A white-bearded cleric on Tuesday disputed FBI allegations that his 22-year-old grandson received jihadist training at his Islamic seminary near Pakistan's capital, calling the charges "a pack of lies." | And if you can't trust the word of a white-bearded Pakistani cleric with his own madrassah....... |
Qari Saeed-ur Rehman, head of the Jamia Islamia madrassah in Rawalpindi, said his grandson Hamid Hayat and son-in-law Umer Hayat, 47, were wrongfully arrested in California last week, and he dismissed suggestions they were linked to an al-Qaida cell. "Hamid Hayat never received religious education at my madrassah. There is no terrorist camp here. We reject such FBI allegations," Rehman, a supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime and a critic of the U.S. government, said in an interview with The Associated Press. | Yeah, a trustworthy sort.... |
"All allegations leveled against them by the FBI are a pack of lies," he added. The Hayats were arrested on charges of lying to federal investigators after what the FBI said was a yearslong investigation into possible connections between some members of the large Pakistani community in Lodi, Calif., and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham said Hamid Hayat, a U.S. citizen, traveled repeatedly to Pakistan where he "learned to kill Americans" while attending a terrorist camp for six months in 2003 and 2004. According to an FBI affidavit, Umer Hayat said his son was drawn to jihadist training camps in his early teens while attending Rehman's 550-student madrassah, which is at a grand mosque in a teeming commercial district of Rawalpindi, about eight miles from Islamabad, the capital. | Ground Zero for the auto weapons and explosives set. |
Pakistan's government, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, denies there are any terrorist camps in the country. Officials say al-Qaida bases along the border with Afghanistan were smashed by Pakistani army operations in 2004. | What about the ones in the capital? Hello?... |
Rehman said that during the 1980s, his seminary sent students to fight alongside other "holy warriors," known as mujahedeen, against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan — a struggle coordinated by Pakistan's intelligence agencies with CIA support — but the cleric denied producing jihadists today.
"A number of students from the madrassah went to Afghanistan to fight against Soviet troops, and at the time the Americans were providing funds to mujahedeen. Pakistan's government was encouraging students to go there," Rehman said. "It is a part of history and who can deny it? We are not doing it now because it is not the policy of government." | Can't tell if his lips fell off, must be the beard |
Rehman said that both Umer and Hamid Hayat had visited the seminary but neither studied there. | "No, certainly not. They just came for the elk hunting season." |
Rehman's son Attiqur Rehman, who is also a cleric at the madrassah, said Hamid Hayat lived at a village near Islamabad from April 2003 until this May 27, marrying in 2004. He said Hamid went to the United States last month to arrange for his wife to emigrate there. |