Posted on 06/13/2005 10:27:22 AM PDT by quidnunc
It couldn't have been more of a surprise if the alleged terror cell had been discovered in Peoria.
But the FBI says the father-and-son team lived in Lodi, California. (Wasn't there once a popular song about that lonely little town? Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi, again… .)
Anyway, Hamid Hayat, 22, and his father Umer Hayat, 47, were arrested there last weekend. The feds say the younger Hayat visited an al-Qaida summer camp for terrorists. (We can imagine the scavenger hunts and canoeing between target practicing and bomb making.) Hamid Hayat admitted going to the training — after first failing a lie detector test.
According to an affidavit, "Hamid advised that he specifically requested to come to the United States to carry out his jihadi mission. Potential targets for attack would include hospitals and large food stores."
The elder Hayat is being held without bail, too. Why? A judge ruled him a flight risk and a danger to the community: "He just returned from Pakistan where he built a new home and contributed financial assistance to an al-Qaida sponsored program training his son and others to kill Americans whenever and wherever they can be found." And that's the judge talking, not the prosecutor.
The father's occupation here in the states?
Ice cream truck driver.
Be vigilant.
As for Umer Hayat, his attorney is shocked — shocked! — at the charges. He says his client "is charged with nothing more than lying to a (federal) agent."
That's good enough for us, counselor.
Here we are at war, with terrorists dying, literally, to pull another September 11th, and we're told lying to the feds is nothing more than, what, jaywalking?
There's a war on, but some of us don't seem to have noticed.
Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States, is a good Democrat whom Condoleezza Rice gives a lot of credit for making her a good Republican. And he's just spoken out once again on foreign policy and national security. Uh, oh. That's rarely a good thing.
Mr. Carter has certainly been a better ex-president than president — what with his charitable work and his travels around the world trying to keep elections honest. But let's be thankful he's a former president. Because you do remember his bold foreign policy moves when he was in the Oval Office in the dismal 1970s, don't you? Lessee… . After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, he responded by boycotting the Olympics.... After the Shah fell in Iran, the revolutionaries took American hostages and held them for the rest of his term .... America also gave away the Panama Canal on his watch.... Honduras, Nicaragua and other Central American nations boiled over.... Disco ruled America's airwaves.... In short, one disaster followed another, and there was one root cause of all of them: indecision. The kind that's hard to distinguish from paralysis. When it came to leading the country, let alone the free world, Mr. Carter's style was definitely minimalist. And there was a name back then for the result: malaise. He practiced a politics of retreat, and, alas, he still does.
Do let's give Jimmy Carter a large measure of the credit for the formal peace between Egypt and Israel, but that scarcely assured peace between Arabs and Israelis. As you may have noticed if you've read a newspaper lately. Or in the last 30 years.
It'd take a special type of person to look to Jimmy Carter for advice on how to project American strength in the world. Now he's advising this administration to shut down that prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. "The U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation," he complains, "because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo."
Yeah, well, he'd know something about terrible embarrassments.
And Bill Clinton agrees with him. Another ex-president heard from. Neither specified just where they'd ship those 540 prisoners now confined there. Fort Chaffee? Last we heard, Bill Clinton was objecting — mightily — to sending even Cuban refugees there. And that was way back when the president of the United States was … Jimmy Carter. Now they're together again. And being just as realistic.
The prisoners at Guantanomo are considered enemy combatants, lawful and unlawful. By all the laws of war, they may be held to the end of hostilities. And if this war on terror lasts half a century or more, surely the government of the United States can arrange a suitable burial, with all religious rites duly observed, for any jihadists who do not see this war's end. What else would Messrs. Carter and Clinton have us do — set them free so they can attack us again? Give them a two-week, fully paid vacation in Las Vegas? Ship them home to Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Jordan or some equally enlightened spot? Would that be acting humanely or just outsourcing torture?
If we're going to look for advice, and perspective, we'd prefer to consult Charles Krauthammer, who had a column on this page last Monday about these calls to shut down Gitmo. His response?
"A terrible idea. One does not run and hide simply because allegations have been made. If the charges are unverified allegations, as they overwhelmingly are in this case, then they need to be challenged. The United States ought to say what it has done and what it has not done, and not simply surrender to rumor. Moreover, shutting down Guantanamo will solve nothing. We will capture more terrorists and we will have to interrogate them, if not at Guantanamo, then somewhere else… ."
Out of some 24,000 interrogations at Guantanamo, a Navy inspector reported only seven confirmed cases of abuse — " all of which were relatively minor. "
Of course, there were all those overblown accusations about the American infidels defiling the Koran. (Thank you, Newsweek.) But who do you think gave those prisoners Korans in the first place?
You guessed it: They came courtesy of you, the American taxpayer. If the sandal were on the other foot, do you think Americans caught by the Taliban would be given Bibles to read?
Jimmy Carter really should stick to doing what he does best: building homes for poor folks and attending ceremonial functions with other ex-presidents. You know, being seen, not heard.
A new poll says most Americans (52 percent) don't believe the war in Iraq has made this country safer. And another 52 percent (sounds like the same 52 percent) disapprove of the job George W. Bush is doing in the White House. It's the highest disapproval rating he's had during his presidency. We remember some other polls. Like the ones showing that the last presidential election was going to be close. And those exit polls that predicted President Kerry's big victory. It occurs to us at such times that Harry Truman didn't poll well, either — at least not while he was in office. Maybe because he was less concerned about the polls than with what history would say about him.
We'd say Mr. Truman had his priorities in order. So keep on keeping on, Mr. President. Do what you think is right, popular or not. At this stage in your political career, approval ratings don't mean a whole lot. Go for history's judgment.
Yes, Lodi was a Creedence Clearwater Revival song. It instantly came into my head when I heard of the case.
"Do let's give Jimmy Carter a large measure of the credit for the formal peace between Egypt and Israel"
RIGHT! And the fact that the Israeli's could nuke the Aswan High Dam, thereby washing all Egypt into the sea had nothing to do with that "peace" did it?
Who on FR actually believes Possum Man did it all by himself?
"lying to a Federal agent"
Didn't Martha Stewart do jail time for that? Of course, Martha was a much bigger threat to the Republic than these twerps.
Terrorist Junior's attorney said he wasn't a flight risk, despite having just built a house overseas -- where his new wife lives. Unbelievable.
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