Terror Jury Hears Informer's Urging

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Associated Press
Wednesday, March 1, 2006

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 28 -- An FBI informer was heard repeatedly encouraging a terrorism suspect to attend an al-Qaeda training camp in secretly recorded conversations read to jurors Tuesday. The conversations raised questions about whether Hamid Hayat, 23, intended to train as a terrorist and return to the United States to carry out attacks, as federal prosecutors claim.

Hayat, a U.S. citizen, is charged with lying about attending an al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan and providing material support to terrorists. If convicted, he could be sentenced to as long as 39 years in prison.

He was arrested shortly after returning to the United States in May 2005, based largely on the information supplied by the government informant, Naseem Khan, who had befriended him. In one conversation, Khan berated Hayat as lazy and said, "You're sitting idle, you're wasting time" as they discussed his plans to attend a religious school and then a terrorist training camp when he was visiting Pakistan in 2003, according to the transcripts.