Miami bomb plot to attack the Sears Tower

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On June 22, 2006, seven men were arrested during an FBI raid on a warehouse on the outskirts of Miami and accused of being a home-grown terrorist cell plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and the FBI building in Miami. No weapons were found, nor were there any actual links to outside terrorist groups.[1] The arrests made headline news in Europe.[2]

According to the indictments and the court testimony, the group had been infiltrated for most of 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 the terrorist plots were discussed while smoking marijuana. Differences had broken out in April between the leaders, causing one to be arrested for shooting a follower of the other.[3]

The arrests were announced the following day at a high level press briefing in Washington D.C. hosted by the Attorney-General.[4] Over in Cleveland, the Director of the FBI Robert Mueller included the incident in a "Major Executive Speech" that afternoon entitled "Protecting America from Terrorist Attack: The Threat of Homegrown Terrorism".[5]

Contents

[edit] The people and the charges

The seven men charged in the terror plot.
The seven men charged in the terror plot.

Those indicted on 22 June were Narseal Batiste (considered the ring-leader), Patrick Abraham, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine.[6] Five were U.S. citizens, one a legal immigrant from Haiti, and the last an undocumented immigrant originally from Haiti. They were accused of planning to levy a "full ground war" against the United States. They were denied bail at their hearing in July.[7]

The government lawyer said that the prosecution was being brought under 18 U.S.C. § 2339A rather than 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, 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.[3]

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.[3]

Narseal Batiste (also known by some as "Prinze Nas"), 32, was a father of four and a martial arts enthusiast, who had been a member of the Guardian Angels in Chicago.[8]

[edit] 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.[3]

[edit] Coverage

The arrests were announced on 23 June at a high level press briefing in Washington D.C. by the Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales, the Deputy Director of the FBI John S. Pistole, and a Assistant Attorney-General Alice S. Fisher.[4]

At the press conference, the Attorney-General and the Deputy Director took questions from skeptical reporters:

Question: Did any of the men have any actual contact with any members of al-Qaeda that you know of?

Attorney-General: (pausing for someone else to step forward before responding) 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.[4][9]

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.[10]

The following week the incident features 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."[11]

On 26 June Democracy Now interviewed two activists in Miami 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...[12]

In his afternoon speech, the FBI director 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.[5]

Three months later, only the Washington Post reported on the trial hearing.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Seven charged over 'Chicago plot'", BBC, 2006-06-23. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  2. ^ "Today program 'listen again'", BBC, 2006-06-23. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  3. ^ a b c d e Pincus, Walter, Julie Tate, Madonna Lebling. "FBI Role in Terror Probe Questioned - Lawyers Point to Fine Line Between Sting and Entrapment", Washington Post, 2 September 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-13.
  4. ^ a b c [rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter062306_gonzales.rm DOJ Press Conference on a Terrorism Matter in Miami] (Realaudio). C-Span.org (23 June 2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  5. ^ a b FBI (2006-06-23). Remarks Prepared for Delivery by Director Robert S. Mueller, III. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-10-17.
  6. ^ Indictment of 7 in Miami Accused of Plotting to Blow Up U.S. Buildings in Support of al Qaeda. FindLaw (2006-06-22). Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  7. ^ "Chicago plot suspects denied bail", BBC News, 5 July 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  8. ^ Paul Thompson, Sarah Baxter. "Bizarre cult of Sears Tower ‘plotter’", Sunday Times, 2006-06-25.
  9. ^ Department of Justice (23 June 2006). Transcript of Press Conference Announcing Florida Terrorism Indictments. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  10. ^ "Seven charged over 'Chicago plot'", BBC Online, 2006-06-23.
  11. ^ Jon Stewart. "Headlines - Soft Cell", The Daily Show, Comedy Central.
  12. ^ "Aspirational Rather than Operational" - 7 Arrested in Miami Terror Plot. Democracy Now (26 June 2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-16.

[edit] See also

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