FBI informant says Hayat talked of militants in U.S.

By Denny Walsh, Bee Staff Writer, February 28, 2006

An FBI informant testified in federal court Tuesday that Hamid Hayat, a Lodi man being tried on terrorist charges, said in recorded conversations that a militantly anti-American Pakistani political party has "branches" throughout the United States.
Hayat identified the party as the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba, but he most often referred to it as "SSP." He claimed he has supported it financially and implied he is a member, according to transcripts of the conversations introduced by the government through direct examination of the informant, Naseem Khan.

Hayat named Azam Tariq as the party's leader. Tariq, a hard-line Sunni Muslim member of the Pakistani Parliament, was assassinated in October 2003.

"Now you were saying ... how there are five ... branches in every state, and that there are five people in every branch," Khan said to Hayat in an April 1, 2003, discussion recorded by Khan.

"Yes," Hayat replied. "They are citizens of this country. They are Muslims and Pakistanis."

Hayat said the party is finding it easier these days to raise money from Pakistani Americans because the intelligence agencies are "very occupied with Iraq."

He told Khan that party members approach leaders in Pakistani Muslim mosques to collect donations from congregation members.

The 32-year-old Khan, who was born in Pakistan, infiltrated the Pakistani community in Lodi for the FBI beginning in late 2001.

He met and befriended Hayat in the summer of 2002 and captured their talks on hundreds of hours of taped recordings.

Hayat, 23, is charged in a grand jury indictment with providing support to terrorists by attending a training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and returning to Lodi in May "to wage violent jihad against persons and real and personal property within the United States."

He is charged in three additional counts with making false statements to the FBI in an attempt to conceal his terrorist activity and intentions.

His father, Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old Lodi ice cream truck driver, is charged in two other counts of the same indictment with making false statements to the FBI.

He is accused of attempting to conceal his son's training and intentions and his own firsthand knowledge of terrorist training in his native Pakistan.

The Hayats, both U.S. citizens, have denied all the charges and are being tried before two juries in one courtroom. Opening statements in Umer Hayat's trial are scheduled for Tuesday.

Cross-examination of Hamid Hayat will continue Wednesday. If convicted, Hamid Hayat faces at least 23 years in prison, and Umer Hayat faces a possible eight years.

In his discussions with Khan, mainly in Pashto, Hamid Hayat seems to relish regaling the informant with stories of his mother's family's influence in Pakistan, as well as his knowledge of the country's current events.

In that same April 1, 2003, conversation, Hayat tells Khan that, when he gets to Pakistan later that month, "I'll stay at home for one or two weeks; then I'm going for (jihad) training, friend."

Khan asks, "Why don't you do something in those branches?"

"You crazy?" Hayat responds. "You can't go to the branches from here. You have to go to Pakistan. They have to - they'll administer tests to you, man."

"Oh, I thought you'd just go there and would, ..." Khan says.

"No, man," Hayat interrupts, "now you're going for training, for training. If they have doubts about anyone, they set people on to them. There'll be someone with you who'll be very close, getting so close that - he'll, like, be very nice to you and give you everything. You'll think, 'Man, this is a very nice guy,' but in fact, he's a spy, friend."

In an international telephone conversation on July 18, 2003, nearly three months after Hayat arrived in Pakistan, Khan pressed him as to why he had not yet gone to a training camp.

Hayat told him the political climate was not right.

"Strict restrictions have been imposed on madrassahs," Hayat said, referring to Pakistani schools, some of which are alleged by the prosecution to be recruiting grounds for jihad training camps. "These days there are a lot of spies."

Hayat continued that the presence of the spies had the faculty and students of the madrassah afraid to talk about politics.

This leads Khan to say a similar situation exists in the United States, where Muslims "are afraid of America."

"Yes, absolutely," Hayat replied.

In another international telephone conversation in the same vein on Aug. 21, 2003, Hayat says Sipah-e-Sahaba party leaders are telling the Pakistani government it is "doing very bad things."

"The government is acting against Islam, right?" Khan asks.

"Absolutely," Hayat answers. "That's the actual problem, see."

"Musharraf is against Islam mostly," Khan says, referring to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. "He helps the Americans, right?"

"He's an infidel too, I'm telling you," Hayat agrees.

Khan says he has seen news that "Musharraf has taken many Taliban into custody, and has arrested many SSP party members."

Hayat goes on to say the Sipah-e-Sahaba party members are "lying low ... looking for an opportunity. At the opportune moment, they do something so effective - so effective - that they make the government officials' heads spin."