Man Trained to Be Terrorist, Prosecutor Says

In the opening stages of a terrorism trial Thursday, federal prosecutors said a 23-year-old Lodi man attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan and returned “awaiting orders” to stage attacks in the United States.

To support their case against Hamid Hayat, the son of a Lodi ice cream truck driver who also is charged in the case, the government showed a videotape, which was recorded in early June 2005, of a weary Hayat under interrogation by FBI agents.

In the portions of the four-hour video shown in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr., the FBI agents did most of the talking. Hayat, who was wrapped in a blanket supplied by the agents, responded mainly with “yes sir” or by nodding his head.

“What they were doing in the training camps was teaching how to kill American troops,” stated one of the filmed FBI interrogators.

“Of course,” Hayat said.

Later, Hayat elaborated that the training he said he underwent in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province in November and December 2003 was to fight “you know, any country that is fighting Muslim countries.”

In her opening statement for the defense, attorney Washma Mojaddidi charged that the government case was founded on cultural ignorance that confused a wedding party for a terrorist gathering and depended heavily on the testimony of an informer who was paid $250,000 by the FBI to infiltrate the large Pakistan American community in Lodi.

“The government will not and cannot show that Hamid attended a training camp in Pakistan,” Mojaddidi said.

The combined trial of Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer Hayat, 48, is expected to last nine weeks. The government plans to present evidence that includes satellite surveillance of Pakistan; testimony from paid informer Naseem Khan, who befriended members of the Lodi community and its Muslim religious leaders starting in August 2002, and the videotape of Hamid Hayat

The younger Hayat, who faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted, is charged with material support of terrorist activity and three counts of initially lying to FBI agents about his activities in Pakistan. The father is charged with one count of lying to federal agents; if convicted, he faces a prison term of up to 16 years.

Mojaddidi described Hamid Hayat as a weak-willed individual who lied about alleged terrorist training to please FBI agents after hours of interrogation.

“He said nothing more than what the FBI wanted to hear,” she said.

The government painted a much darker portrait.

“Hamid Hayat talked about jihad before he even left the United States. He talked about acts of violence, he talked about training camps. He received weapons training while he was there,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Laura Ferris said in her opening.

“He admitted he went to a jihadist training camp, not once but twice.... He returned to the United States to commit jihad, and he was waiting for orders.”

Testifying about the interrogation, which occurred over two days in June 2005, FBI Agent Harry J. Sweeney said he obtained Hamid Hayat’s confession after suggesting that the FBI had satellite surveillance pictures.

“I knew he had attended camp in 2003,” Sweeney said, “so I asked, ‘Why would we have a picture of you in satellite imagery?’ ” Under follow-up questioning from prosecutors, Sweeney said the government, in fact, did not have such a picture.

The three-year FBI investigation in Lodi, a San Joaquin Valley farming town, has shaken the city’s 2,500-strong Pakistan American community and resulted in the voluntary deportation of its two leading Muslim religious leaders for immigration violations.

The deportation of Mohammad Adil Khan and Shabir Ahmed will be used by the defense in its attack on the government case. In the FBI video, Hamid Hayat reportedly says that his plan was to return to the United States and receive instructions from his religious leaders.

“The two men the government believed would be giving orders to Hamid,” attorney Mojaddidi said, “were allowed to voluntarily leave the country.”