Calif. Residents: No Sign of Terror Cell

[deadparrot]

LODI, Calif. - Ten months ago, FBI agents arrested a father and son and detained two Muslim clerics, suggesting the men were participants in activities linked to terrorism.

Residents feared a terrorist cell connected to the area's 2,500-member Pakistani community was operating in the agricultural city of 62,000. Even President Bush said the arrests were part of the government's effort to "bust up these terrorist networks."

Nadia Bartlam said her relatives started calling her after the arrests last June, "acting like we were all going to be blown up."

Today, however, as jurors deliberate in the trial of the father and son, who are charged with lying about whether the son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan, residents said that what they saw in the nine-week trial assured them that their fears were unfounded.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060415/ap_on_re_us/terror_probe

[AlCzervik]

1. thats been the word now on the local news ever since one of the jurors

was dismissed, color me not surprised.

[rodeodance]

2. lots of press to say the gov is catching terrorists-then SPLAT

[AlCzervik]

3. yup, this case is just the latest example they they have nothing.

[robertarctor]

4. F@&king Lodi

I grew up around there. It's a town founded by Rhinelander Germans, which in the 1960s had a surprising number of old folks who thought Adolf got a raw deal. Lodi was the white-flight area of San Joaquin County, where white people moved when they couldn't handle the ethnic diversity of Stockton, 10 miles south. So it's no surprise that this city of racist nitwits would accuse a pair of Punjabi ice-cream vendors of being Al Qaeda.

What a joke.

[stuckinlodi]

5. I live in Lodi

I live in Lodi right now, and the actual residents of Lodi had nothing to do with the Hayats' arrest; it was all FBI out of Sacramento. I figured from the start it was a bunch of baloney. There are quite a few Muslims here in town, and I haven't noticed anyone having a problem with them. It's all BS from the Feds - no need to blame Lodi!

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Same deal ...

I used to live -- albeit briefly -- in the Sac'to Valley.

There are a lot of great folks who live there. But it's also the holding tank for the redneck psychopaths of the West.

People think that the "California Weirdos" are the crystal-fondlers. Hah! The New Age is nothing compared to the Old Bigotry!

--p!
Besides, Crystal enjoyed being fondled.
:evilgrin:

[BrotherBuzz]

7. To Lodi's credit, the community generally supported them

While Lodi Muslims grew fearful of the FBI, Khan said they had faced little backlash from their neighbors since the arrests.

"There were some stupid kooks who taunted us and that sort of thing, but generally we had good support from the community," he said.

....

I like to think the wingnuts may even have learned a thing or two about this administration's overzelous tactics, and at best, they might reflect and question what is really going on.

[fshrink]

6. Of course. It's in DC.