Lodi Terror Investigation Grows

(Lodi, California) The Lodi mosque connection to al-Qaeda story broke last month with the arrest of two Muslims, Hamid and Umer Hayat, accused of lying to federal agents. Since that time, investigators have been busy building a case for prosecution. However, as a consequence, several new suspects are being investigated for the possibility that they attended terrorist training camps in Pakistan in addition to Hamid Hayat.

From the SacBee:

According to federal court documents obtained by The Bee, Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer, claimed the suspected Lodi jihadists reported to Muhammed Adil Khan and Shabbir Ahmed, two imams they say came to the Lodi Muslim Mosque from Pakistan to groom students for terrorist training camps.

Khan and Ahmed are being held for allegedly violating immigration laws, and through their attorney have denied being involved in terrorist activities.

The court documents apparently describe Hamid Hayat's transformation into a holy warrior, a jihadist.

In the documents, the Hayats are said to have outlined the following chain of command:

The alleged Lodi-area jihadists "would take their direction" from Shabbir Ahmed, who answered to his former madrassah (religious school) teacher in Pakistan, Adil Khan. Khan, in turn, took orders from the operator of the terrorist training camp near Rawalpindi, Fazler Rehman - whose "boss" is Osama bin Laden.

Of course, lawyers are saying that the suspects are all men of peace. Yeah! Men of peace who take orders from Osama bin Laden, according to court documents.

The Hayat's trial is scheduled to start Aug. 23, however, the government filed a motion on Wednesday to have it postponed to allow investigators to review the mountain of files and data that were seized during a search of the Hayat Lodi residence. The prosecutors are looking for violations of the Patriot Act. Interestingly, the reporting thus far on the update to the Lodi story has indicated a possible six additional suspects, but only two have been named, Adil Khan and Shabbir Ahmed.

Chad Evans at In The Bullpen is also following this story.