Witchhunt at Lodi
Pakistani Community Feels ''Terrorized'' by FBI
Siliconeer , News Report, Veena Dubal and Sunaina Maira, Posted: Jul 14, 2005
On June 7, national and international media attention focused on the small, agricultural town of Lodi, located about 40 miles south of Sacramento. The FBI arrested and detained two Pakistani-Americans, who they suspected had al Qaeda affiliations. The investigation was presented as a “terrorism case” by the government and news sources. The initial affidavit released to the media said that U.S.-born 23-year old Hamid Hayat had attended a terror-training camp in northeast Pakistan along with “hundreds” of other terrorists, and returned to the U.S. intending to “attack . . . hospitals and large food stores.” This kind of detail resulted in a flood of sensationalized media coverage, portraying 23-year old Hamid as a prospective mass murder and his father, Umer Hayat, a 47-year old ice cream truck driver, as the financial supporter and mastermind of an alleged “Lodi terrorist cell.”
Neither allegation, however, was in the affidavit filed with a federal court in Sacramento the same day. The FBI retracted their affidavit alleging Hamid’s plot to attack domestic targets and began downplaying the seriousness of the presumed threat the men posed. Both Hamid and Umer were ultimately charged only with lying to federal investigators about Hamid’s recent visit to Pakistan in 2003. Three other Muslim men from Lodi, among them two respected imams, were also detained on suspected visa violations. One of the imams, Mohammed Adil Khan, had actually been the target of FBI surveillance beginning three years ago when a secret court used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to approve wiretapping him.
While the Justice Department has maintained that it was not deliberately trying to precipitate an anti-Muslim witch hunt, the difference between the two affidavits — the one released to the media and the one filed in court — as well as recent FBI activity in Lodi, tell a different story. None of the five men have been charged with carrying out or planning to commit any act of violence. Nevertheless, one senior adviser reminded the public, “This is not an event that says to the American people, ‘Head for the hills.’ But it also says, don’t slide into any dangerous complacency here, because these people are still coming at us.”
The many inconsistencies in the case and the hysteria it stoked coincided very neatly with Bush’s campaign to renew and expand the 2001 Patriot Act, which can only be justified if there was an ongoing “terrorist threat” and the public continues to fear that there are Muslim or Arab terrorists in their midst. After the arrests, President Bush remarked, “‘I was very impressed by the use of intelligence and the follow-up, and that’s what the American people need to know, that when we find any hint about any possible wrongdoing or a possible cell, that we’ll follow up — by the way, honoring the civil liberties of those to whom we follow up.’’
Despite Bush’s passing comment on civil liberties, the Pakistani community in Lodi and their attorneys maintain that much of this investigation has been conducted unlawfully and the media has certainly been hysterical in its profiling of Muslims as terrorists. The “American people” in Lodi, on the other hand, are repeatedly reminded of the “terrorist cell” in their backyard. As one Lodi resident fearfully noted, “It’s very surprising to find out that you’ve had a neighbor that you’ve been cordial with for the past 15 years and then all of a sudden to find out they’re affiliated with a terrorist camp.” Despite the fact that no one in the town has yet been charged with anything related to terrorism, media headlines continue to use the language of terror and to drum up fear in the community and surrounding area, and the nation at large. As late as June 22, 2005, the day after both Hayats pleaded not guilty to lying to federal investigators, the Sacramento Bee headline still referred to the Lodi incident to the “terror case,” basically assuming that the Lodi men are already guilty of association with terrorism.
This sort of media coverage has led to a racist backlash by some Lodi residents agitated by the lurid reports about Islamic terrorists and sleeper cells. Pakistanis living in the town have been afraid to leave their homes, to go to work, and to wear South Asian clothing in their neighborhoods. Even the mayor of Lodi noted that he witnessed four white men harass a Pakistani boy. But Mayor Beckman also seemed to be more concerned about the impact of the FBI probe on the town’s public image and tourist potential, rather than on its South Asian residents, remarking, “We don’t want the new slogan to be, ‘Come to Lodi; taste our wine; and meet our terrorists.’”
On June 14, we traveled up to Lodi to assess the situation ourselves impact of the arrests and surveillance of the local South Asian community, which is estimated to consist of over 2,500 Pakistanis, some of whom have been living in the town for three generations. Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento office of area the Council on American Islamic Relations office, has been diligently organizing around in response to the arrests and interrogations of local Pakistanis by FBI agents swarming into town. Though Elkarra warned us prior to our arrival about the extent of surveillance and the fear the community felt, no amount of warning could have prepared us for the state of near siege in the town. As soon as we stepped out of our car, we were made aware of the FBI’s presence. FBI agents cast a broad dragnet in Lodi in the days following the arrest and have interviewed many Pakistani residents, sometimes without an attorney present, and they have also surveilled the attorneys and activists who were trying to make sure that the community’s constitutional rights are upheld. During our brief visit with Elkarra and civil rights attorneys from the ACLU, we saw a man wearing a large afro-wig circle us in a blue SUV and take photos. When we tried to approach him, he fled, only to return later to take more photographs. His conspicuous appearance made us realize the extent to which the FBI harassment is not at all a secret investigation; it is an overt act of intimidation of the community at large.
One of the attorneys we spoke to noted said that the Pakistani American community in Lodi feels “terrorized.” Residents believe that they are being interviewed and interrogated by the FBI and placed under automatic suspicion because they were Muslim. Pakistanis who attended the “Know Your Rights” trainings workshops held by CAIR in Stockton, Lodi, and Pleasanton were all subject to obvious FBI surveillance. One Muslim mother told an attorney that her young child was followed from her home to an ice cream store by an FBI car. Others complained that they were taken out of their places of employment by the FBI for questioning and then could not return because their co-workers became suspicious of them. The most shocking of these reports was that of an incident where the FBI stormed the Hayat home, when only women and children were present, by ramming down the front door and putting a gun to a woman’s head. When her eleven-year old daughter girl passed out, she was denied medical attention, a gross violation of human rights that outraged even the local emergency care personnel.
After handing out “Know Your Rights” fliers to community members who have been repeatedly questioned, we went to visit the Lodi mosque that is under FBI national scrutiny. The mosque s a small, humble looking structure — a former Jehovah’s Witness church — next to the cannery where Pakistani men have worked as fruit packers, in some cases for more than thirty years. Across from the mosque was a small grassy area with basketball courts. South Asian and Latino children were playing basketball together across from the mosque while older South Asian men sat on the grass, presumably relaxing after a long day’s work.
Most of the Muslims who attend this mosque spoke Pashto and are from the Northwest Frontier area of Pakistan. Some have family that had been in the area since as early as 1908, working on the railroads. They told us explained that the FBI began coming to Lodi around since immediately after September 11th, making “friends” with the mosque members. The men all seemed undaunted by the FBI siege. However, it was clear within minutes that beneath the welcoming, cooperative, calm exterior, was a harassed, interrogated, and scared community. One man described to us, without looking around, exactly where each federal FBI agent’s car was parked; we saw three large, black- tinted SUVs just yards from the mosque and the courts where the young boys were playing. Another middle-aged man said calmly, “Let them come ask us questions; we have nothing to hide.” While this show of resilience strength was encouraging, we were reminded by another Pakistani man individual who had already been questioned several times that while he did not mind speaking to the FBI, it was difficult and frightening for his wife and children.
The government’s investigation in Lodi has been conducted in a way that does not respect the legal rights and dignity of the Muslim community: Individuals have been systematically discouraged from exercising their right to an attorney and have been disallowed access to attorneys; and there has been at least one detention of an individual who was not read his Miranda warnings; and women and children have been intimidated and denied medical care. Perhaps equally disturbing, however, is that the general public has been given new reason to fear South Asians and Muslims as presumed terrorists. For neighbors, the mosque is no longer a place of worship but “a terrorist cell.” A community that has made this area home for over one hundred years has been investigated, intimidated, and cast under a shroud of suspicion, uprooted, displaced, and rendered outcaste, all within days.
Veena Dubal is a law student at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall. Sunaina Maira is associate professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Davis.
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