[Infowarrior] - 5 Miami men convicted of Sears Tower attack plot

[Richard Forno]

5 Miami men convicted of Sears Tower attack plot
By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 12, 2009; 2:44 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051202050.html?hpid=topnews

MIAMI -- Five men were convicted Tuesday of plotting to join forces  
with al-Qaida to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in  
hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection.

The jury in Miami acquitted another member of the so-called "Liberty  
City Six" in the sixth day of deliberations. Two previous trials ended  
in mistrials when jurors could not agree on the men's guilt or  
innocence.

They were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with  
an undercover FBI informant they believed was from al-Qaida. Defense  
attorneys said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI tapes was not  
serious and the men wanted only money.

Ringleader Narseal Batiste, 35, was the only one convicted of all four  
terrorism-related conspiracy counts, including plotting to provide  
material support to terrorists and conspiring to wage war against the  
U.S. Batiste, who was on the vast majority of hundreds of FBI audio  
and video tapes, faces up to 70 years in prison.
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Batiste's right-hand man, 29-year-old Patrick Abraham, was convicted  
on three counts and faces 50 years behind bars. Convicted on two  
counts and facing 30 years are 24-year-old Burson Augustin, 25-year- 
old Rotschild Augustine and 33-year-old Stanley Grant Phanor. Naudimar  
Herrera, 25, was cleared of all four charges.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard set sentencing for July 26 for the  
five convicted men, most of whom are Haitian or have Haitian ancestry.  
They lived in Miami's downtrodden inner-city neighborhood known as  
Liberty City.

The jury endured a two-month trial, then had to restart deliberations  
last week after one juror was excused for illness and a second was  
booted off the panel for being uncooperative. After the verdicts were  
read, court security officials escorted the jury _ whose names were  
kept secret _ out of the building before they could be interviewed.

The arrests were initially hailed as a major success by President  
George W. Bush's administration, an example of disrupting potential  
attacks at the earliest possible stages. But two previous juries  
struggled with the lack of solid evidence indicating the men took any  
steps to pull off such major mass assaults, such as possessing bomb- 
making manuals or building blueprints.

Prosecutors focused on the group's intent as captured on dozens of FBI  
audio and video recordings. Batiste is repeatedly heard espousing  
violence against the U.S. government and saying the men should start a  
"full ground war" that would "kill all the devils."

"I want to fight some jihad," Batiste says on one tape.

A key piece of evidence is an FBI video of the entire group pledging  
an oath of allegiance, or "bayat," to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in  
a March 16, 2006, ceremony led by an FBI informant posing as "Brother  
Mohammed" from al-Qaida.

But Batiste, who testified in all three trials, insisted he was only  
going along with Mohammed so he could obtain $50,000 or more for his  
struggling construction business and a nascent community outreach  
program. Batiste was leader of a Miami chapter of a sect known as the  
Moorish Science Temple, which combines elements of Christianity,  
Judaism and Islam and does not recognize the U.S. government's full  
authority.

Defense lawyers also claimed the case was an FBI setup driven by  
informants who manipulated the group.

"This is a manufactured crime," Batiste attorney Ana M. Jhones said  
earlier in the trial.

A seventh man who was acquitted after the first 2007 trial, 34-year- 
old Lyglenson Lemorin, is being deported to his native Haiti anyway.  
Less stringent immigration laws make it easier for U.S. officials to  
use the terrorism allegations against Lemorin.