Prosecutors Can't Prove Informant's Claims(lodi CA terrorism investigation)

http://www.comcast.net/ ^ | 3 31 06 | DON THOMPSON

[freepatriot32]

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 late 1990s.

Naseem Khan said he was "100 percent sure" he saw bin Laden's physician, Ayman al-Zawahiri, attending a local mosque three times a day.

In a statement read to jurors, prosecutors agreed they could not support the informant's claims, which have been criticized by defense attorneys and terrorism experts.

During the late 1990s, the three terror suspects were being sought in connection with the bombings of U.S. buildings in Africa and Saudi Arabia.

The admission by prosecutors raised more questions about the credibility of Khan, a 32-year-old convenience store clerk from Oregon who befriended the defendants and secretly recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with them.

Defense attorney Johnny Griffin III told reporters outside court that the government's statement about Khan "shows that he is a liar."

Umer Hayat and his 23-year-old son, Hamid, have been in federal custody since June, when they were arrested shortly after the younger Hayat returned from a two-year visit to Pakistan. Prosecutors say Hamid Hayat attended an al-Qaida training camp there.

He is charged with three counts of making false statements and with providing material support to terrorists by attending the camp. He faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Umer Hayat, 48, faces 16 years in prison if convicted of two counts of making false statements to FBI agents. Both have pleaded not guilty.

FBI agents testified earlier this week that they discounted Khan's reported sighting of al-Zawahiri and the two other wanted terrorists, Abdelkarim Hussein Mohamed al-Nasser and Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali.

At the time Khan said he saw them in Lodi, Ali was suspected in the bombing of a U.S. embassy in Africa while al-Nasser was wanted in the bombing of a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

The FBI nevertheless hired Khan as an informant, giving him about $220,000 in pay and expenses since then. His mission was to infiltrate the Pakistani community in Lodi, an agricultural town about 35 miles south of Sacramento.

FBI agent Rachel Pifer testified that she believed Khan was merely mistaken when he told the story about the three terror suspects. In the months immediately after the 2001 terror attacks, many people came forward believing they had information about potential terrorists, she said.

"A lot of people had mistaken identity at that point in time," she said.

Other information Khan gathered turned out to be correct, Pifer said.

[freepatriot32]

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[CyberAnt]

Well .. that's stupid - if they can't prove what the informant said then how could they be so ignorant to even take this to trial ..?? Good grief! This stuff is making our law enforcement look stupid - and I really resent that.