Liberty City Seven
Encyclopedia
The Liberty City Seven were seven members of a small Miami, Florida
-based religious group who called themselves the Seas of David or Seeds of David. Described as a "bizarre cult
," the seven were arrest
ed and charged with terrorism
-related offenses in 2006 after a Federal Bureau of Investigation
sting
investigation. The members of the group operated out of a warehouse
in the Miami neighborhood of Liberty City.
Indicted
in federal court
, three trial
s of the Liberty City Seven defendant
s took place. One defendant was acquitted
in the first trial, but the jury deadlocked on the other six defendants and a mistrial occurred. The second trial also resulted in a deadlocked jury and a mistrial. On the third trial of the remaining six defendants, five were convicted
on some of the counts, including the group's ringleader, Narseal Batiste, the only defendant to be convicted on all four charges. Two more defendants were acquitted of all charges.
The charges centered around the group's attempted purchase of weapons from persons whom they believed were representatives of al-Qaeda
(but whom were actually undercover FBI agents), and on a stated intention to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago
, the FBI field office in Miami, television and movie studios in Hollywood, the Empire State Building
, and other targets. Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
John S. Pistole
described the group's plot as more "aspirational than operational"; the group did not have the means to carry out attacks on such targets.
views. Juan Cole
wrote that:
Followers wore uniforms bearing a Star of David
and met for Bible study and martial arts
practice.
On June 22, 2006, a grand jury
indicted the seven men. They were arrested during an FBI raid on the run-down warehouse in Liberty City, Miami in which the group met.
The seven men named in the indictment:
Five were U.S. citizens, one a legal immigrant from Haiti
, and the last an illegal alien originally from Haiti. They were accused of planning to levy a "full ground war" against the United States.
The government lawyer said that the prosecution was being brought under rather than , since the former requires only that the accused believe they were conspiring in a terrorist act, even if they were actually being deceived by an informant.
Also involved was Charles James Stewart of the Moorish Science Temple in Chicago, a convicted rapist who was paid through the FBI informant to join the group in April. He subsequently shot one of Batiste's followers and then became a witness against him and his supporters.
The two FBI informants, both Middle Eastern-born, were known as CW1, a Miami resident who had previous arrests for assault and marijuana possession, and CW2, who had worked for the FBI for six years and was awaiting approval of his petition for political asylum in the United States.
Narseal Batiste (also known by some as "Prinze Nas"), 32, is a father of four and a martial arts
enthusiast, who had been a member of the Guardian Angels
in Chicago.
The indictments accused the seven of being a domestic terrorist cell
who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower and the FBI building in Miami and had contact with al-Qaeda
to attempt a bombing of Sears Tower. Although no links to outside terrorist groups were alleged, nor any weapons found, the arrests were the subject of a high level press briefing in Washington D.C. hosted by the Attorney-General and made headline news in Europe the following day. The Director of the FBI Robert Mueller
cited the incident in a "Major Executive Speech" in Cleveland that afternoon entitled "Protecting America from Terrorist Attack: The Threat of Homegrown Terrorism".
According to the indictments, the group had been infiltrated for nearly a year by two paid FBI informants posing as al-Qaeda
members. The warehouse they were in had been wired for surveillance and provided rent-free by the FBI since January, and members of the group discussed the terrorist plots while smoking marijuana. Differences had broken out in April between the leaders, causing one to be arrested for shooting a follower of the other.
All seven were denied bail since their arrest. Their trial began on 2 October 2007 with the threat of up to 70 years in prison if convicted of all charges, and ended on 13 December with one defendant acquitted and the jury unable to return a verdict on the other six, for whom a retrial was scheduled for 7 January 2008. On April 16, 2008, the federal judge in the case declared a second mistrial for the six remaining defendants after the jury had been deadlocked for 13 days.
The presiding judge for all three trials was Joan A. Lenard
.
The first trial began on October 2, 2007 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
. Prosecutors presented evidence drawn from 15,000 FBI recordings, including one in which Narseal Batiste said the would make sure no one survived destruction of the 110-story Sears Tower, and another which features ceremony in which each member of the group swears allegiance to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden
. The defense claimed that the men played along with the talk by the FBI informants of terrorist plots in the hope of obtaining money, and that they never constituted a credible terrorist threat. In the second week of the trial two of the jurors were dismissed after a police counter-terrorism
pamphlet
was found in the jury room.
The defense rested its case on November 20, 2007. The prosecution alleging that although the defendants did not have the means to carry out a terrorist attack, they "were a ready-made terrorist cell here for al-Qaeda" who sought to use their attacks on the Sears Tower to spark an insurrection, topple the government, and bring about the destruction of the United States. http://www.mail-archive.com/osint@yahoogroups.com/msg50073.html The first trial ended on December 13, 2007. Lyglenson Lemorin was acquitted of all charges, and on the other six the jury deadlocked, leading to a mistrial. The defense argument was that the men were playing along with the FBI agents in order to con for money.
On December 13, 2007, after nine days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Lyglenson Lemorin, who had left the group and moved to Atlanta months before the arrests but were unable to reach a verdict on the other six. The judge declared a mistrial, and the jury for a retrial was scheduled to be picked after 7 January 2008. Lemorin was acquitted of these charges but was deported three years later.
A second trial ended on April 16, 2008, when Lenard declared a mistrial after the second jury reported they were deadlocked after 13 days of deliberations.
A third trial ended on May 12, 2009, when following two weeks of deliberation a jury convinced acquitted Naudimar Herrera and convicted the five remaining defendants. During the deliberations two of the jurors were replaced. Ringleader Batiste was convicted on all four charges brought against him. Abraham was convicted on three of the four counts against him. Phanor, Augustine, and Augustin were convicted two counts of providing material support for terrorism
.
The five were sentenced on November 20, 2009 by Judge Joan Lenard after a three-day sentencing hearing:
-like" figure who roamed his neighborhood wearing a robe and carrying a crooked wooden cane as he recruited young men, based his teachings on those of the Moorish Science Temple of America
.
Batiste once drove a FedEx truck in Chicago
and was a member of the volunteer Guardian Angels
, an anti-crime group. His father, Narcisse Batiste, sister and two of his brothers are Christian ministers. His mother Audrey Batiste died in 2000.
According to the indictment, Batiste told an FBI informant posing as an Al Qaeda member around December 16, 2005 that he was organizing a mission to build an "Islamic Army" in order to wage jihad
against the United States with his "soldiers" to destroy the Sears Tower
. He requested a list of materials and equipment needed to wage jihad, including boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, and vehicles.
Around December 22, 2005, he provided said "Al Qaeda representative" with shoe sizes of his "soldiers" and received military boots a week later. Around that same time he requested radios, binoculars, bulletproof vests, vehicles and $50,000 cash.
On February 19, 2006, in a meeting with the "Al Qaeda representative," along with Patrick Abraham, he expressed interest in attending Al Qaeda training during April and gave further details of the mission to wage "a full ground war" against the United States in order to "kill all the devils we can" in a mission that would "be just as good or greater than 9/11." He requested a video camera for the trip to Chicago.
Around March 10, 2006 he along with Lyglenson Lemorin met with the FBI plant in Miami-Dade County, Florida and swore fealty to Al Qaeda. Around March 16, 2006, along with Patrick Abraham, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine, Batiste met with the "Al Qaeda representative," swore an oath of loyalty to Al Qaeda and discussed plans to bomb the FBI building in five cities. At this meeting, Batiste took possession of a video camera and promised to obtain "good footage" of the North Miami Beach FBI building.
Around March 23, 2006, Batised asked the FBI informant for a rental van for himself and his conspirators to take reconnaissance footage of the FBI building. Around March 24, 2006, Patrick Abraham drove Batiste by car by the FBI and the National Guard Armory buildings in Miami-Dade, Florida. Around the same date, they traveled with the "Al Qaeda representative" to purchase a digital camera. Around March 26, 2006, Batiste and Burson Augistin provided the FBI informant with photographs and video footage of the FBI building and the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building, federal courthouse, Federal Detention Center, and the Miami Police Department buildings. They met again around April 6 to discuss the photographs and footage.
Around May 24, 2006, Batiste told the "Al Qaeda representative" that he was experiencing delays because of various problems within his organization but that he wanted to continue his mission and maintain his relationship with Al Qaeda.
, the Deputy Director of the FBI John S. Pistole, and an Assistant Attorney-General Alice S. Fisher.
At the press conference, the Attorney-General and the Deputy Director took questions from reporters:
He assured the public that the men posed no actual danger because their plot had been caught in "its earliest stages", and that the group's only source of money and weapons would have been the undercover FBI agent.
The following week the incident was featured on The Daily Show
, where Jon Stewart
quipped: "Now, I am not a general. I don't have any association with any military academy. But I believe that if you are going to wage a full ground war against the United States, you need to field at least as many people as, say, a softball team."
Democracy Now interviewed two community activists in Miami on 26 June who summed up local reaction to the indictments:
In his afternoon speech, the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller
, cited the case to illustrate how his department's policies were working. He also made reference to the case of Kevin James, the Toledo terror plot
, and the 2006 Toronto terrorism case
.
The trial information revised these figures
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
-based religious group who called themselves the Seas of David or Seeds of David. Described as a "bizarre cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
," the seven were arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
ed and charged with terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
-related offenses in 2006 after a Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
sting
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
investigation. The members of the group operated out of a warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
in the Miami neighborhood of Liberty City.
Indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
in federal court
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
, three trial
Trial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
s of the Liberty City Seven defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
s took place. One defendant was acquitted
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
in the first trial, but the jury deadlocked on the other six defendants and a mistrial occurred. The second trial also resulted in a deadlocked jury and a mistrial. On the third trial of the remaining six defendants, five were convicted
Conviction
In law, a conviction is the verdict that results when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime.The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal . In Scotland and in the Netherlands, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which counts as an acquittal...
on some of the counts, including the group's ringleader, Narseal Batiste, the only defendant to be convicted on all four charges. Two more defendants were acquitted of all charges.
The charges centered around the group's attempted purchase of weapons from persons whom they believed were representatives of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
(but whom were actually undercover FBI agents), and on a stated intention to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, the FBI field office in Miami, television and movie studios in Hollywood, the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
, and other targets. Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a senior United States government position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The office is second in command to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and takes over responsibilities as Director should his/her...
John S. Pistole
John S. Pistole
John S. Pistole is the Administrator of the United States Transportation Security Administration and former Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.-Education:...
described the group's plot as more "aspirational than operational"; the group did not have the means to carry out attacks on such targets.
Views and beliefs
The groups held idiosyncratic syncreticSyncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
views. Juan Cole
Juan Cole
John Ricardo I. "Juan" Cole is an American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on...
wrote that:
Followers wore uniforms bearing a Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
and met for Bible study and martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
practice.
Investigation and arrest
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said in 2006 that the men had been taped promising to fight a "full ground war against the United States." The seven were arrested on June 23, 2006.On June 22, 2006, a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
indicted the seven men. They were arrested during an FBI raid on the run-down warehouse in Liberty City, Miami in which the group met.
The seven men named in the indictment:
- Narseal Batiste, a/k/a Brother Naz, a/k/a Prince Manna - Considered the ringleader.
- Patrick Abraham, 29, a/k/a Brother Pat
- Stanley Grant Phanor, 33, a/k/a Brother Sunni (although actually nicknamed "Sunny")
- Rotschild Augustine, 25, a/k/a Brother Rot
- Burson Augustin, 24, a/k/a Brother B
- Naudimar Herrera, 25, a/k/a Brother Naudy
- Lyglenson Lemorin, 33, a/k/a Brother Levi, a/k/a Brother Levi-El
Five were U.S. citizens, one a legal immigrant from Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, and the last an illegal alien originally from Haiti. They were accused of planning to levy a "full ground war" against the United States.
The government lawyer said that the prosecution was being brought under rather than , since the former requires only that the accused believe they were conspiring in a terrorist act, even if they were actually being deceived by an informant.
Also involved was Charles James Stewart of the Moorish Science Temple in Chicago, a convicted rapist who was paid through the FBI informant to join the group in April. He subsequently shot one of Batiste's followers and then became a witness against him and his supporters.
The two FBI informants, both Middle Eastern-born, were known as CW1, a Miami resident who had previous arrests for assault and marijuana possession, and CW2, who had worked for the FBI for six years and was awaiting approval of his petition for political asylum in the United States.
Narseal Batiste (also known by some as "Prinze Nas"), 32, is a father of four and a martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
enthusiast, who had been a member of the Guardian Angels
Guardian Angels
The Guardian Angels is a non-profit international volunteer organization of unarmed citizen crime patrollers. The Guardian Angels organization was founded February 13, 1979 in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and has chapters in 15 countries and 144 cities around the world.Sliwa originally created the...
in Chicago.
The indictments accused the seven of being a domestic terrorist cell
Clandestine cell system
A clandestine cell structure is a method for organizing a group of people in such a way that it can more effectively resist penetration by an opposing organization. Depending on the group's philosophy, its operational area, the communications technologies available, and the nature of the mission,...
who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower and the FBI building in Miami and had contact with al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
to attempt a bombing of Sears Tower. Although no links to outside terrorist groups were alleged, nor any weapons found, the arrests were the subject of a high level press briefing in Washington D.C. hosted by the Attorney-General and made headline news in Europe the following day. The Director of the FBI Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...
cited the incident in a "Major Executive Speech" in Cleveland that afternoon entitled "Protecting America from Terrorist Attack: The Threat of Homegrown Terrorism".
According to the indictments, the group had been infiltrated for nearly a year by two paid FBI informants posing as al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
members. The warehouse they were in had been wired for surveillance and provided rent-free by the FBI since January, and members of the group discussed the terrorist plots while smoking marijuana. Differences had broken out in April between the leaders, causing one to be arrested for shooting a follower of the other.
Trials
The presiding judge for all three trials was Joan A. Lenard
Joan A. Lenard
Joan A. Lenard is an American lawyer and judge. She currently serves on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.-Early life and education:...
.
The first trial began on October 2, 2007 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida is the federal United States district court with jurisdiction over the southern part of the state of Florida....
. Prosecutors presented evidence drawn from 15,000 FBI recordings, including one in which Narseal Batiste said the would make sure no one survived destruction of the 110-story Sears Tower, and another which features ceremony in which each member of the group swears allegiance to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
. The defense claimed that the men played along with the talk by the FBI informants of terrorist plots in the hope of obtaining money, and that they never constituted a credible terrorist threat. In the second week of the trial two of the jurors were dismissed after a police counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
was found in the jury room.
The defense rested its case on November 20, 2007. The prosecution alleging that although the defendants did not have the means to carry out a terrorist attack, they "were a ready-made terrorist cell here for al-Qaeda" who sought to use their attacks on the Sears Tower to spark an insurrection, topple the government, and bring about the destruction of the United States. http://www.mail-archive.com/osint@yahoogroups.com/msg50073.html The first trial ended on December 13, 2007. Lyglenson Lemorin was acquitted of all charges, and on the other six the jury deadlocked, leading to a mistrial. The defense argument was that the men were playing along with the FBI agents in order to con for money.
On December 13, 2007, after nine days of deliberations, the jury acquitted Lyglenson Lemorin, who had left the group and moved to Atlanta months before the arrests but were unable to reach a verdict on the other six. The judge declared a mistrial, and the jury for a retrial was scheduled to be picked after 7 January 2008. Lemorin was acquitted of these charges but was deported three years later.
A second trial ended on April 16, 2008, when Lenard declared a mistrial after the second jury reported they were deadlocked after 13 days of deliberations.
A third trial ended on May 12, 2009, when following two weeks of deliberation a jury convinced acquitted Naudimar Herrera and convicted the five remaining defendants. During the deliberations two of the jurors were replaced. Ringleader Batiste was convicted on all four charges brought against him. Abraham was convicted on three of the four counts against him. Phanor, Augustine, and Augustin were convicted two counts of providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism is a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act which prohibits material support to groups designated as terrorists. The four types of support described are “training,” “expert advice or assistance,” “service,” and “personnel.” In June 2010 the United States Supreme...
.
The five were sentenced on November 20, 2009 by Judge Joan Lenard after a three-day sentencing hearing:
- Narseal Batiste: 162 months in prison, followed by 35 years of supervised release;
- Patrick Abraham: 112.5 months in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release;
- Stanley Grant Phanor: 96 months in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release;
- Burson Augustin: 72 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release; and
- Rothschild Augustine: 84 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release.
Members
Batiste was the leader of the group. He is married and he and his wife Minerva have three boys and a girl. Batiste's relatives described him as a "MosesMoses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
-like" figure who roamed his neighborhood wearing a robe and carrying a crooked wooden cane as he recruited young men, based his teachings on those of the Moorish Science Temple of America
Moorish Science Temple of America
The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American organization founded in the early 20th century by Timothy Drew. He claimed it was a sect of Islam but he also drew inspiration from Buddhism, Christianity, Freemasonry, Gnosticism and Taoism....
.
Batiste once drove a FedEx truck in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and was a member of the volunteer Guardian Angels
Guardian Angels
The Guardian Angels is a non-profit international volunteer organization of unarmed citizen crime patrollers. The Guardian Angels organization was founded February 13, 1979 in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and has chapters in 15 countries and 144 cities around the world.Sliwa originally created the...
, an anti-crime group. His father, Narcisse Batiste, sister and two of his brothers are Christian ministers. His mother Audrey Batiste died in 2000.
According to the indictment, Batiste told an FBI informant posing as an Al Qaeda member around December 16, 2005 that he was organizing a mission to build an "Islamic Army" in order to wage jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
against the United States with his "soldiers" to destroy the Sears Tower
Sears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...
. He requested a list of materials and equipment needed to wage jihad, including boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, and vehicles.
Around December 22, 2005, he provided said "Al Qaeda representative" with shoe sizes of his "soldiers" and received military boots a week later. Around that same time he requested radios, binoculars, bulletproof vests, vehicles and $50,000 cash.
On February 19, 2006, in a meeting with the "Al Qaeda representative," along with Patrick Abraham, he expressed interest in attending Al Qaeda training during April and gave further details of the mission to wage "a full ground war" against the United States in order to "kill all the devils we can" in a mission that would "be just as good or greater than 9/11." He requested a video camera for the trip to Chicago.
Around March 10, 2006 he along with Lyglenson Lemorin met with the FBI plant in Miami-Dade County, Florida and swore fealty to Al Qaeda. Around March 16, 2006, along with Patrick Abraham, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine, Batiste met with the "Al Qaeda representative," swore an oath of loyalty to Al Qaeda and discussed plans to bomb the FBI building in five cities. At this meeting, Batiste took possession of a video camera and promised to obtain "good footage" of the North Miami Beach FBI building.
Around March 23, 2006, Batised asked the FBI informant for a rental van for himself and his conspirators to take reconnaissance footage of the FBI building. Around March 24, 2006, Patrick Abraham drove Batiste by car by the FBI and the National Guard Armory buildings in Miami-Dade, Florida. Around the same date, they traveled with the "Al Qaeda representative" to purchase a digital camera. Around March 26, 2006, Batiste and Burson Augistin provided the FBI informant with photographs and video footage of the FBI building and the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building, federal courthouse, Federal Detention Center, and the Miami Police Department buildings. They met again around April 6 to discuss the photographs and footage.
Around May 24, 2006, Batiste told the "Al Qaeda representative" that he was experiencing delays because of various problems within his organization but that he wanted to continue his mission and maintain his relationship with Al Qaeda.
Press coverage of the arrests
The arrests were announced on 23 June at a high level press briefing in Washington D.C. by the Attorney-General Alberto GonzalesAlberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
, the Deputy Director of the FBI John S. Pistole, and an Assistant Attorney-General Alice S. Fisher.
At the press conference, the Attorney-General and the Deputy Director took questions from reporters:
- Question: Did any of the men have any actual contact with any members of al-Qaeda that you know of?
- Attorney-General: The answer to that is "No".
- Question: Did they have any means to carry out this plot? I mean, did you find any explosives, weapons?
- Attorney-General: You raise a good point... We took action when we had enough evidence.
- Question: Was there anything against the Sears Tower other than this one apparent, just, kind of mention of the Sears Tower? It doesn't look like they ever took pictures or...
- Deputy Director of the FBI: One of the individuals was familiar with the Sears Tower, had worked in Chicago, and was familiar with the tower. But in terms of the plans, it was more aspirational than operational.
He assured the public that the men posed no actual danger because their plot had been caught in "its earliest stages", and that the group's only source of money and weapons would have been the undercover FBI agent.
The following week the incident was featured on The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
, where Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
quipped: "Now, I am not a general. I don't have any association with any military academy. But I believe that if you are going to wage a full ground war against the United States, you need to field at least as many people as, say, a softball team."
Democracy Now interviewed two community activists in Miami on 26 June who summed up local reaction to the indictments:
[A] lot of show has been made about the militaristic boots that they had... [I]t turns out... the FBI bought them the boots. If you look at the indictment, the biggest piece of evidence... is that the group may have taken pictures of a bunch of targets in South Florida. But the guys couldn't afford their own cameras, so the federal government bought them the cameras... The federal government rented them the cars that they needed to get downtown in order to take the pictures.
In addition... the men provided the FBI informant with a list of things they needed in order to blow up these buildings, but in the list they didn't include any explosives or any materials which could be used to make explosives. So now everyone in Liberty City is joking that the guys were going to kick down the FBI building with their new boots, because they didn't have any devices which could have been used to explode...
In his afternoon speech, the Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...
, cited the case to illustrate how his department's policies were working. He also made reference to the case of Kevin James, the Toledo terror plot
Toledo terror plot
In February 2006, three men in Toledo, Ohio were arrested and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists in Iraq and engage in violent jihad in their home town, as well as making verbal threats against the President of the United States...
, and the 2006 Toronto terrorism case
2006 Toronto terrorism case
The 2006 Ontario terrorism case refers to the plotting of a series of attacks against targets in Southern Ontario, Canada, and the June 2, 2006, counter-terrorism raids in and around the Greater Toronto Area that resulted in the arrest of 18 people found to be Al-Qaeda members of an Islamic...
.
FBI payments
- The first informant, CW1, received $10,500 for his services and $8,815 in expenses.
- The second informant, CW2, received $17,000 and approval of his petition for political asylum in the United States.
- Expenses for Charles James Stewart and his wife to travel from Chicago to Miami came to $3,500
- Rent paid on the warehouse used for training from January to June.
The trial information revised these figures
- First informant, Abbas al Saidi, received $40,000.
- Second informant, Elie Assad, received $80,000.
External links
- Oddballs tried mix of creeds & religions, New York Daily News, June 24, 2006
- Sect inspired 'leader of Sears Tower plot' Telegraph UK
- U.S. v. Batiste, et al., FindLaw
- CNN News Report
- Sect inspired 'leader of Sears Tower plot', Telegraph UK, June 25, 2006
- Father: Plot Suspect Not in 'Right Mind', AP/ABC news
- U.S. v. Batiste, et al., FindLaw, June 22, 2006
- Court Case Text as GIF images, PipelineNews.org
- 'Department of Pre-Crime' A sceptical view from Mother Jones magazine