NBC: Al-Qaida sleeper cell in California! Maybe not ...

[Newsjock]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12271297

Two men are on trial, but a former FBI agent says the case is flawed
By Lisa Myers, Aram Roston, Jim Popkin & the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 7:23 p.m. ET April 11, 2006

In the heart of California wine country last summer, the FBI and federal prosecutors warned that a trained al-Qaida sleeper cell was operational in Lodi, ready to mount attacks inside the U.S.

... The FBI raided a Lodi home and arrested two Pakistani-Americans. Prosecutors charged 22-year-old Hamid Hayat with attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. His father, Umer Hayat, an ice cream truck driver, was charged with lying to the FBI about his son's training.

Now, the trial of the two men is nearly over, and some critics argue that the case against them is weak.

“I was embarrassed looking at (it). I'm embarrassed today,” says Jim Wedick, a respected 34-year veteran of the FBI, who is now working as an expert witness for the defense. Wedick, a private investigator and former FBI special agent, says the four-year undercover case against the Hayats was seriously flawed and the charges overblown. He says there's no evidence the Hayats were planning any terror attacks.

“These individuals had no more to do with terrorism than the man in the moon,” says Wedick.

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[madeline_con]

1. Now I get DUH-bya's obsession with returning to the moon.

:eyes:

[pinniped]

2. The informant netted $230,000.00 of our tax money for this BS.

The FBI paid the fast-food worker $230,000 over four years

That's quite a big jump in income.

This case sounded like BS from the start.

Where the F is the evidence?

Is there any real proof he or his son ever attended a scaaaary terra camp?

I think not.

Has this alleged terra camp been located and independently verified to really exist?

Did they find the father and son's al-Qaeda membership application, wallet sized ID card and neck badge?

The government never produced any independent evidence that the son actually attended a training camp.

So, what they basically have is a BS confession which they were coerced into and a well paid informant with credibility problems.

Ya, sounds real solid to me.

[wookie294]

3. The Lackawanna Six (Buffalo, NY terror cell) are innocent too

They're in prison simply because they traveled to Afghanistan. Immigrants who can't speak English or afford a decent defense attorney are truly screwed in this country.

[leesa]

4. The terrorists you need to worry about are in the White House.

[rodeodance]

5. gee, the Feds are not doing well with their photo-ops

[rodeodance]

6. k

[caligirl]

7. Okay, kiddies, don't dress up as one of these on halloween:

LOL the FBI is delusional;

In his taped FBI confession, Umer Hayat, the father, described a camp where terrorists wore “Ninja-turtle masks” and practiced pole vaulting in an underground compound.

[pinniped]

8. I will be on the lookout for people carrying maps and pole vaults.

.

[rodeodance]

9. I remember the big deal Justice made of this at the time!