[NYTr] "Sears Tower Terror" Trial of the Liberty City 7 Starts

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Steven L. Robinson - activ-l


[The US Government has made liberal use of undercover cops - commonly
known as 'agents provocateur'- in this case. In such instances, the
question inevitably arises - is the government preventing crime or
instigating it in order to claim credit for stopping it?   For what it
is worth, the theory of the case from Batiste's lawyer - "not guilty by
reason of intent to extort" - seems  puzzling. -SR]

The New York Times - Oct 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/us/nationalspecial3/03liberty.html


Trial Starts for Men in Plot to Destroy Sears Tower

By Abby Goodnough

Miami - Seven indigent Miamians accused of plotting to destroy the Sears
Tower in Chicago in the name of Islamic jihad went on trial here on
Tuesday. Their lawyers said the defendants were not agents of Al Qaeda
but pitiable bumblers framed by the government.

When the men, often called the Liberty City Seven after the blighted
neighborhood they live in, were arrested last year, Alberto R. Gonzales,
then the attorney general, said, "Homegrown terrorists may prove to be
as dangerous as groups like Al Qaeda."

The plot they are charged with hatching never got off the ground. But in
opening statements, federal prosecutors described the men as ruthlessly
determined.

"These defendants came together with the sole purpose of waging a holy
war in the United States," said Richard Gregorie, an assistant United
States attorney.

The group aspired not only to blow up the Sears Tower, Mr. Gregorie
said, but also to destroy federal buildings and even poison salt
shakers in restaurants.

The men were charged after a long investigation in which a paid F.B.I.
informer posed as a Qaeda operative sent to help them plan and carry out
acts of terrorism. The bureau videotaped each of them pledging
allegiance to Al Qaeda, and Mr. Gregorie made frequent reference to
those oaths on Tuesday.

The evidence includes photos that the men took of federal buildings
here.

Each faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted of the charges, which
include conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda and
conspiracy to wage war against the United States.

Defense lawyers said their clients did have a mission, a benign one, to
minister to their community, teaching religion and martial arts from a
dank building. Their only crime, the lawyers said, was trying to extort
money from the informer, who presented himself as a Qaeda agent with
deep pockets.

"All he wanted to do was get his money and run," Ana M. Jhones, the
lawyer for Narseal Batiste, who is accused of being the ringleader,
said of her client. "Who better to con than somebody who was supposedly
Al Qaeda?"

The other defendants are Patrick Abraham, Burson and Rothschild
Augustine, Naudimar Herrera, Lyglenson Lemorin and Stanley G. Phanor.

Mr. Gregorie said the investigation began in September 2005 when a man
of Yemeni descent called an F.B.I. agent to report suspicious activity
among a group of men in Liberty City. Weeks later, he said, the Yemeni
called back to say the men had sent him to Yemen to "get them contacts
with Al Qaeda."

The bureau started investigating, using the Yemeni as the informer. He
reported that the seven were "training for hand-to-hand combat" at the
Liberty City building with swords, knives and nunchucks.

The informer, referred to as Abbas, was given recording equipment. Over
several months, Mr. Gregorie said, he recorded the men discussing
violent plans.

Eventually, Mr. Gregorie said, a second paid informer appeared here and
presented himself to the group as Mohammed, a Qaeda agent summoned by
Abbas to help them. Mr. Batiste asked for boots, uniforms, machine
guns, rockets and S.U.V.'s, Mr. Gregorie said.

He added that Mr. Batiste selected the Sears Tower as a target because
he knew it from growing up in Chicago. The prosecutor added that Mr.
Batiste had worked in construction and told Mohammed, "If I can put a
building up, I can take it down."

At other times, Mr. Gregorie said, Mr. Batiste was recorded saying that
he cheered after the Sept. 11 attacks and that he would shoot anyone who
survived the Sears Tower attack. The indictment says he spoke of waging
"a full ground war" to "kill all the devils we can."

His lawyer, Ms. Jhones, told the jury that he had indeed said "offensive
things" on tape, but only as part of his plot to extort Mohammed, whom
she said was paid $80,000 by the F.B.I. She called Mr. Batiste "a
wannabe religious leader" who had "very little intellect to fulfill his
dreams."

Mr. Batiste subscribed to the beliefs of the Moorish Science Temple, a
group that blends Christianity, Judaism and Islam with an emphasis on
self-discipline through martial arts. He walked the streets of Liberty
City wearing a turban and flowing robes and clutching a staff, in hopes
of commanding respect, Ms. Jhones said.

She said Mohammed had exerted "unrelenting pressure" on the seven "to
get the script going in the direction the government wanted."

Ms. Jhones and other defense lawyers said their clients eventually
recoiled from the informers, chilled by ominous statements that they
had made.

Several lawyers described their clients as followers of Mr. Batiste,
desperate urban residents who smoked a lot of marijuana but hoped to
better themselves through the teachings of the Moorish Science Temple.

"Basically, what you see in front of you," said Richard Houlihan, the
lawyer for Mr. Herrera, "is a group of men who were looking for their
own way in life."