Thread: Two Lodi, CA men arrested for suspected al Qaeda ties

I wonder if these two outstanding citizens were part of an earlier amnesty program.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/stor ... 9232c.html

Two Lodi men arrested for suspected al Qaeda ties
By Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 8:07 pm PDT Tuesday, June 7, 2005
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.
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.

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 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.

For more details, see Wednesday's Bee.

Updated news.

link

Feds: Calif. Men Training To Attack Hospitals, Supermarkets
Son Allegedly Admits Attending Al-Qaida Camp

POSTED: 4:36 am PDT June 8, 2005
UPDATED: 11:53 am PDT June 8, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Federal law enforcement officials say they're trying to determine whether they've uncovered a network of al-Qaida supporters in Lodi, Calif.

The investigation includes the arrest of a father and son charged with lying to federal agents about the son's training at an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan for potential attacks on U.S. hospitals and supermarkets. An FBI agent said Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer Hayat were arrested over the weekend after the son allegedly acknowledged attending the camp to learn "how to kill Americans."

The law enforcement officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition that their names be withheld because an investigation is ongoing, but according to an FBI affidavit, the son attended the al-Qaida training camp in 2003 and 2004. Prosecutors said Hamid Hayat had trained to use explosives and other weapons while using photographs of President George W. Bush as targets.

Two other men also have been detained as part of the investigation.

Family members told the Los Angeles Times that FBI agents raided the Hayat home Tuesday. Agents seized videocassettes, photographs, fax machines, prayer books and other items.

Florida Doctor Accused Of Al-Qaida Link

Meanwhile, authorities are investigating another possible al-Qaida case in Florida. A Boca Raton, Fla., doctor will be transferred to New York to face charges that he pledged his loyalty to al-Qaida by offering to treat terrorists.

Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir was also ordered Wednesday to be held without bail as a flight risk and danger to the community.

Prosecutors claim he and another man swore a formal oath of loyalty to al-Qaida. Sabir was arrested May 28 at his home in a gated community in Boca Raton.

Both men are U.S. citizens and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of supporting terrorists.


His defense attorney argues that the government's case against Sabir was based on only a 90-minute conversation that focused on spirituality, religion and the Quran.

Federal prosecutors said he regularly visited Saudi Arabia, expressed a desire to move his family there and showed contempt for the United States.

Another update.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/stor ... 9639c.html

Fifth Lodi man detained in al-Qaida investigation
No specific threat, says U.S. attorney

By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, June 9, 2005
An investigation into what federal officials are calling an al-Qaida terrorist cell that has netted a father and son and two Muslim religious leaders widened Wednesday with the detention of a fifth member of Lodi's Pakistani community.
An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that Mohammad Hassan Adil, 19, was detained Wednesday for immigration violations. He is the son of Muhammed Adil Khan, who recently was taken into custody, also for immigration violations.

"He's being held on administrative immigration violations," Virginia Kice, an immigration spokeswoman, said of the son. She declined to elaborate.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Wednesday that the investigation has not uncovered any specific threat of danger to the public. He declined to say whether more arrests would follow.

"This is an ongoing process that will continue for some time," Scott said at an afternoon press conference in Sacramento.

Scott said the next few days could be crucial as federal and state investigators examine evidence seized during FBI raids Tuesday at a Lodi mosque and at the homes of 47-year-old Umer Hayat, a Lodi ice cream truck driver, and his son, 22-year-old Hamid Hayat, also of Lodi. Both are U.S. citizens.

Umer Hayat was arrested for allegedly lying to federal agents, while Hamid Hayat was arrested for allegedly lying to FBI agents about training in an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan. The younger Hayat was taken into custody last Friday and a bail hearing is set for this Friday. Both are held in Sacramento County jail.

Agents also searched the home of Muhammed Adil Khan, imam at the Lodi Muslim Mosque, and the home of Shabbir Ahmed, another imam who was working with Khan to open a religious school.

Khan and his son, as well as Ahmed, are not U.S. citizens and were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for alleged immigration violations. The two older men are Pakistani citizens.

Hamid Hayat told federal agents he attended a jihadist training camp run by al-Qaida in Pakistan for six months ending in 2004, where he went through weapons and explosives training and was schooled in ideological anti-American rhetoric, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

The training - designed to "kill Americans" - included target practice using images of high-ranking U.S. officials, including President Bush, the complaint said.

Muhammed Adil Khan and Ahmed were detained after separate meetings with Umer Hayat on Saturday in which Hayat was wired by the FBI, according to Hayat's family.

Federal authorities declined Wednesday to detail the recorded conversations or explain the religious leaders' connection to the investigation.

Authorities found no evidence of threats to the public or that any public institutions were targeted, Scott said.

"We did not find these guys in the middle of planning an attack," he said.

Initial reports that hospitals or certain food supplies were possible targets are wrong, Scott said.

"It was in a draft of the complaint and was taken out because it is not true, and there is no evidence to support it," said a Justice Department source close to the investigation.

The investigation began after the younger Hayat was intercepted on a flight to the United States after a two-year stay in Pakistan, according to federal authorities. His plane was diverted en route to San Francisco on May 29 because his name appeared on a "no-fly" list, according to the criminal complaint. After interviewing Hayat in Japan, FBI agents downgraded his status so he could return to the United States, where he would have to submit to further questioning.

Back in the United States, Hamid Hayat initially denied to FBI agents that he attended terrorist training camps and voluntarily agreed to a lie-detector test, according to the criminal complaint. After results deemed "indicative of deception," Hayat changed his story and gave details about the camp.

The father, Umer Hayat, who accompanied his son to the interrogation, was questioned about his son's activities, which he denied until agents showed him a video of his son confirming his involvement.

The father then admitted he paid his son's airfare and forwarded $100 a month to him while he attended the camp, according to the complaint.

Johnny Griffin III, a Sacramento attorney representing Umer Hayat, said Tuesday that his client is charged with a "bailable offense," and "nothing more than lying to an agent."

Scott warned against any violence toward Muslims or the Pakistani community.

"These are criminal charges and immigration charges against certain individuals, not a religion or people in a community," he said. "We have zero tolerance for hate crimes and acts of retaliation."

The Lodi Police Department and Lodi city officials plan to meet today with local Muslim community members to reassure them on that point, said Lodi Police Detective Dale Eubanks.

"We haven't got any complaints and don't anticipate any," he said, "but we want to reassure them (Muslims) that we, the Police Department, are taking the matter seriously."

In the San Joaquin County town of 62,500 on Wednesday, several Lodi police cruisers drove up and down streets near Blakely Park, where a Pakistani community has settled in small, single-family homes.

From early Wednesday morning, reporters and camera crews roamed the short distance between the Hayat home on the corner of Acacia and South Washington streets and the Lodi Muslim Mosque on nearby Poplar Street.

Regina Ortiz, who lives three doors down from the mosque, said she was "overwhelmed" by all the attention. She described her neighborhood as quiet and "very mixed" with Mexican, Pakistani and white families.

"Yesterday, it was FBI all over my street," said Ortiz, 41. "Today it's media trucks and reporters."



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Key figures
Hamid Hayat
• Age 22. Born September 1982 in San Joaquin County.

• Accused in federal criminal complaint of training at al-Qaida camp in Pakistan and then lying to FBI agents about it.

Umer Hayat

• Age 47. Father of Hamid Hayat.

• Charged in complaint with lying about his son's al-Qaida involvement and about his own financing of the terrorist camp.

Muhammed Adil Khan

• Imam at the Lodi Muslim Mosque; working to open a religious school in Lodi to teach Muslims.

• Being held on immigration violation.

Shabbir Ahmed

• Working with Khan to open religious school.

• Being held on immigration violation.

Mohammad Hassan Adil

• Age 19. Son of Muhammed Adil Khan.

• Being held on immigration violation.

A lot of Muslims are in this country illegally.

I believe that most of them have overstayed visas.

But with our border situation, who knows.

Check out JihadWatch.org to see how illegal immigration and radical Islam are intertwined.

Three more new stories.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/stor ... 5503c.html

No specific threat against hospitals, state letter says
By Lisa Rapaport -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, June 10, 2005
The California Department of Health Services reassured hospitals that they were not a potential target of a possible terror attack on Thursday, but it also encouraged heightened security.
In a letter faxed overnight Wednesday to 440 hospitals statewide, DHS states: "We have confirmed that there is no information regarding any specific or defined threat against hospitals."

State health officials said they faxed the letter to counter some media reports of an affidavit in the Lodi terror probe that named hospitals as "potential targets for attack."

The DHS letter also lists "suggested protective measures" to tighten security. Many of the precautions - identification badges for visitors, inspecting packages, and restricting access to lab supplies and radiological material - became standard procedure after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Since 9/11, we have known hospitals could be a potential target of terrorism," said Loni Howard, emergency preparedness coordinator at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento.

This spring, hospitals stepped up security after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that individuals posing as health inspectors had entered hospitals in Boston, Los Angeles and Detroit and tried to collect confidential records.

On Thursday, California hospitals received a homeland security bulletin reminding them of the fake inspectors and advising them to take precautions identical to those faxed out by California health officials.

The bulletin says no "specific and credible threat exists of an al-Qaida-associated terrorist attack against hospital facilities." It also says "U.S. hospitals offer easy public access and would be recognized by terrorist planners as easy, accessible targets."

At Lodi Memorial Hospital, the statements dismissing earlier reports of a possible attack against hospitals soothed nerves, said Carol Farron, the hospital's community development director.

"Our major concern here since the arrests Tuesday has been trying to dispel the fear that is struck in the hearts of people in this community that there were terrorists living here who were targeting hospitals," Farron said.

Lodi Memorial, the lone hospital in town, doubled its security detail. "Not because we are overly concerned about terrorism, but because we wanted to protect our patients and staff from the media who swarmed all over the hospital," Farron said.

Though government agencies say the terrorism threat to hospitals was nonexistent, many hospital officials see another potential danger that persists - poor communication between federal law enforcement officials and the hospitals and health agencies that would aid the public in the aftermath of an attack.

"Hospitals take security very seriously, and they do regular training in disaster response. If they don't know there is a potential terror threat, they don't know to have response teams in place," said Jan Emerson, a spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association.

Emerson said it's possible there was no credible threat in Lodi that needed to be communicated. She also said there have been past cases when hospitals were not told of known threats.

"Once, there was an alert put out that hospitals in the Bay Area were potentially a target of some kind of terrorist act. We didn't know which hospitals or what we were supposed to do," she said.

Communication of potential terrorism risks varies, said health and law enforcement officials. As a general rule, federal authorities will notify local law enforcement or state health officials when a threat involves hospitals or might require a medical response.

State health officials and local law enforcement agencies have the discretion to contact hospitals or local health departments.

The system works, said Victor Turner, bureau chief of the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety. Turner said he routinely receives terror alerts from federal law enforcement and passes information on to county hospital and public health officials.

"We didn't hear anything about this specific Lodi case (before the arrests), but we have heard generally that there has been an increased threat to hospitals and public health facilities," Turner said. "Even when we did hear about Lodi, we didn't do anything different with security."


http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/s ... 5519c.html


Editorial: Concern and restraint
Officials sound right note on Lodi arrests

Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, June 10, 2005
The arrest of five men in Lodi this week has raised the frightening prospect of a terrorist cell operating in that quiet farming town just 35 miles south of Sacramento. There is ample reason for the public to be concerned but no reason to panic. So far, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott says authorities have found no evidence of any specific target or that those arrested were in the "middle of planning an attack." There has been no trial and no conviction. Under the law and out of simple fairness, the suspects are entitled to a presumption of innocence.
Still, the allegations laid out in the criminal complaints made public this week argue that the FBI had reason to act. One of those arrested, a young Pakistani American, has been charged with lying to federal agents about attending an al-Qaida terrorist training camp in Pakistan, where he was taught "how to kill Americans." His father, also an American citizen who has been in this country a quarter-century, is charged with lying about financing his son's attendance at the camp. According to the FBI agent who interrogated both father and son, they admitted to these activities.

Three other men, two respected religious leaders or imams in Lodi's tightknit Pakistani American community and the son of one of them, have been arrested for immigration violations. While it is not totally clear, those arrests appear to be connected to the ongoing terrorist probe.

The suspects' homes and the local mosque have been searched. FBI agents have interviewed dozens of Pakistani Americans in Lodi. Understandably, the arrests and continuing investigation have sparked widespread fear in Lodi's Muslim community that these events have cast a cloud of suspicion over them all.

Beyond Lodi, Muslim Americans throughout the Sacramento region, who have worked hard since 9/11 to reassure their fellow Americans about their loyalty to this country, now worry that what has happened in Lodi will taint them. That would be as unfair as it would be unfortunate.

As U.S. Attorney Scott noted forcefully this week, "These are criminal charges and immigration charges against certain individuals, not a religion or people in a community." He then added a pointed and timely warning " ... to those who would seek to retaliate against Muslim persons for the actions at issue in this case, [FBI] Special Agent [Keith] Slotter and I have one simple word of advice: Don't. As our agencies have long demonstrated, we have zero tolerance for hate crimes and acts of retaliation."

So far there is no evidence of a backlash. In fact, many Lodi residents have expressed heartfelt support for their beleaguered Pakistani American neighbors. That is the right response, one that upholds the best traditions of our country. In the weeks and months to come, as the investigation unfolds, the reservoir of good relations built over many years is likely to be tested



http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/stor ... 5512c.html

3 hearings set amid Lodi terror probe
By M.S. Enkoji and Christina Jewett -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, June 10, 2005
Immigration hearings were set for three members of the Lodi Pakistani community as federal authorities continued Thursday to piece together a wide-ranging case they believe will show that an al-Qaida terrorist cell flourished in the Central Valley city.
The three have been arrested on alleged administrative violations of their visas and are being held without bond, according to Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Muhammed Adil Khan, 47, a Muslim religious leader, is scheduled to appear in immigration court July 1 in San Francisco. His son, Mohammad Hassan Adil, 19, is scheduled to appear July 29 in the same court. The third, Shabbir Ahmed, 42, who worked with Khan to open a religious school in Lodi, is scheduled for June 24.

The two older men have visas that stipulate they are in the United States for religious work, and the son is classified as a relative of a religious worker, according to their attorneys.

Another father and son, Umer Hayat, 47, and Hamid Hayat, 22, both U.S. citizens, have been arrested on charges of lying to federal investigators about the son's alleged activities in an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan. The son eventually told federal agents that he spent six months ending in 2004 at the camp where he trained to use weapons and explosives and studied anti-American ideology, according to a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

A terrorism expert said Thursday that if the allegations prove true, the confession is significant because it delivers a dangerous post-9/11 picture of a terrorist network that is adapting to survive.

The revelations Hamid Hayat made to federal investigators could mean he is one of the few to claim to have trained in a terrorist camp after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica.

"It underscores the fact that there is still a functioning center, command and control, some entity abroad, albeit loosely organized, that is able to communicate and continues to recruit," said Jenkins, who initiated the think tank's terrorist research program in 1972.

The elder Hayat, an ice cream peddler, is accused of lying to federal investigators about knowingly financing his son's training, according to the complaint.

Family members have said the father is nothing more than a hard-working merchant, and his son is a newlywed immersed in two cultures and perplexed about his arrest.

A customs official said Thursday that the two had been caught leaving the country with a large amount of cash in 2003.

Records show Hamid and Umer Hayat failed to declare excess cash when they were flying out of the country, a Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman said.

Together the two were carrying $28,093, said Christiana Halsey, the spokeswoman. Customs requires travelers entering or leaving the country to declare more than $10,000 in cash. Agents seized $27,000.

Two federal sources said the Hayats departed from Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., on April 19, 2003, the day identified in the criminal complaint that Hamid Hayat left for a two-year stay in Pakistan.

Family members said the money was to buy a house.

The son is scheduled to appear in federal court today for a bail hearing. The father was denied bail in a hearing earlier this week.

No terrorist-related charges have been filed against any of the men while federal investigators continue to examine evidence seized from the men's homes.

Khan, the religious leader, is being held at the Santa Clara County jail. The other four men are at Sacramento County jail. All of them declined to be interviewed Thursday.

The Hayats, Adil - identified in jail records as Hassan Khan - and Ahmed have been segregated from other inmates and are escorted by officers if they are moved, said Sgt. R.L. Davis, a Sacramento County sheriff's spokesman.

"They are high-risk because of the status they've gotten through the media," Davis said. "So, we have to take special precautions to make sure they are not harmed in our facility."

The investigation began when Hamid Hayat was diverted on a flight to San Francisco on May 29 because he was on a "no fly" list, according to the criminal complaint. He was returning after a two-year stay in Pakistan, during which family members said he got married.

FBI agents allowed Hamid Hayat to return to the United States so he could undergo more questioning. After he failed a voluntary lie detector test about his al-Qaida connection, he detailed his training, which included target practice with images of President Bush, according to the criminal complaint.

His father also was questioned and was arrested after he denied knowing about his son's activities. He then told investigators that he paid for his son's airline ticket and sent him $100 a month while he was at the camp, the complaint said.

Hayat family members said the elder Hayat agreed to set up separate meetings with the two religious leaders, Ahmed and Khan, and wear a wire. They were taken into custody Saturday after the meetings, but federal investigators have declined to say what the conversations revealed.

Khan's son was arrested Wednesday on the alleged immigration violations. Immigration officials declined to give details about his arrest.

In Lodi, city leaders and law enforcement met Thursday with Pakistani community members who are concerned about a backlash. Lodi Mayor John Beckman said Muslim community members have reported taunting incidents.

"The city of Lodi will do everything in its power to ensure that an appropriate balance between legitimate national security interests of America and legitimate concerns of the loyal citizens of Lodi exists," he said.

The president of the Lodi mosque, Mohammed Shoaib, flanking Beckman at an afternoon news conference, pleaded for tolerance.

"If one person who does something wrong, we should not be judged for it," he said. "I urge all my brothers, all of us in the Muslim community that we should stand together, not apart from ourselves, but together, and that our civil liberties should not be violated."

Latest update.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/ongo ... 9250c.html

Lodi terror probe grows
List of men who may have attended camps in Pakistan rises to 7.
By Stephen Magagnini and Dorothy Korber -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, July 8, 2005
The FBI is investigating the possibility that six other Lodi-area men attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan in addition to Hamid Hayat, the initial suspect arrested in the government's ongoing probe of al-Qaida connections in the San Joaquin city.
According to federal court documents obtained by The Bee, Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer, claimed the suspected Lodi jihadists reported to Muhammed Adil Khan and Shabbir Ahmed, two imams they say came to the Lodi Muslim Mosque from Pakistan to groom students for terrorist training camps.

Khan and Ahmed are being held for allegedly violating immigration laws, and through their attorney have denied being involved in terrorist activities.

Ice cream vendor Umer Hayat, 47, and his son Hamid, 22, have been charged with lying about their involvement in an al-Qaida training camp near Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Though neither has been charged with terrorism, the government claims Hamid Hayat - with financial help from his father - attended the camp for six months in 2003-04. The Hayats first denied, then admitted, and now deny the charges, according to prosecutors. The Pakistani government has steadfastly denied there are terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

The documents lay out interviews with the Hayats that allegedly detail the younger Hayat's transformation into a jihadist - a warrior against the enemies of Islam.

The attorneys for the Hayats, Johnny L. Griffin and Wazhma Mojaddadi, have dismissed much of the evidence against their clients as "fluff," but said Thursday a federal judge has prohibited them from discussing the documents.

In the documents, the Hayats are said to have outlined the following chain of command:

The alleged Lodi-area jihadists "would take their direction" from Shabbir Ahmed, who answered to his former madrassah (religious school) teacher in Pakistan, Adil Khan. Khan, in turn, took orders from the operator of the terrorist training camp near Rawalpindi, Fazler Rehman - whose "boss" is Osama bin Laden.

Saad Ahmad, the attorney for Shabbir Ahmed and Adil Khan, has described his clients as men of peace who are not associated with Rehman, bin Laden or any other anti-American terrorists.

Before coming to Lodi, Adil Khan was a teacher and administrator at the Jamia Farooqia School, a madrassah with 4,000 students in Karachi founded by his father, Salimullah Khan.

Bin Laden, in a 1998 news conference, counted the scholars of the Farooqia school among his supporters, according to the documents.

The documents say Umer Hayat alleged "that Jamia Farooqia prepared its students for jihadist training camps" and that "Adil Khan's purpose in America is to develop a U.S.-based madrassah which would serve the same purpose as the madrassahs in Pakistan."

According to the documents, Adil Khan first came to America in the 1980s to raise money for his father's Jamia Farooqia school. The highly educated, urbane Khan soon became a welcome speaker at mosques across the country, including the one in Lodi.

In the late 1990s, Adil Khan acted to create his own school in America, and set up the nonprofit Jamia Farooqia Islamic Center. He told supporters the school would be open to boys and girls, Muslims and non-Muslims.

When he learned the Lodi mosque had bought 7 acres to establish its own school and Islamic center, he formed a collaboration.

In the spring of 2001, Adil Khan moved to Lodi to serve as imam. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he reached out to Christians and Jews, signing a joint declaration of peace.

In early 2002, he recruited a former student from Pakistan, Shabbir Ahmed, to take over as imam while Adil Khan concentrated on developing the Lodi school.

Ahmed, 39, has admitted that, while he was an imam in Islamabad, he gave several fiery anti-American speeches after Sept. 11 in protest of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. But, at his June 24 immigration hearing, he denied urging people to kill Americans.

"Having come here I see human value and respect for human life - even animals are taken care of here," he told the immigration judge.

The documents claim Hamid Hayat "advised he would get his Jihadi mission orders from Shabbir Ahmed, who would get the initial order from Muhammed Adil Khan." Hayat refused to say how he knew this, or what such a "mission" might entail.

During his own interrogation, Hayat's father identified several additional members of the Lodi mosque trained in jihadi camps who "take direction from Shabbir Ahmed" and who were taught to target financial institutions and government buildings in the U.S., according to the documents.

The documents claim Hamid Hayat initially denied any connection to jihadis, and on June 4 volunteered to take a polygraph test. "His answers to relevant questions were found to be indicative of deception," according to the documents.

After about two more hours of questioning, Hamid Hayat admitted he attended a training camp in Pakistan run by al-Qaida for approximately six months in 2003-04, according to the documents.

Hamid Hayat said the camp provided training in weapons, explosives and hand-to-hand combat and added that photographs of President Bush and other high-ranking U.S. officials were used for target practice, according to the documents.

Hamid Hayat said the camp trained hundreds of people who were allowed to choose where to carry out "their jihadi mission. ... Hamid advised that he specifically requested to come to the United States."

His father, Umer Hayat, at first claimed there were no such training camps in Pakistan, but after seeing his son's videotaped confession, admitted he paid for his son's flight to Pakistan to attend the camp and gave him a $100-a-month allowance, according to the documents.

Hamid Hayat was born in the United States and at age 9 moved to Pakistan for about nine years before returning to Lodi, relatives said.

According to the documents, his father said Hamid first became interested in attending a jihadi training camp as a young teen after being influenced by a classmate at a madrassah in Rawalpindi and an uncle who fought with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation.

The madrassah Hamid allegedly attended is operated by Umer Hayat's father-in-law, who Umer Hayat said is a close personal friend of Rehman. Rehman ran the al-Qaida training camp Hamid eventually attended, according to the documents.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Umer Hayat's father-in-law, Qari Saeed-ur Rehman, leader of the Jamia Islamia madrassah in Rawalpindi, said his grandson Hamid "never received religious education at my madrassah. There is no terrorist camp here ... all allegations leveled against (the Hayats) by the FBI are a pack of lies."

But according to the documents, Umer Hayat said that thanks to his family connections, he was assigned a driver and invited to visit several training camps that taught everything from urban warfare to classroom instruction.

The Hayats' trial is scheduled for Aug. 23, but federal prosecutors Wednesday filed a motion seeking to have it postponed while they canvass 40 government agencies for any information on the Hayats.

Prosecutors said they need more time to go through the Hayats' computer, cell phone and 2,000 pages of documents seized in a search of their Lodi home.

In the motion, prosecutors said a scrap of paper found in Hamid Hayat's wallet at the time of his arrest said, in Arabic, "Lord let us be at their throats, and we ask you to give refuge from their evil."

Hamid Hayat's attorney, Mojaddadi, said her interpretation is that the note is "a prayer you say when you're afraid for your safety, and just carrying it with you is supposed to make you feel protected."

She said the note "has absolutely nothing to do with the United States."

Mojaddadi and Umer Hayat's attorney, Griffin, said they had reviewed the documents seized from the Hayats' home and dismissed them as "fluff."

The seizures so far have not produced additional charges against the Hayats, and federal officials have not characterized them - or the imams - as part of an al-Qaida sleeper cell.

But federal officials indicate they are investigating possible violations of Patriot Act provisions that make it a crime to give "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations. Under these statutes, such support includes money, weapons, lodging or training.

The statutes outlawing material support were key to the prosecution and convictions of six young men from Lackawanna, N.Y., who admitted attending al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan in April 2001. While there, they said, they received weapons training and met bin Laden.

In early 2003, all six pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison.

Officials close to the Lodi investigation say that they are building a similar case but are not yet ready to file charges on the material support grounds.

They indicated it could take months before the CIA and other intelligence agencies provide evidence that could be used to make material support charges stick - if those agencies have such evidence.