hard to believe that any of their fellow Muslims in Lodi would support a terrorist organization, much less attend a camp to learn to kill Americans, of which the younger Hayat is suspected.
“The majority of the people I know love this country, and that’s why we immigrated here,” said Taj Khan, a member of the board trying to build a new Islamic center. “We chose to be here ... so we may love it more than some U.S. citizens.”
Many members of the local Muslim community are U.S. citizens, said attorney Brian Chavez-Ochoa, speaking for several members of that community. For those members to support terrorist activity is to advocate against the way of life they chose to live in this country, he said.
Obed Rahman, who is from Umer Hayat’s home village of Behboodi, said he does not believe the charges against the elder Hayat. “I’m thinking they are under pressure or something. I never heard of anything going on like this,” said Rahman, imam of a mosque in Stockton. “Our people are very peaceful people.”
Hamid Hayat’s cousin, Usama Ismail, 19, dismissed allegations that his cousin attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. Ismail said he believes someone with a grudge against his uncle called the FBI and gave them a false tip about his uncle and nephew.
Khan and Chavez-Ochoa said the public should let justice take its course.
“In a post-9/11 world, the mention of al-Qaida gets fear rising up on the back of people’s necks ... an open mind needs to be exercised and let the system work its justice,” Chavez-Ochoa said.
“I think we believe in the American justice system, and we have to give it chance,” Khan said.
http://www.tracypress.com/local/2005-06-09-mosque.htm
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