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Hayat's video confession
The 23-year-old man Lodi man charged with attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan appears nervous and frequently contradicts himself during a videotaped interrogation that was played to jurors on Tuesday.In clips of his roughly 10-hour interview with the FBI last June, Hamid Hayat couldn't seem to give straight answers about the al-Qaeda camp where prosecutors said he trained in 2003. Jurors saw Hayat being questioned by a series of FBI agents who rotated in and out of the room at regional FBI headquarters in Sacramento. Responding to their questions, Hayat gave sometimes conflicting answers. For example, he said houses in the camp were mud huts, then later changed that to multistory buildings. He said trainees shot at targets marked with a bull's eye, then said they aimed at dummies made to look like American leaders. He even gave varying accounts about the number of trainees at the camp from 200 to about 35 and about whether they spoke only Urdu or also Pashto and English. Federal prosecutors continued to play the videotape they first started showing to jurors last Thursday, the first full day of testimony in Hamid Hayat's trial in U.S. District Court. He is charged with three counts of making false statements to the FBI about attending the camp and providing material support to terrorists. If convicted, he faces up to 39 years in prison. His father, Umer Hayat, 48, is charged with lying about whether his son attended the camp. His portion of the trial is scheduled to begin next week. Both have been in federal custody since their arrests in June. Prosecutors say Hamid Hayat returned to the U.S. in May 2005 and was awaiting orders to carry out attacks. Government documents filed in Washington, D.C., say supermarkets and hospitals were possible targets. His attorney claims the soft-spoken young man was tired and just trying to tell the FBI agents questioning him what they wanted to hear when he confessed to attending the camp. On the videotape, Hamid Hayat appears nervous, jiggling his knees and tucking his hands between tightly crossed legs. Defense attorney Wazhma Mojaddidi said during her opening statements last week that her client might have bragged about attending the camp to a paid FBI informant and might even have made unbelievable statements to agents during his interrogation. But she said the government has no proof that Hamid Hayat actually attended any camps. His family has said he returned to Pakistan to find direction in his life and get married. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-22 |
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