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| Al-Zawahiri lived in Lodi, CA from 1998-1999 |
| 2006-03-14 |
| Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, lived in California in 1998 and 1999, a paid FBI informant testified on Monday in the trial of a Pakistani-American father and son accused of terrorism-related activity. Naseem Kahn, 32, told a Sacramento jury he frequently saw Zawahri coming and going from the mosque in Lodi, California, south of Sacramento in 1998 and 1999, but never talked to him. Zawahri, an Egyptian believed hiding somewhere in Pakistan, called on Muslims earlier this month to attack the West. A spokeswoman for the FBI and an official for the US attorney’s office declined to say whether Zawahri had lived there or had just passed through town. He is believed to have raised funds during travels in the United States at the time. “From what I understand ... in terms of his activities in the late 1990s, he really wasn’t on the radar then,” said Karen Ernst, spokeswoman for the FBI in Sacramento. “I might go visit my sister in the Bay Area and stay for a four-week visit and someone may see me regularly and make the assumption that I am living there, when, in fact, I am just visiting. All this would be speculation.” At the time, informant Khan was not employed by the FBI. He was hired shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks to infiltrate the Pakistani-American community in Lodi where FBI agents suspected there might be a terrorist. Khan testified on cross-examination he did not know Zawahri was involved with any terrorist activities until after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York when he saw pictures of Zawahri on television with bin Laden. Khan’s testimony is key to the prosecution’s case in the trial of Hamid Hayat, charged with lying to the FBI and providing material support to terrorists by attending terrorist training camps in Pakistan. Hayat’s father, Umer, 48, is charged with lying to the FBI about his son’s suspected attendance at the camps. The federal grand jury indictment in the case says Hamid Hayat intended “to wage violent jihad against persons real and personal property in the United States.” Khan secretly recorded conversations with Hamid Hayat, including phone conversations when Hayat was in Pakistan. Hayat’s attorney says his client was in Pakistan to care for his ill mother. Hayat also was married shortly before his return to the United States in May 2005. Both men have pleaded not guilty and have been in custody since June 2005. They were arrested shortly after returning from Pakistan and after giving what the prosecutions says are videotaped confessions. The videotapes have been shown as evidence in court in the past two weeks of the trials. Defense attorneys say their clients were tired from travel and work and simply told their interrogators what they wanted to hear. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #15 sheesh - OK 2b - back away from the Reynolds Wrap |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-03-14 22:24 |
| #14 Search "Zawahiri" at the DOJ website. Interesting. http://www.usdoj.gov/ I prefer the Post Office version of "Most Wanted." $25,000,000 for bin-Hidin': http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/fugitive/fo/nywanted.htm |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-14 21:04 |
| #13 Al-Zawahiri is just lucky he wasn't at Wacco intead, Reno would have burned him alive. Oh wait he wasn't American. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2006-03-14 18:57 |
| #12 whereas Lodi is stuck in the Central Valley :> |
| Posted by: 6 2006-03-14 17:55 |
| #11 Adam Pearlman went to the mosque in Lodi. He's on the FBI's most wanted - at least he was for a long time. This is feeding into my conspiracy theory about the Yosemite Murders, Polly Klass, Chandra Levy (Gary Condit was a congressman from Lodi). I posted about it some time ago here link |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-03-14 12:57 |
| #10 Thanks Zenster - my bad. |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2006-03-14 12:05 |
| #9 Â I think thats the town the american taliban was from Nope, YS. Walker was from the northern San Francisco bay area, whereas Lodi is stuck in the Central Valley some 150 miles due east southeast. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-14 12:00 |
| #8 I think thats the town the american taliban was from |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2006-03-14 11:25 |
| #7 Not out of the realm of possibility: "In late 1996 he was detained in Russia for six months by the FSB after he apparently tried to recruit jihadists in Chechnya. According to the FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, 'He had four passports, in four different names and nationalities. We checked him out in every country, but they could not confirm him. We could not keep him forever, so we took him to the Azerbaijani border and let him go.' In 1997 he was held responsible for the massacre of around sixty foreign tourists in the Egyptian town of Luxor, for which he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1999 by an Egyptian military tribunal." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayman_Al-Zawahri |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-03-14 10:12 |
| #6 OK, I hear you guys. |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-14 09:19 |
| #5 For Listen To Dogs: read my lips...Fraudulent Documents and Porous Border. Plus, convicted terrorist Ali Mohamed also told the FBI the Zawahiri visted California circa the same time. |
| Posted by: HammerHead 2006-03-14 08:34 |
| #4 But, Zawahiri was convicted by Egypt of membership in a terrorship organization, after the Sadat murder. He would not be a good candidate for a US visa. Well, that just goes to prove that Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman could never be in the US! They've got the wrong man in that maximum security prison! |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-03-14 07:28 |
| #3 Bullpuckys. FBI probably paid Kahn by the revelation. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-03-14 06:48 |
| #2 isn't this kinda late? why are we learning this now? did the "moderate muslims" of lodi JUST remember that he was there? did they just recently learn about his involvement with bin laden? how come every other group polices itself and gives up its baddies quickly? why don't muslims do the same? |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2006-03-14 06:40 |
| #1 Abdullah Azzam, co-founder of al-Qaeda certainly visited the US, prior to his death-by-mine in Pakistan. But, Zawahiri was convicted by Egypt of membership in a terrorship organization, after the Sadat murder. He would not be a good candidate for a US visa. |
| Posted by: Listen To Dogs 2006-03-14 02:47 |