I'm no terrorist, Umer Hayat insists
A federal judge is to sentence the ex-ice cream vendor today on unrelated customs charge. By Stephen Magagnini -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 25, 2006 http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14307381p-15194036c.html Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee Since his plea bargain, Umer Hayat has been on house arrest in his one-room Lodi home, where he lives with several relatives, including grandson Jial Usman. Sacramento Bee/Andy Alfaro Over one long weekend with the FBI in June 2005, Umer Hayat went from being a neighborhood fixture driving an ice cream truck in Lodi to a suspect in America's nightmare scenario: another al-Qaida attack. Today, Hayat, 48, expects to walk out of U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell's courtroom a free man for the first time since June 2005, when he was arrested on charges of lying to the FBI about his oldest son's terrorist training in Pakistan and his own visits to the camps. Ultimately, Hayat's trial ended in a hung jury and he agreed to plead to an unrelated charge of lying to customs officials about how much money he carried on a 2003 trip to Pakistan. His son, Hamid, 23, was convicted on terrorist charges and awaits sentencing. This week, in his first public interview about the case, Umer Hayat vehemently denied he or his son was ever involved in terrorism, saying their confessions, taped by the FBI, resulted from exhaustion and leading questions. Speaking first from his attorney's downtown Sacramento office, then from the Lodi garage where he now lives, Hayat expressed a deep love of America and hatred of terrorists. That love doesn't extend to the FBI, which he accused of setting him up and "screwing" him to justify an expensive and unfruitful investigation into two Lodi imams from Pakistan who since have been voluntarily deported. "I lost my name, my business, my community and my home for nothing," he said. "Don't talk to the FBI, never, ever. They screwed us very bad. They was telling me, 'You are helping your son,' so I was cooperating with them." U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott on Thursday defended the government's case and tactics, saying it had struck a blow in the war on terrorism. "We remain completely confident in the case that was brought and the results that were obtained. Our mission is to protect Americans from further acts of terrorism in our homeland while balancing the constitutional rights of citizens. We believe both those missions were accomplished in this prosecution." During a lengthy interview with The Bee, Hayat, a burly man with a lightly graying beard, balanced his anger with a desire to resume his American life. He said he emigrated from his village in Pakistan 30 years ago, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1993. Immigrants, he said, founded and built America: "That's why we called it 'United' States. It doesn't matter if somebody is Christian or Jewish or Muslim, they're all human beings and I love them." He said he also loves his attorney, Johnny Griffin III, a Christian defending a Muslim, "as a brother." Hayat insisted he and his son were never terrorists, never went to terrorist camps, and told the FBI what it wanted to hear so they could go home after hours of relentless questioning. He maintained that he and his son drove to the FBI office voluntarily in June 2005 and submitted to taped interviews because they were good U.S. citizens. "If we were terrorists, we would not give them an interview," Hayat said. On April 25 -- the same day Hayat's trial ended in a hung jury -- a federal jury in Sacramento convicted his son, Hamid, of providing material support to terrorists and lying to the FBI about it. The son was found guilty of undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan and returning to Lodi prepared to wage violent jihad, or holy war, against his fellow Americans. Hamid Hayat faces a maximum of 39 years. His sentencing has been postponed until the court considers his motion for a new trial on Nov. 17. In June, federal prosecutors agreed not to retry Umer Hayat on charges of lying about his knowledge of his son's activities if he pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about how much money he was taking to Pakistan during a trip in April 2003. Hayat said he told customs agents he was carrying $10,000 -- the legal limit -- when in fact he, his wife, Oma, and son Hamid had $28,053 among them. He maintains they planned to use the money to build a home in Behbudhi, the village where he grew up. As part of the plea agreement, Hayat has spent the last two months under house arrest. Hayat's roots in America date back to 1919, when his grandparents came to Woodland and established a chicken farm. In 1946, one of his uncles came to California and married an American. A second uncle ran a hotel in Stockton, and in 1971 Hayat's father moved to Lodi to work in the fields. "We are not very educated people," said Hayat. "America is a beautiful country, a good country for us because we are poor people." In Pakistan where they farmed, he said, "we was working hard and not making enough money, maybe $300 a year for the whole family." Hayat said he arrived in 1976 and "immediately started work picking peaches and cherries. I wanted to go to school, but my father couldn't afford it." Hayat said he went on to warehouse and factory work, and by the time he returned to Behbudhi to find a wife in 1978, "everybody say, 'I'll give you my daughter, you can have my daughter.' " In the early 1990s, he became a "Pick N Go" ice-cream vendor in Lodi, selling Tweety Birds, Super Mario and Ninja Turtle pops. In his videotaped interview with the FBI, Hayat told agents he had visited several terrorist training camps in Pakistan, including one with "a thousand" people. Hayat said trainees practiced pole vaulting in a giant basement and wore masks -- "Like a Ninja, you know?" On the ice-cream van in his driveway is a picture of a lime-green "Ninja Turtle" pop with a masked Ninja turtle. Hayat told The Bee he got the Ninja idea from the ice cream bar and TV shows his kids watched. During the FBI interview, he also told agents he saw trainees taking target practice with dummies made to look like George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld -- an idea he now says he got from TV news accounts of American dummies burned in effigy. When asked by the agents what kind of U.S. targets the masked men in the camps were training for, Hayat mentioned the U.S. Department of Justice, the Pentagon and the FBI and federal immigration buildings in Sacramento. When asked about his son's "boss" in Lodi he suggested one of the Lodi imams, "Maulana Shabbir (Ahmed)." When the FBI asked if some of the other youths who associated with Ahmed "went to training camp," Hayat said, "Yes." "And they all learned to kill Americans and shoot at President Bush? Dummies and all that stuff?" "Yes," Hayat replied. During closing arguments, prosecutor David Deitch asked the jury, "Why would he lie about something like that? There is no answer. Why would he dime out his son falsely?" In his interview this week, Hayat maintained -- as his attorney did during trial -- that he broke down and told the FBI what they wanted to hear. He conceded he and his son were "very stupid" to tell the FBI these tall tales, adding that ever since his son "was a little kid, he likes to make up stories, that somebody was sick and dying, or somebody was killed." "I'm angry at him -- Why did he make (up) stories (for the FBI)?" Hayat said. "But then I make story." Hayat said he sent his son to Pakistan because he was lazy and hooked on video games. He said his son learned the Quran, which he mastered well enough to lead prayers at a south Sacramento mosque. Both Hayats initially told FBI agents they knew nothing about terrorism. But that story changed after agents bluffed Hamid Hayat, saying they had a satellite picture of him at a terrorist training camp. In his constantly changing story, Hamid Hayat then admitted going to various camps. The agents showed part of the son's confession to Umer Hayat. "They said, 'No, he was in the camp, you are lying to us,' " Hayat said, "Then I say, 'Whatever you say, sir, OK, sir,' because I want to go home." In the aftermath of the case, Hayat no longer has a home to go to. The Hayats sold their house to pay their legal bills and now live in a garage in the back that used to be Hamid Hayat's video-game room. "We have no privacy, and I don't have one penny," the father said. Hayat said he misses his son, who remains in jail, and talks to him by phone. "He said, 'Just make a prayer for me, I'm going to be coming home.' " His wife, he said, is crazy with grief. His daughter Raheela, 11, who hopes to become a doctor, suffers from headaches. "When I go to sleep," she said, "I think the FBI's going to come and knock this house down." Hayat hopes the black ankle bracelet he's been wearing will come off today after Judge Burrell issues his sentence. Both sides agree Hayat should do no more than the 330 days he's already served. Hayat, who's spent much of his house arrest watching his beloved wrestling on TV, said he plans to find a job -- any job other than driving an ice cream truck. The elder Hayat, who pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge rather than undergo a second trial, hopes his ankle bracelet will be removed today. Sacramento Bee/Andy Alfaro Umer Hayat, right, lives in his garage. Daughter Raheela, 11, second from left, holds his grandson Jial Usman, 1. With them are Hayat's nephews, from left, Adeep Khatab, 12, Abbiker Ismil, 7, and Asad Khatab, 14. Sacramento Bee/Andy Alfaro FAIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. 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