California Conservative

Yesterday, the SacBee reported: “Federal officials believe they have broken up an al Qaeda terror cell operating in Lodi and have arrested two men and detained two others as part of a wide-ranging investigation, authorities said Tuesday.”

In many ways, Lodi is the perfect location. It’s a very small town and out-of-the-way, yet close enough to major airports and big cities like San Francisco and Sacramento, California’s capitol.

On the other hand, it’s the kind of place a terrorist would stick out. And, hopefully, that helped in uncovering the case here.

One of the men arrested, 22-year-old Hamid Hayat, is accused in a federal criminal complaint of training in an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan to learn “how to kill Americans” and then lying to FBI agents about it.

His training included explosives and weapons instruction and using photographs of President Bush as targets, court documents indicate.

Given the spotglass of Amnesty Int’l and other groups who distrust America, we’re sure these charges are not made lightly. We’ll see the facts unfold.

His father, 47-year-old Umer Hayat, a Lodi ice cream truck driver, is charged in the complaint with lying about his son’s involvement and his own financing of the terror camp.

Both men are U.S. citizens who live in Lodi, and both made a brief initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski. Both are being held in the Sacramento County Jail pending further court proceedings.

Two other Lodi men were detained over the weekend for questioning, area residents said Tuesday. The men were identified by one source as Muhammed Adil Khan and Shabbir Ahmed, and are being held on immigration violations. (The Lodi News-Sentinel provides a photo of Khan; see above)

The two were believed to be working to open a religious school in Lodi to teach young Muslims. Both were detained after they met separately with Umer Hayat in the predawn hours Saturday.

This morning, the SacBee has additional details.

“Hamid later confirmed this camp was run by al-Qaida,” the affidavit states. “Hamid described the camp as providing structured paramilitary training, including weapons training, explosives training, interior room tactics, hand-to-hand combat and strenuous exercise.”

Classroom sessions also focused on “ideological rhetoric” against the United States and other non-Muslim nations, the document states.

Sounds like the allegations are being confirmed.

“Hamid advised that he specifically requested to come to the United States to carry out his Jihadi mission,” the affidavit said.

Umer Hayat continued to deny that he knew anything about terrorist camps in Pakistan, the affidavit said, until agents showed him a videotape of his son’s confession.

“Shortly after viewing that videotape, Umer confirmed that Hamid Hayat attended a jihadist training camp in Pakistan in 2003-04,” the court documents state. “Umer admitted that he paid for Hamid’s flight and provided him with an allowance of $100 per month, knowing that his intention was to attend a jihadi training camp.”

The story has now risen to national (and international attention), picked up by the Associated Press. That will be sure to increase the level of reporting.

Unfortunately, it will also encourage those “defenders of justice” who argue America is the “real terrorist” in every case.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford has some of the latest, including the prompt posturing by The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an activist group based in Washington, D.C.

Keep in mind: This organization believes America is responsible for “torture” in the Middle East, with no mention of the Muslim crimes against humanity, past or present. No bias here.

Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley chapter of CAIR, said Khan was one of several local Muslim leaders who previously met with the FBI to discuss security issues. “They’ve got nothing on those guys,” Elkarra said. “This has happened before - if they don’t like them, they’ll get them on immigration violations. We will fight to make sure that everyone’s civil liberties are upheld.”

Of course. This is America.

RELATED: Michelle Malkin is on the story, offering links to other bloggers hot on the trail.

The PoliticalTeen has video.

Hyscience warns “it’s just the tip of the iceberg.” More details on the rise of “Islamofascism,” and a solid round-up on this story.

Read the FBI affadavit. (Hattip: S.F. Chronicle)

WorldNetDaily reports: “A group of American Muslims produced a video that shows its members on a city street corner declaring Islam’s dominance over America as they tred on a U.S. flag and then rip it apart.” (Hattip: Malkin)

Un-be-lievable.

NEW POST: Muslims Desecrate American Flag In NYC: Call Freedom of Speech A “Loophole”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 at 8:21 am and is filed under California, Homeland Security, Immigration, Sacramento, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.