Tuesday, April 25, 2006

The Feds bat .500 in the Lodi terrorism trial

Well, better than nothing.

Lodi is a small, sleepy Northern California town (rememeber the old Creedance Clearwater song `Stuck in Lodi again'?). And it was the seat of an amazing jihad cell.

Today, Hamid Hayat, a 23-year-old Pakistani was found guilty of providing material support to terrorists and lying to investigators probing his alleged links to terrorist training camps.

He could end up with a 39-year prison term when he is sentenced on July 14.

Hours before, a jury brought in a mistrial in the case of Hayat's father, Umer Hayat, who had been charged with lying to federal investigators during the same terrorism probe.

Umer and Hamid Hayat initially told the feds they had no knowledge of terrorist training camps in Pakistan. `Course not! But later in videotaped confessions the elder Hayat said he visited several camps as an observer, including a camp where his son had said he had trained....

Whoops.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said in a statement that the government is weighing its options: "Between now and the status conference the court set for May 5, the United States will evaluate its case against Umer Hayat and determine what course of action to pursue."

The FBI arrested Hayat and his son back in June 2005.

Apparently the FBI got an assist from an informant in the local Muslim community.
Good one, guys! And kudos to someone who put his loyalty to his adopted country and US law ahead of loyalty to the umma.

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