In June of 2006, seven Florida men were charged with plotting to destroy FBI offices in Miami and to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago. FBI Director Muller informed the nation that his agency had successfully interdicted a catastrophic 'home-grown' terrorist plot linked to Al Qaeda. No doubt, if terrorists had managed to bring down the tallest skyscraper in America, standing at 1,451 feet (442 m), the human and material costs would have been immeasurable.
The problem with this heinous story is that virtually none of it is true. The seven suspects didn't so much as own a fire-cracker between them, let alone any explosives or any knowledge whatsoever on how to destroy a colossal 110-story building. They were so poor that they didn't even have the means to travel to Chicago, and didn't have a car to drive about Miami looking for targets. They actually hailed from Liberty City, the black neighbourhood of housing projects outside of downtown Miami. Thus in the press they were swiftly nicknamed the "Liberty City Seven" or LC7.
It gets worse. Just like the Bronx Bombers (see Part 1 and Part 2), the LC7 were infiltrated, bribed to consider committing terror plots, and finally ensnared thanks to two undercover FBI informants. Funded and directed by the FBI, the two Middle Eastern "confidential witnesses" presented themselves to the LC7 as members of Al-Qaeda. They were no doubt assigned to the LC7 because they stood out like a sore thumb of odd balls in the area.
The members of the LC7 — five Afro-American citizens, one legal Haitian immigrant, and one Haitian illegal alien — defined themselves as "Black Muslims". Some wore turbans and hid their faces. Their leader, Narseal Batiste, was described as a Moses-like figure, walking the streets in a long robe and carrying a wooden staff. Known as "Prince Manna" or "Brother Naz", Batiste called his cult-like group the "Seas of David". He preached a blend of religious and political views that included angry criticism of the US government. The deeper reality was that the Seas of David was a ragtag group of mainly unemployed, down-and-out, wanna-be rebels. Some were homeless; some arguably had mental problems. Their background interests included martial arts, carpentry, street-preaching, community work, petty crimes, and smoking lots of marijuana. Above all, they were in need of money to scrape by.
Batiste couldn't believe his luck when the two FBI informants — Abbas al-Saidi and Elie Assad — provided them with a warehouse all to their own, rent-free, as a new base of operations. The warehouse was named the 'Temple'. Of course, the Temple happened to be rigged full of hidden audio and video surveillance equipment. Here, after almost a year of under-cover infiltration, al-Saidi and Assad offered the LC7 $50,000 to swear allegiance to Al-Qaeda and begin a new life as terrorists. Beclouded in marijuana smoke, unknowingly bugged, the LC7 finally agreed, swore their oath, and took the money. Batiste was caught on tape saying he admired bin Laden's 'work', and also wished to kill 'American devils'. Batiste was given a rental car and a camera to take pictures of certain Miami buildings. Describing himself as "financially exhausted", Batiste made lofty requests for black uniforms, squad cars, guns, and knee-high boots for his 'Islamic Army' of six men. The informant bought them the boots. The rest of the shopping list was promised for later.
Batiste's father, a Christian pastor, said his son was "not in his right mind" and needed psychiatric assistance. Other family members and neighbourhood acquaintances of the LC7 said they were poor, misguided, and yet not dangerous. Some witnesses said they were helpful to others in the community.
Whatever the case, the FBI raided the Temple and dragged away its occupants. The corporate media hyped the foiled plot, caught in its "planning phase", as possibly being on the order of 9/11. No firearms or explosives were found, although a few machetes, hatchets, and some amounts of marijuana were. When asked how serious the plot was, the FBI publicly conceded that it was "more aspirational than operational", adding that Al-Qaeda was in fact not involved. Nevertheless, the LC7 were charged with giving material support to Al-Qaeda, conspiring to destroy federal buildings, and for conspiring to "levy a full ground war" against the USA. After two trials ending in a hung jury and then a third trial, six of the seven LC7 members were sentenced with long prison terms. Defense attorneys plan to launch a fourth trial. All along the defense argued that no such plots could have been realized without the involvement of the government; and that several of the LC7 knew nothing of the terror plans, and had neither means nor knowledge to commit them. Furthermore, Batiste and some others weren't actually going to commit the terrorism they bragged of, but were in fact trying to con the FBI informants of cash and equipment.
Between them, FBI informants Al-Saidi and Assad received $120,000 to $130,000 for their services in "saving" Miami offices and the Sears Tower from obliteration. To make matters even more outrageous, both informants had checkered pasts (the knowledge of which withheld by the judges). One failed a FBI lie detector test and yet against protocol was still allowed to operate. The other extorted $7,000 from the man who raped his girl friend. Both informants also had histories with illegal drugs and both did jail time for assaulting their own girl friends.
Source Articles: Global Research, Miami New Times, Mahalo, Prison Planet, Washington Post 2006, Washington Post 2008, MotherJones, CNN, Wikipedia, LA Times
No comments:
Post a Comment