al Qaeda in Lodi

A friend of mine asked what I knew about the recent arrests of terrorists in Lodi, California, and I had to admit that I didn't know very much. I did find this report from AP and right away noticed this line:

"Other experts also questioned the FBI's version of events."

Nowhere in the article is one "expert" cited, however. You would think these so-called news services would learn, but they haven't as of yet. Meanwhile, the article goes on to give the suspects' family's version of events and completely leaves out the FBI version. I wish I could say that I feel more informed now, but I don't.

The Oakland Tribune does a little better in that they cite an expert, if you consider someone who has called for an intifada in the United States an expert (via littlegreenfootballs).

Who's paying these reporters' salaries, al Qaeda? Bah! On to more newspapers.

According to the Sacramento Bee,

"Hamid Hayat initially denied to FBI agents that he attended terrorist training camps and voluntarily agreed to a lie-detector test, according to the criminal complaint. After results deemed "indicative of deception," Hayat changed his story and gave details about the camp."

At least now I feel somewhat informed. As for the charges, lying to a federal investigator was good enough to lock up Martha Stewart so it's plenty good enough to put away a couple of confessed al Qaeda jihadists, too. Here's the criminal complaint.

If you actually do want to be well informed on this one, I would suggest checking in on the Jawa Report. In addition, Varifrank has some interesting observations and speculation about terrorists in Lodi and the surrounding area.