Pole-vaulting Islamic ninjas trained terror suspects

(Via Raw Story) The father of a man on trial for lying about whether he attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan says the camp was manned by a thousand sword wielding masked ninjas who pole-vaulted rivers in a massive underground training facility.

Umer Hayat described the camp to FBI agents questioning him about his son’s alleged plans to launch unspecified attacks on grocers and hospitals.

In one video played to jurors last week, Umer Hayat admitted visiting several terrorist training camps, including the one allegedly attended by his son. But his account sometimes bordered on the fantastic, with tales of a thousand terrorists wearing masks “like Ninja Turtle” as they practiced twirling curved swords, firing automatic weapons and pole-vaulting rivers in an immense underground compound: a description that roughly tracks the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television show.

“Confessions are powerful evidence. False confessions are unbelievably rare but they happen,” said Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist at New York University School of Medicine and a frequent consultant to both prosecution and defense attorneys. “The most compelling aspect that helps the defense is the inconsistency and that these statements are all over the map.”

Although it’s unknown whether FBI agents suggested the Ninja Turtles scenario, defense attorneys for both Hayats played tapes of interrogations showing the men “simply agreeing in broken English with incriminating statements made by FBI agents.”

Some experts say the National Security Agency, currently embroiled in a controversy over warrantless wiretapping of US citizens, may be monitoring shows such as the Ninja Turtles, Desperate Housewives and The Sopranos in order to detect and intercept coded messages embedded in the shows and aimed at US al Qaeda sleeper cells such as the one operated by the Hayats.