Posted on 06/09/2005 6:19:42 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - Federal authorities who arrested two men and detained three others this week in a terrorism probe say they have been investigating members of a Central Valley Pakistani community for years and expect more developments in the weeks ahead.
But they aren't saying just how the men came to their attention, how far the connections extend and exactly what kind of attacks - if any - they were plotting.
FBI spokesman John Cauthen on Thursday said the investigation was not triggered by an internal rift within Lodi's Pakistani community, as some members had suggested.
"This specific investigation has been going on for several years," he said.
There are about 2,500 Pakistanis, some with family roots in Lodi stretching back decades, in the agricultural region about 30 miles south of Sacramento.
Members of separate factions - one fundamentalist, the other more mainstream - accused each other of prompting the investigation. The dispute that has led to a leadership struggle at the Lodi Muslim Mosque and a legal fight with a budding Islamic learning center.
So far, the only firm terrorist connection alleged is that of 22-year-old Hamid Hayat, who is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday for a bail hearing.
Umer Hayat, 47, said his son was drawn to jihadist training camps in his early teenage years while attending a madrassah, or religious school, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, that was operated by Umer Hayat's father-in-law, according to an FBI affidavit.
The elder Hayat is alleged to have paid for his son to attend an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. The affidavit says it was run by a friend of his father-in-law's. Father and son are charged only with lying to federal investigators.
Meanwhile, differences in copies of the affidavit released in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento raised questions among lawyers for both men.
The early version of the affidavit released in Washington said Hamid Hayat chose to carry out his "jihadi mission" in the United States and that potential targets included "hospitals and large food stores." The reference to the targets was dropped in a later version of the affidavit filed in federal court in Sacramento.
Hamid Hayat's attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, said that revision "strikes us as an odd turnabout."
Umer Hayat's attorney, Johnny Griffin III, said he was irritated that the government made public the references to hospitals and supermarkets, and then filed something different with the court. Griffin also said that whether the men had appropriate legal representation during their interrogations "may very well be an issue down the road."
Cauthen described the changes in the affidavits as routine revisions. Authorities said they had no indication of specific plans or timetables for an attack.
"There is no specific information about hospitals and food stores," he said. "They didn't stand out above other sectors of the infrastructure."
The investigation also led to the detention on immigration complaints of two Islamic religious leaders, or imams, and one leader's son. Neither Cauthen nor a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would reveal specifics of the alleged visa violations.
One of the imams, Mohammad Adil Khan, is scheduled for a July 1 hearing in San Francisco on three administrative charges: being inadmissible at the time of entry; violating the status or condition of his entry; and fraud or misrepresentation.
No hearing has yet been set for his 19-year-old son, Mohammad Hassan Adil, who was detained late Wednesday, or for the second imam, Shabbir Ahmed.
The attorney who represents all three, Saad Ahmad, did not immediately return a telephone call Thursday seeking comment.
The Hayats and the imams are on opposite sides of a struggle between Pakistani factions in and around Lodi: The Hayats are aligned with a faction supporting more traditional Islamic values; the imams with another group seeking greater cooperation and understanding from the larger community.
Adil Khan was trying to start an Islamic center but has been sued by the Lodi Muslim Mosque, which claims he improperly transferred mosque property.
"It may well be that some of this is gamesmanship," said attorney Gary Nelson, who represents Khan in the civil lawsuit. "But we are talking about the FBI and INS, and they don't do this lightly. At least I hope they don't."
Cauthen wouldn't say what triggered the terrorism probe. FBI officials have said they are investigating numerous people in the Lodi area who may have connections to al-Qaida and who received training abroad.
The link to Lodi isn't surprising, said Nick Boone, who retired from the FBI in Los Angeles in 2000 after spending most of his 31 years fighting terrorism.
"I found numerous, numerous connections to that area," as did other agents, Boone said Thursday. "That entire region, all of the area around there, became a very big area of Arab settlement," with accompanying connections to Islamic regions overseas.
The sequence that led to the arrests and detentions began May 29, when Hamid Hayat was trying to return to the U.S. but was identified in mid-flight as being on the federal "no-fly" list. His plane was diverted to Japan, where Hayat was interviewed by the FBI and denied any connection to terrorism.
He was allowed to fly to California, but was interviewed again last weekend. He and his father were charged after he flunked a lie detector test and then admitted attending the training camp, the affidavit said.
Boone sort of blew it by using the word Arab. Pakistanis are definitely not Arabic people. But generally, kudos to the FBI for taking action.
The 3 pakis I know; Parvathi who was doing residency at Maimonimoides in internal medicine sent an email to Uzma Medicine/pedes residency in Albany who sent it to me stating the Jews were the real 9-11 terrorists. Gulrez a Canadian said shortly after 9-11 "I'm sick and tired of hearing about 9-11". He also left pro Osama propaganda around the call room. Kick em all out!!!
First, kick the living shit out of them. Kick their teeth into their necks. Then kick their faces into their skulls. Then kick their balls into their necks. Then burn their Mosques into the ground. Then kick the shit out of anyone that bitches. Then kick them out.
What a bunch of ineffectual keystone kops. They have this mountain of "maggots" right under their nose they waste years investigating, then charge them with lying. Meantime the al qaedas will blow up a shopping mall or something during Christmas rush. What should happen is the national guard in CA and across the country needs to be mobilized and the country should be swept from end to end of muslims.
The Lodi investigation is a perfect example of what the Patriot Act can do. Even though the charges may be minimal, the FBI is squarely inside that group. This "little thing", lying about attending training camp, has, by itself, ominous overtones.
Notice how the Lodi Paks aren't screaming civil rights? Nor have the national Muslim groups, to my knowledge.
As far as suspected terrorists are concerned, the Patriot Act coverage is everywhere.
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