|
|
|
|
|
Theater of the Absurd: Umer Hayat Pleads Guilty “This outcome was not, of course, the one most desired by the government,” U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott admitted when asked about Umer Hayat’s pleading guilty to trying to smuggle $28,000 in cash to Pakistan three years ago, reports the Associated Press. Instead, the government wanted to showcase Hayat as an “al-Qaeda” terrorist, but it was hard pressed, as there was no evidence of this. Last June, the FBI arrested Hayat and his son, Hamid, in the San Joaquin Valley, an agricultural area south of Sacramento, and accused them of belonging to “a broader network of al Qaeda supporters” involved in “a potential terrorist plot on American soil,” as the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Post, characterized it at the time. The younger Hayat, according to a court affidavit, said he “specifically requested to come to the United States to carry out his Jihadi mission. Potential targets for attack would include hospitals and large food stores.” In addition, the affidavit makes “reference to [a] previously unidentified al Qaeda camp, which Umer Hayat identified as ‘Tamal.’ Such a camp would be close to Rawalpindi—home to Pakistan’s military and intelligence service—and to Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.” Of course, this makes perfect sense, as Pakistan’s military and intelligence service, otherwise known as the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence Agency), basically created “al-Qaeda,” with CIA oversight and money, and also shepherded the Taliban and supports militants fighting India in the disputed territory of Kashmir, the latter nearly resulting in a nuclear war after Kashmiri militants attacked the Indian parliament. Back in the day, the “CIA made a historic mistake in encouraging Islamic groups from all over the world to come to Afghanistan,” Selig Harrison from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars told the Times of India in March, 2001, several months before nine eleven. “They told me these people were fanatical, and the more fierce they were the more fiercely they would fight the Soviets…. I warned them that we were creating a monster.” It was a very useful monster, from Bosnia and the Balkans to Chechnya and Indonesia. However, in the case of the ice cream vendor Hayat, it has not been very useful, as the government has had a tough time linking Hayat to “al-Qaeda,” and thus chalking up a propaganda victory in the Long War, formerly the war against terrorism. However, Hayat’s son “faces at least 30 years in prison for supporting terrorism by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and lying to the FBI.” Finally, it should be noted that Hamid Hayat required a bit of help in his role as a “sleeper cell” in the United States: The government’s investigation into Lodi’s 2,500-member Pakistani community began after agents received a tip in 2001 that local businesses were sending money to terrorist groups abroad. That probe produced no results, but it eventually led to the Hayats after an informant who had targeted a pair of local imams befriended Hamid Hayat. In recorded phone calls from the younger Hayat in Pakistan, the informant urged him to attend a terrorist camp, though defense lawyers claimed there was no evidence he ever went to such a camp. The government presented no evidence of a terrorism network during the nine-week trial, but centered its case on videotaped confessions the two Hayats gave to FBI agents. Their lawyers claimed the confessions came after hours of leading questioning, and that their clients merely told the FBI what they thought the agents wanted to hear. In other words, Hamid was an impressionable patsy and the Hamids were browbeat into a confession. If indeed “al-Qaeda” and its “sleeper cells” consists of simpletons like Hamid Hayat and mental cases such as Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, I sure won’t have a problem sleeping at night. ---------------------------------------------------
Prison Planet.tv: The Premier Multimedia Subscription Package: Download and Share the Truth! Please help our fight against the New World Order by giving a donation. As bandwidth costs increase, the only way we can stay online and expand is with your support. Please consider giving a monthly or one-off donation for whatever you can afford. You can pay securely by either credit card or Paypal. Click here to donate. |
