2 Lodi Men to Be Deported (to Pakistan); U.S. Will Drop Charges

[Rose Siding]

SAN FRANCISCO — An Islamic religious leader and his son, who were arrested during the investigation of possible terrorist activity in Lodi, Calif., agreed Friday to be deported in exchange for the government dropping charges that the two men misrepresented themselves when entering the country.

Imam Mohammad Adil Khan, 47, and his son Mohammad Hassan Adil, 19, conceded in federal Immigration Court that they overstayed their religious worker visas. They will probably be sent back to Pakistan within two weeks, said their attorney, Saad Ahmad, after the brief afternoon proceeding.
....
"If my clients were dangerous, why would they be allowed to leave voluntarily?" he asked, adding that he did not expect the government to press criminal charges against the two men, who will remain in custody until they return to Pakistan. "If had evidence, they'd already be charged."
....
In a hearing in Sacramento on Friday, attorneys for the Hayats pushed for an early trial date under the federal Speedy Trial Act. Government attorneys, however, asked for a delay, saying the case was extremely complicated and involved classified documents affecting national security, including at least one that they said was uncovered in a search of the Hayats' Lodi home. The government attorneys did not describe the nature of the document.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lodi16jul16,1,502368.story?coll=la-headlines-california

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[laststeamtrain]

2. Oh Lord, deported from Lodi again ( Apologies to J.Fogerty and All)n/t

[olddad56]

3. why not invade Lodi?

they were caught harboring terrorists. I mean, you are either with us, or you are against us. Maybe they government fears they can't afford to spread the troops that thin.

[robertarctor]

5. You don't know how funny that is

Having grown up near there, and knowing a lot about the town, I can tell you that Lodi was a frequent joke among people I knew. It was the most reactionary, right-wing place in the 1960s and 1970s, a town settled by Rhinelander German immigrants who cluelessly settled in North Dakota and tried to grow grapes there, then moved to California's Central Valley after they got frozen out that first winter. Lodi had "Get U.S. out of the U.N.!" signs at the edge of town, and several John Birch Society reading rooms, and churches on every corner, not to mention the kind of sex- and drug-crazed libertine teenaged girls who were manna to me and my fellow horny Stockton teens. I knew one guy who grew up in Lodi who claimed that there was one shopkeeper who played German martial tunes and Wagner music in his place of business, and had a big poster of Der Fuehrer on the wall.

And I had one girlfriend who, when her folks invited me over for dinner, gave me the caveat that her parents were German. "Well, yeah; isn't everybody else in Lodi, too?" I replied. No, she insisted, they were really German. When I showed up, her father greeted me at the door in Liederhosen, and the first thing out of his mouth, in a classic Hogan's Heroes accent, was "Vell, Robert. Zo goot to meet you. Ve haff heart so much about you. Ken I get you somesing colt to drink, an ice-colt Coors, perhaps?" At first I though he was just messing with me. After a long dinner where conversation ranged from the evils of the Trilateral Commission to the the evils of the Council on Foriegn Relations, I realized he wasn't.

So you can see why I think it's highly and laughably ironic that Al Qaeda cells are turning up in Lodi.

[Ladyhawk]

6. LOL...thanks for the background.

I drove to Lodi a few times a couple of years ago to visit a reptile shop located in a warehouse: the Lodi Serpentarium. :) When I saw the original post, I said, "Lodi? Lodi????" LOL!

Lodi is only about two hours from here...we have lots of wingnuts, too, but not so many of them wear liederhosen. :rofl: That is too funny.

[The Stranger]

4. "Religious worker" visas?

Maybe they were caught "saving souls," which is actually something the Christian Right Wing is always claiming to be something to which everyone in the world should be free to be subejected.