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The federal government has barred two relatives of a Lodi man convicted of supporting terrorists from returning to the country after a lengthy stay in Pakistan, placing the U.S. citizens in an extraordinary legal limbo. Muhammad Ismail, a 45-year-old naturalized citizen born in Pakistan, and his 18-year-old son, Jaber Ismail, who was born in the United States, have not been charged with a crime. However, they are the uncle and cousin of Hamid Hayat, a 23-year-old Lodi cherry packer who was convicted in April of supporting terrorists by attending a Pakistani training camp. Federal authorities said Friday that the men,...

FBI identifies terror camp in Pakistan Washington: Pakistan's claims that it does not have terrorist training camps in its territory is being strongly contested by the FBI which has told a US court that satellite pictures pointed towards such a camp.

A federal judge on Monday rejected a request to dismiss some of the counts against a Lodi man convicted of supporting terrorists, leaving in place the possible maximum prison sentence of 39 years. Hamid Hayat, 23, was convicted in April of one count of providing material support to terrorists by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan and three counts of lying about it to FBI agents. His attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, argued that federal prosecutors were piling on potential prison time by charging three versions of the same lying offense. Each count brings up to eight years in federal prison,...

SACRAMENTO -- A Lodi ice cream vendor pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge of trying to smuggle cash to Pakistan rather than be retried on allegations that he lied to the FBI about his son's attendance at a terrorist training camp. Umer Hayat, 48, was convicted of lying to customs agents about more than $28,000 he and family members were trying to carry on a flight out of the country three years ago. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges that he lied to the FBI and he will serve no more jail time after spending nearly a year behind bars....

Feds to Retry Man Accused of Lying to FBI SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 5, 2006 (AP) Federal prosecutors will retry an ice cream vendor on charges that he lied to the FBI about his son's attendance at a terrorist training camp, authorities announced Friday. Umer Hayat's first trial ended with the jury deadlocked last month. The same day, a separate jury convicted his son, Hamid Hayat, of supporting terrorism by attending an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan. U.S. District Court Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. set June 5 to begin selecting a new jury for the father's retrial. "This case is simply...

Local residents were shocked Tuesday to learn 23-year-old Lodi resident Hamid Hayat was found guilty by a federal jury on separate counts of lying to the FBI about his connections to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and providing material support to terrorists. The news came hours after a different jury declared a mistrial in the case against Hayat's father, Umer Hayat, who faced similar charges. The jury's forewoman, Woodbridge resident Debra Kiriu, claimed both sides failed to present any conclusive evidence in the case against the 48-year-old ice cream vendor. Word of the deadlock in the Umer Hayat case...

Residents in this Central Valley town had hoped to set aside the suspicions that divided them in the 11 months since federal agents arrested a young man, his father and two Muslim religious leaders amid terrorism allegations. But the government's chief prosecutor said Wednesday that the investigation is continuing - a day after a federal jury convicted 23-year-old Hamid Hayat of providing material support to terrorists by attending a training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and lying about it to the FBI. U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott is considering seeking a new trial for Hayat's father, Umer, 48, after a separate...

[Updated 3:59 p.m. Tuesday] Hamid Hayat, the 23-year-old Lodi man on trial for terrorist-related activities in Sacramento federal court, was found guilty Tuesday, just hours after a mistrial was declared in the related trial of his father, who was accused of lying to the FBI to cover up for his son. Hayat was found guilty of providing material support to terrorists by allegedly attending an al-Qaida camp while visiting Pakistan in 2003 and three counts of lying about it. He faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted of all charges against him.

A mistrial was declared Tuesday in the federal terrorism trial of a Lodi man charged with lying to protect his son, who authorities say attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan. The announcement came one day after the jury told U.S. District Court Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. that it could not reach a unanimous decision. "Their jury declared that it was hopelessly deadlocked this morning," deputy court clerk Carol Davis said. Burrell questioned each member of the jury and then discharged them, she said. Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old ice cream vendor, is charged with lying to FBI agents about...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In a potential blow to their terrorism case against a father and son, federal prosecutors on Thursday said there is no evidence to support statements by their key witness that a top aide to Osama bin Laden attended a northern California mosque in the late 1990s. The surprise move was designed to dissuade the defense from calling witnesses who would challenge the story's credibility. The witness, an FBI informant, told agents when they recruited him in 2001 that he had seen a high-ranking al-Qaida official and two other international terrorists when he lived in Lodi during the...

'Book of Jihad' found in terror suspects' Lodi home, FBI says DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO - Federal agents found publications promoting jihad and a Pakistani militant group in the central California home of a father and son charged with lying about involvement in an al-Qaida training camp, a prosecutor said Wednesday.FBI officials found the items while searching the family home in Lodi two days after the men were arrested last June, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Tice-Raskin said during the men's trial in U.S. District Court."This is the book entitled 'Book of Jihad,'" he said. "It teaches the virtues of...

LODI, Calif. - When a dump truck backed into Curtis Gokey's car, he decided to sue the city for damages. Only thing is, he was the one driving the dump truck. But that minor detail didn't stop Gokey, a Lodi city employee, from filing a $3,600 claim for the December accident, even after admitting the crash was his fault. After the city denied that claim because Gokey was, in essence, suing himself, he and his wife, Rhonda, decided to file a new claim under her name. City Attorney Steve Schwabauer said this one also lacks merit because Rhonda Gokey can't...

An FBI informant testified Monday in Sacramento federal court that al-Qaida’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, lived in Lodi during parts of 1998 and 1999. Naseem Khan, who is a critical prosecution witness in the trials of two Lodi men charged with having terrorist ties, testified he was living in Lodi in 1998 and 1999 and "every time I would go to the mosque (al-Zawahri) would be coming or going" from the mosque. Khan said al-Zawahri, known to the FBI as Osama bin Laden’s personal physician and top adviser, "disappeared" sometime in 1999.

Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal prosecutors opened their case recently in the terrorism trial of a young American who studied under two Taliban-tied imams in California and whose grandfather was Pakistan’s minister of religion in the 1980’s. The trial of Hamid Hayat, 23, is not taking place in the dark of night nor in a military tribunal from which the media is barred. It is in an open California courtroom, the very kind that has been overrun for trials of the likes of Scott Peterson and O.J. Simpson. Yet in the month of February, the New York Times had exactly...

The Enemy Within Two cases suggest the next terror strike on U.S. soil will be carried out not by foreigners but by Americans By Joel Mowbray Lodi, Calif., is nestled in a sleepy agricultural area 35 miles outside of Sacramento. The Pakistani population in the city of about 60,000 has grown exponentially over the past several decades and now numbers several thousand. Local non-Muslims, when interviewed by media, have given little indication they suspected virulently anti-American Islam was practiced there. Yet prior to coming to the United States, the imam of a local mosque encouraged his flock to travel from...

Vastly different pictures emerged today of a man charged with attending an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan, with government attorneys portraying Hamid Hayat as a trained terrorist intent on attacking Americans while his defense described him as a directionless young man prone to wild storytelling. Prosecutors said they will show the 23-year-old Lodi man traveled to Pakistan in 2003 and 2004 to train at the camp. They also said he was awaiting information about potential targets after he returned to his family's home in the heart of California's farming region. "Hamid Hayat talked about jihad before he even left the United...

The trial for two ACLU and CAIR defended men with extensive ties to terrorist supporters in Pakistan begins today.The Sacramento Bee, which has been following the case closely, is now the target of a FBI investigation over information it published from a sealed federal indictment. Two Muslim religious leaders who attended the same California mosque as Hamid & Umer Hayat have already been deported. The son, Hamid, is charged with giving material support to terrorists and three minor counts of lying to investigators. The father, Umar, is charged with two counts of lying to the FBI.

Former Peninsula Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey Jr., best remembered for his Vietnam War opposition and his speech calling for the impeachment of President Nixon, will announce his candidacy Monday in Lodi as a Republican challenger to Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.The feisty 78-year-old beat the bushes for months in his quest to find a Republican willing to run against the seven-term incumbent with whom he has major political differences.But when no one volunteered, McCloskey asked, "Why not me?"After all, he said, Benjamin Franklin was 82 when he cast his vote for the U.S. Constitution, and former President Bush sky dived on...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected bail for a Lodi man involved in a terrorism investigation, finding that his relatives could not properly post his $1.2 million bond. U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said he was gratified by the ruling, which overturned a decision last month by a federal magistrate who approved bail for Umer Hayat. Hayat's attorney said he will appeal Wednesday's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hayat, 47, was arrested in June and charged with lying to the FBI by denying that his son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan...

Efforts to win Umer Hayat's release from jail fell into doubt Friday after a federal judge expressed strong concerns about the competency of an uncle who offered to help provide bail for the Lodi resident charged with lying to the FBI about alleged terrorist ties. Hayat's uncle, Sher Afzel, owns one of four properties being offered as security for $1.2 million bail set last month by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. Other properties are owned by Hayat's cousin, Safdr Afzal; his brother, Umer Khatab; and his son, Hamid Hayat, who also is jailed on charges in connection with...