Father, Son Tied to Al Qaeda Camp Are Held

Officials cautioned that the FBI has not confirmed many aspects of the Hayats' accounts including details about the camp.

According to the affidavit, Hamid Hayat told the FBI that those at the camp were trained how to kill Americans. Hayat said he "observed hundreds of attendees from various parts of the world at this camp," and that they rotated in and out depending on their level of training, the affidavit said. They were given a choice of where to carry out attacks -- the United States, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir and elsewhere.

Umer Hayat has run into trouble with federal authorities before: Customs and Border Protection officials seized $27,000 he did not declare as he prepared to board a flight in the United States several years ago, an agency official said. He was allowed to keep $1,000.

The Hayats live in a working-class neighborhood of Lodi, a city ringed by thousands of acres of vineyards and farmland in the Sacramento Delta. Their street, like their neighborhood, is made up largely of single-family houses and small apartment buildings.

Connie Fink lives next door to the complex of disheveled cottages where the Hayats have lived for at least five years, in an apartment she said is directly in front of their house. She said she considers the neighborhood somewhat unsafe but never dreamed anyone in the area would be accused of terrorism. "I guess you never really know who your neighbors are," she said.

The Hayats live five minutes from the Lodi Moslem Mosque, a yellow clapboard building across from a city park and the Lodi Boys and Girls Club. Shabbir Ahmed, one of the men arrested on immigration charges, serves as the mosque's imam. The other immigration defendant, Mohammed Adil Khan, is affiliated with the Farooqia Islamic Center outside town, officials said.

A string of men in robes and traditional Muslim caps filed into the Lodi mosque yesterday afternoon, but most declined to comment on the arrests. One man, Mohammed Pervaiz, said he did not know the Hayats but had seen them during prayer sessions.

"People who come here are peaceful," he said. "We come to pray. We are all human beings innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."

Nieves reported from Lodi, Calif. Staff writer Sara Kehaulani Goo and researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.