Hamid Hayat update. Sleeper cells? But there are no more sleeper cells, right? So much for the confident assertions of those unnamed officials: when it comes to Islamic terrorism, the feds seem confident of quite a few things about which their confidence is likely misplaced. From UPI, :
Washington, DC, Jun. 8 (UPI) — The arrest of two Pakistani-Americans on charges that they lied to federal agents about undergoing terror training in Pakistan has highlighted the threat posed by “second generation” Islamic militants and the persistent presence of terrorist bases in a country that says it is an ally in the U.S. war on terror.
An FBI affidavit says that Hamid Hayat, 22, told agents he had spent six months in 2003-2004 at a camp near Rawalpindi in Pakistan, where he received paramilitary training and anti-American religious indoctrination.
“Hamid further stated,” the affidavit goes on, “that he and others at the camp were being trained on how to kill Americans.”
Hayat and his father Umer Hayat, 47, both from Lodi near Sacramento, Calif., face charges of lying to federal agents about the training.
The admissions allegedly made by the Hayats will undoubtedly raise questions about the status of Pakistan as a U.S. ally in the war on terror, especially given the location of the camp — just a few miles from the capital, Islamabad.
“That’s a bit like having a terrorist training camp on the outskirts of Washington, D.C.,” said Richard Clarke, former White House counter-terror czar.
“The closer to the capital (these facilities are) the more obvious it is that the (Pakistani) authorities are turning a blind eye,” Hassan Abbas, a former senior Pakistani law enforcement official told United Press International.
According to the affidavit, “hundreds of attendees from various parts of the world” were trained at the camp and then sent to “carry out their jihadi mission” to countries “including the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq, (and) Kashmir.”…
The Hayats, according to the complaint, were related by marriage to an Islamic religious leader and notorious militant Qazi Saeed Ur Rehman. According to the affidavit, Rehman ran an Islamic school, or madrasa, that funneled would-be jihadis to the training camp.
The declassified Canadian report notes that Islamic culture places a premium on “obedience to parental figures,” adding that, “The duty to obey also explains why some youth have agreed to go to Afghanistan and Pakistan for terrorist training.”…
Filial piety causes jihad. Got it. They’ll say anything to avoid coming to grips with the implications of the fact that Qazi Saeed Ur Rehman, like so many others, ran an Islamic school that trained mujahedin. After all, how could he run an Islamic school and yet misunderstand the Religion of Peace? How is it that so often this misunderstanding of Islam comes from the schools? Could it be that — Islam actually teaches warfare against unbelievers? That is a prospect that so far Canadian and American officials have found too fearsome to contemplate.
“Assuming these allegations (against the Hayats) are all true,” said Cressey, “this is a very disturbing picture… You have an al-Qaida (training) infrastructure in Pakistan into which recruits are funneled from all over the world, and you have al-Qaida operatives then able to come to the United States to prepare.”