7 Radical Black Muslims Arrested in Plot to Attack Sears Tower

LOL! Yeah, pretty much.

Anyways, I guess 'intent' is all that counts in this case, not sure what they will be tried on, but will probably get around 20 years per...

 

Headline News - Terrorist accidently blow up Hancock Tower, mistaken it for Sears Tower

Another question, would they be able to find Chicago on a map?

 

Miami men accused of discussing attacks

By Michael Christie

06/23/06 MIAMI (Reuters) - Seven people arrested in Miami discussed attacks on the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago, the FBI building in Miami and other government buildings in a mission "just as good or greater" than September 11, U.S. officials said on Friday.

But Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a news conference in Washington that the plotting of the seven, who were called part of a "a home-grown terrorism cell," never went beyond the earliest planning stages.

"There was no immediate threat," Gonzales said, acknowledging the defendants never had any contact with al Qaeda and did not have any weapons. "They didn't have the materials required."

An indictment handed up against the men by a grand jury in south Florida said they pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in order to "wage war" against the U.S. government and build an Islamic army.

It said at least one of them plotted to blow up the 110-story Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States.

But Deputy FBI Director John Pistole said at the Justice Department news conference that the discussions to attack the Sears Tower were "aspirational rather than operational."

Gonzales emphasized there was no immediate threat to the Sears Tower or the five government buildings in the Miami area.

The men, named as Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin and Rotschild Augustine, were due to appear in a Miami magistrate's court later on Friday.

Justice Department officials said five were Americans and two were from Haiti, and that one of the two Haitians was in the country illegally.

'WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS'

The defendants thought they were discussing the attacks with a member of al Qaeda, but in reality the person was an informant cooperating with the FBI, the officials said.

They were arrested on Thursday after heavily armed FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies swooped on a warehouse in one of Miami's poorest neighborhoods, Liberty City, a predominantly black area that has witnessed some of Miami's worst race riots.

A man identified as a member of the "Seas of David" religious group told CNN on Thursday that five of his fellow members were among those arrested and that they had no connection to terrorists.

"We are not terrorists. We are members of David, Seas of David," said the man, identified as Brother Corey. He said the group had "soldiers" in Chicago, but reiterated it was peaceful movement. Miami media said the group of men sold hair grease and shampoo in the streets. Some worked on construction crews.

The indictment said all of the defendants also referred to themselves as "Brothers."

It said one of the men, Batiste, told an FBI informant he believed to be an al Qaeda representative that he wanted to attend a training camp with some of his "soldiers" and wage a "full ground war" against the United States.

Their aim was to "'kill all the devils we can' in a mission that would 'be just as good or greater than 9/11,' beginning with the destruction of the Sears Tower," according to the indictment.

A parade through Miami to celebrate the victory by the Miami Heat team in the National Basketball Association championship, expected to attract about 200,000 people, was still due to go ahead on Friday and the authorities stressed that citizens were never at risk.

It was unclear what impact if any the arrests might have on public opinion ahead of mid-term congressional elections in November, and amid a deep slump in President George W. Bush's popularity and in public support for the Iraq war.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and James Vicini in Washington)

© Reuters 2006.

 

HILARIOUS!

ROFLMAO!

 

Miami bomb plot suspects "entrapped," lawyers say

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven men charged with conspiring to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building in Miami were entrapped by a federal informant, lawyers for two of the suspects said on Monday.

An indictment issued last week accused the men of pledging loyalty to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and seeking the group's support to "wage war" against the U.S. government.

The person they thought was an al Qaeda representative was actually an FBI informant, U.S. Justice Department officials said.

Albert Levin, the court-appointed attorney for suspect Patrick Abraham, said he believes his client was ensnared by the informant.

There was "a lot of talking going on by the informant and more listening by the defendant and or the defendants," Levin told Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly.

Nathan Clarke, a lawyer for another suspect Rotschild Augustine, agreed.

"With respect to my client, from what I can read in the indictment, there's going to be a question of whether there's even sufficient evidence to sustain the burden of proof on conviction," Clarke said.

"If by any chance there's a scintilla of that then, of course, there's going to be the entrapment issue," he said.

"This thing took place over eight months, according to the indictment and at the end of the indictment, it says that this thing became disorganized and nobody had ever done anything or did anything," Clarke said.

Abraham, Augustine and three other men arrested on Thursday in Miami appeared briefly in a magistrate's court on Friday.

Another suspect arrested in Atlanta made his initial court appearance there on Friday. The seventh suspect, arrested in the Miami area earlier last week on a probation violation, was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsa...0_US-SECURITY-USA-SUSPECTS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

 

Methods questioned in investigation leading up to Sears Tower arrests


Homegrown Terrorism or Made-for-TV Event?

Upon the arrests of the seven men, Federal officials claimed a victory against homegrown terrorism. The suspects are all black men from “Liberty City,” part of a community called “Little Haiti” in Miami. Five of the men are American citizens, one is a Haitian resident alien, and the seventh is an illegal Haitian immigrant.

The Liberty City men are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Under conspiracy law, no actual crime needs to have been committed for the defendants to be found guilty of conspiring to commit the underlying crime. Only an agreement to commit the crime is necessary for conviction. The government alleges that the suspects agreed to “provide personnel, including themselves, to work under al Qaeda’s direction and control.”

Yet prior to the arrival of the FBI informant, the group allegedly had no plan or interest in attacking anyone or anything.

Max Rameau, spokesperson for the group CopWatch, notes that “Top brass in the FBI itself think these guys were not much more than amateur wannabes who posed no real danger to anyone, except themselves. The raid made a big media splash while taking attention away from other developments,” such as recent revelations that the Administration had been spying on financial records using a Belgian-based company not subject to U.S. privacy laws.

---------------
The arrests also came at a time when reports of a covert U.S. program to search bank records of citizens have created blowback for the Administration.

The government’s actions, Rameau claims, exhibit “a double standard in the war on terror, characterized by the selective prosecution of groups with minimal social and political value.”

Rameau further notes that the raid “was timed to happen at the exact same time that FBI Director Robert Mueller was on the Larry King Show. It was a made-for-TV event.”

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Methods_questioned_in_investigation_leading_up_0629.html

 

Yet prior to the arrival of the FBI informant, the group allegedly had no plan or interest in attacking anyone or anything.

Ahhh. I see. The FBI sent in an organizational expert, so that these "Seas of David", would-be-Muslim terrorists would get their sh*t toegether and bomb something. Cool.

 

As I said, it's looks like entrapment, and I don't know how it will stand up to legal scrutiny (these guys might be let off on mere technicalities, although if the words "jihadists" is utilized enough in the court room, they will get a few years in the slammer). It should be an interesting test of just how far our law enforcement officials can go to pursue potential 'terrorists'. I think the government will argue that these guys were intent, ready, and able to carry out terrorist attacks against the U.S., which could be enough to get a conviction.

 

Entertaining...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0hyEsTsKE&search=miami 7 john stewart

 

terrorists? eh, not so much...

Chicago bomb defendant is cleared

A jury in Miami has cleared one man of trying to blow up America's tallest building, the Sears Tower in Chicago, as part of a holy war.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on six other defendants, and the judge declared a mistrial. Prosecutors say they plan to try them again next year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7143553.stm

heck of a job Fredo!

 

Why Muslims specifically? Shouldn't all Americans be vigilant?

Are you supposing that because somebody is Muslim, that they have some inside info on terrorism that all others don't have?

Do you also assume that all Southern Baptists know more about lynching than everybody else and nothing at all about dancing?

Do you also assume that a Catholic knows more about pedophilia because a small percentage of priests have been found to have acted badly?

Your post makes no sense any other way. That's pretty sad if that is how you feel.

 

i thought you had muslim friends. do you have muslim friends who hate america? why don't you report them. are you harboring terrorist sympathizers?

 

ok i read this whole thread and only realized it was over a year old when i saw the poster sishir chang

 

Why didn't you answer his questions. He wasn't talking about Southern Baptists being terrorists. I'm guessing that you can actually read but were pretending not to in order to get out of answering the questions.

I will give you props for coming back in this thread after starting it up. What you did here and the arrest of these people is what happens when folks are paranoid and jumpy rather than rational.

 

There was nothing paranoid or jumpy about anything in regards to this fiasco.

It was a calculated move by the DoJ and the White house to deflect attention away from other bad news about the administration and their illegal eves dropping.

Texxx knows this and it’s why he posted the thread.

 

10 radical christian nazis arrested in plot to attack jesus killers

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12122007/news/regionalnews/jews_subway_hero_a_muslim_381263.htm