Lodi terror case weakens in court

Federal agents and surveillance aircraft swarmed Lodi in June after the arrests of five local Muslim men who the Justice Department said were poised to commit terrorist acts. Journalists surrounded the local mosque, seeking explanations for how radical Islam could take root in the conservative San Joaquin Valley.

This town of 62,000, known as the place where Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about being stuck in 1969, became an unlikely jihadist hot spot.

"Lodi was famous for wines," lamented John Beckman, a city councilman. "Suddenly we became famous for terrorists."

Nearly 10 months later, the much-ballyhooed case appears enfeebled. Some experts say it fits a pattern of the government overstating the importance of post-Sept. 11 terrorism cases.

"Our confidence in the FBI has been severely shaken," Beckman said. "When we look at the totality of the case, a lot of folks here are wondering, `Is that all the FBI has?'"

In U.S. District Court in Sacramento, federal prosecutors last week rested their case against the only two men charged in the plot: Hamid Hayat, 23, a sixth-grade dropout charged with supporting terrorists by undergoing training at an extremist base in Pakistan; and his father, Umer Hayat, 48, an ice cream vendor, charged with lying about his son's aims in Pakistan.

More
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/14268489.htm