Government expert in Lodi terror case describes Pakistani camps run by Jaish-e-Mohammad

Government expert in Lodi terror case describes Pakistani camps

DON THOMPSON

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - A former Pakistani police chief on Thursday described a terrorist-training camp in Pakistan in an account similar to that given by a Lodi man who is standing trial on federal terrorism charges.

Hassan Abbas, now an author and lecturer living in Massachusetts, told jurors about a camp in a mountainous region of Pakistan once operated by Jaish-e-Mohammed, an extremist political party that has been banned.

The camp was in a region near Balakot, a town also mentioned by defendant Hamid Hayat during a lengthy interrogation by FBI agents last June, Abbas said. Hayat, 23, is accused of training at an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan in 2003 and returning to his home in the Central Valley town of Lodi to plot attacks inside the U.S.

His father, Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old ice cream vendor, is accused of knowing his son attended the camp and lying about it. They are being tried at the same time but before separate juries.

Prosecutors have no hard evidence that Hamid Hayat actually attended such a camp. By putting Abbas on the stand, they sought to give jurors details about the kinds of training camps they claim Hamid Hayat attended.

When the trial resumes next week, prosecutors are expected to introduce satellite photos they claim show a terror training camp in Pakistan.

Abbas, who was paid about $35,000 for his research and testimony, worked as a police chief and police administrator in Pakistan from 1996-2001 and has been on the stand since Wednesday, testifying about Pakistani culture, religion and politics.

He said the extremist group trained a large number of people for jihad, or holy war, primarily for the conflict with India over the Kashmir region.

While the Pakistani government says it cracked down on such training camps after the 2001 terror attacks in the U.S., Abbas said "dozens and dozens" of them operated between 2000 and 2005.

They were run by various political and religious organizations that attracted Muslims from around the world, Abbas told jurors. Most trained hundreds of people at a time, sequestering them for weeks and drilling them on the use of weapons, he said.

That conflicts with some of the Hayats' own statements to the FBI, which were captured on videotape. Umer Hayat, for example, said he saw a thousand terrorists training in a huge underground room, and Hamid Hayat said he frequently visited a nearby town after a day of training.

Defense attorneys claim Hamid Hayat intended only to attend a Muslim religious school during his roughly two years in Pakistan.

Abbas said between 5 percent and 15 percent of Pakistan's more than 20,000 religious schools, or madrassahs, serve as recruiting grounds for jihadi training camps.

The Hayats were arrested last June, shortly after Hamid Hayat returned from Pakistan, and have pleaded not guilty.

Hamid Hayat faces up to 39 years in prison if he is convicted of three counts of lying to the FBI and separate charges of providing material support to terrorists. His father faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted of two counts of making false statements to the FBI.