“The prosecution took advantage of post-9/11 hysteria to convict him,” says Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley office of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations. But that kind of argument can cut both ways. If Hamid Hayat was convicted because of “post-9/11 hysteria,” might it also be possible that his conviction is being overturned now because of hysteria about “Islamophobia”? U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott says: “It has consistently been our position that Mr. Hayat received effective representation at trial and that his conviction by a jury, subsequently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, is completely valid.”
Note also this from AP: “The FBI paid an informant $230,000 over three years to infiltrate a Lodi mosque and record conversations with imams and worshippers after he improbably claimed to have seen several high-ranking al-Qaida officials there in the late 1990s.”
Why, exactly, is that improbable? Because Islam is a religion of peace, and the people in the Lodi mosque would have indignantly cast out the al-Qaeda officials? Or is it because al-Qaeda officials never would have dared move about freely in the U.S.? Neither one is necessarily so.
“US judge recommends overturning California terror conviction,” Associated Press, January 11, 2019 (thanks to the Geller Report):
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — A federal magistrate on Friday recommended overturning the controversial 2006 conviction of a California man accused of attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and plotting an attack in the United States.
Hamid Hayat, now 36, who was then a young cherry-picker from Lodi, has served about half his 24-year sentence.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes said he likely never would have been convicted were it not for the inexperience of his defense attorney, who failed to call alibi witnesses.
“A reasonably competent attorney would have done more to investigate Hayat’s alibi,” Barnes said in a 116-page opinion.
Her recommendation that the conviction be vacated now goes to U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. He presided over Hayat’s original trial, conviction and sentencing and previously rejected a defense motion over whether Hayat was properly represented at trial. Either side can appeal Burrell’s eventual decision.
Barnes heard new testimony from witnesses who said Hayat, who was born in California, never had time to receive terror training while visiting relatives and getting married in his ancestral village in Pakistan. Barnes also found that Hayat’s defense attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, should have put on evidence from an expert on false confessions who could have countered prosecutors’ claim that Hayat confessed.
Mojaddidi, an immigration and family law attorney who was trying her first criminal case, said she “passionately represented Hamid Hayat as a young attorney and worked with a great team of lawyers and investigators in his defense.”
She said in a statement that she always has believed he is innocent and is elated by Barnes’ recommendation.
Prosecutors are reviewing the magistrate’s recommendation, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.
“It has consistently been our position that Mr. Hayat received effective representation at trial and that his conviction by a jury, subsequently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, is completely valid,” he said in a statement….
Investigators initially claimed five men were part of an al-Qaida “sleeper cell” in the agricultural community south of Sacramento. But federal prosecutors eventually deported three of the men without charges, while Hayat’s father, an ice cream truck driver, admitted only to a customs violation after a jury couldn’t decide whether he lied to federal agents about his son’s activities.
Only Hayat was convicted in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists and lying to FBI agents. Prosecutors alleged that he had a “jihadi heart” and plotted attacks on hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings.
Critics have held the case out as an example of investigators’ and prosecutors’ overzealous approach to the Muslim community after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“The prosecution took advantage of post-9/11 hysteria to convict him,” Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.
The FBI paid an informant $230,000 over three years to infiltrate a Lodi mosque and record conversations with imams and worshippers after he improbably claimed to have seen several high-ranking al-Qaida officials there in the late 1990s. The informant encouraged Hayat to attend a training camp while he was in Pakistan.
His attorneys said Hayat’s eventual confession was coerced during a marathon FBI interrogation and that the terror training camp was closed during the time in 2003 and 2004 when prosecutors said Hayat was purportedly there for three to six months. He was arrested shortly after returning to the United States in 2005.
Westman says
This is the real problem: “..federal prosecutors eventually deported three of the men without charges..”
He would likely be released if his lawyer points out that the “justice” was inequitable; that his time served, and freedom lost, was certainly a greater price paid by Elkarra than by the others in the cell.
The lawyer must be looking for an angle get him totally exonerated and a money settlement for which she would get a percentage.
ElderlyZionist says
They couldn’t deport Hamid Hayat. He’s a born citizen.
Walter Sieruk says
The outlandish ruling of that American judge reflects influence if not outright infiltration of the US court and law system. This also may serve and an example of the growing power this insidious stealth jihad for Islam is gaining in the United State of America.
On a footnote idea on all this ,that specific judge raise the question “What’s wrong with him ? ” It leads one to wonder , Is he so weak the he had caved in the pressure from the Red /Green alliance ? Could it be that he is actually receiving “under the table ” bribes from an Islamic organization or a oil wealthy Muslim/ Arab ?
That a very difficult question as to “What ‘s wrong with him ?” . Something is, indeed ,very wrong.
Marine Semper Fi says
All the evidence of 911 showed more proof of Israel involvement than any Islamic involvement. Sure the narrative The Bush Administration shoved down our throats was Muslim Terrorists. However, the facts show that was a Fabricated Outright lie. Personally the actual Truth is my only interest! As a Veteran of The USMC deception is 1 of the primary reason why we are in America as we are – Decades of Corruption, Lies, and Deception.
Geoffrey de Brito says
You sir are full of bullpucky.
gravenimage says
Marine Semper Fi wrote:
All the evidence of 911 showed more proof of Israel involvement than any Islamic involvement. Sure the narrative The Bush Administration shoved down our throats was Muslim Terrorists. However, the facts show that was a Fabricated Outright lie. Personally the actual Truth is my only interest! As a Veteran of The USMC deception is 1 of the primary reason why we are in America as we are – Decades of Corruption, Lies, and Deception.
……………………
What crap–unless Saudi Arabia and Iran are in Israel…sarc/off
Note that “Marine Semper Fi” doesn’t say why Muslims celebrated if this was actually done by their enemies the Joooooooos.
Also, note how many of these creeps use the most patriotic usernames–like “The Only Real American” or “LIberty of Death” or–as here–“Marine Semper Fi”.
Also, why would someone use the Marine motto while referring to “The USMC deception”–whatever this is supposed to be about?
Try again, creep.
Nabi says
He’s likely having another bad PMS day.
Indiana Tom says
Nutty Ninth.
Nabi says
Yet another for the text books example of how the legal community, left to its own self promoting devices, can turn into a monster, lay waste to its original mandate and maybe bring down a country.
mortimer says
The legal profession is doing its job of providing the best defense possible. You may want such a defense some day when the libtards try to railroad you.
Stop Public Enemy #1 CAIR is Hamas says
Public enemy number one CAIR is Hamas
livingengine says
CAIR and the Texas BDS Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQq50ZuXyW4
PRCS says
Of all the claims Gadeir Abbas made in the full video, that Bahia would violate her sole proprietor business relationship with the state of Texas for her personal humus selection at a supermarket is the must ridiculous (not meant to infer that most of the headlines and lies that have been floated about this situation aren’t ridiculous, too).
PRCS says
Re: Basim Elkarra
Sen. Boxer Recalls Award to Muslim Activist
https://www.newsweek.com/sen-boxer-recalls-award-muslim-activist-105857
gravenimage says
Thanks, PRCS–I remember that story.
Basim Elkarra has also refused to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups. He also defended Lodi, California, imam Shabbir Ahmed, who urged Pakistanis to wage jihad against Americans. Another local imam, Mohammed Adil Khan, was building a madrassa to recruit children for violent acts against the United States. Elkarra described Khan, who was later deported, as “a pioneer in interfaith work.”
In 2015, California assemblywoman Mellissa Melendez tweeted: “Gut wrenching news today. American Kayla Mueller murdered by Islamic savages. There MUST be consequences. MM .” Basim Elkarra branded the hashtag “hateful” and called on the assemblywoman to apologize. He thought that calling the Islamic murderers of this young woman “hateful”, but had no problems with the heinous murder itself. (To her credit, Melendez *did not* apologize).
He has also demanded that “Islamophobes” be prosecuted.
No one should be surprised at his applauding this grotesque overturning of this terrorism conviction.
PRCS says
Yup, that’s him.
gravenimage says
California: Hamas-linked CAIR applauds as US judge recommends overturning jihad terror conviction
………………….
Just disgusting. This puts Americans at further risk–which is just how CAIR likes it.
somehistory says
“he improbably claimed ”
With many of bin ladin’s family in the country on 9/11, and anwar alawaki in the country for years after, and others who have been found to be in the U.S. since, 9/11, the “probability” of members of al queda at the Lodi barracks is great.
bin ladin was a member of the moslim brotherhood. A senior member, older moslim, advised him to start al queda, which he did, Therefore, al queda is a part of the mb.
The mb was in the country in the ’90’s.
c.a.i.r. is also a part of the mb. All of them are tied together by islam and its evil goals.
The defense attorney says she had “investigators” and a “team” of attorneys working with her. This claim by the attorney’s and judge, that his “alibi” should have been further investigated and presented, seems a stretch. If she had a “team” then her lack of experience would not have mattered as much as it would have if she had worked alone.
He was in Pakistan for *3 to 6 months” and the “terror camp” was closed. He “wouldn’t have had time to train” because he was “visiting relatives and getting married.”
Baloney. 3 to 6 months is plenty of time to visit, marry and train. And there is more than one “camp” in that country training terrorists. Just as there are multiple training camps in the U.S. training terrorists. and …Who allowed him to go to pakistan during that time?
This “judge” is assisting terror via her bench seat. She is assisting islam and c.a.i.r. and the mb.
Nabi says
Not to nit pick but it would be left wing insane to catalogue the general reaction to 911 as ‘hysteria’–more like reasonable indignation. The only hysteria many of us noticed was the spurious rush to defend Islam even in the face of the many Muslim insults that followed.
gravenimage says
+1
Joe says
The judge is only second guessing the defendant’s attorney. That is not enough to overrule a jury. I guess the judge is clueless.
don carlos says
High ranking members of Al – Quaida in the U.S.?? Improbable?? Per “Growing up Bin Laden”, Osama himself once visited the United States, leaving his wife in Indianapolis while he himself traveled on to California. Check it out at your local library, unless it has been banned as ‘Islamophobic’.