Plot against Sears Tower mostly just talk
Undercover FBI agent posed as an al-Qaida operative
By SCOTT SHANE and ANDREA ZARRATE
New York Times
WASHINGTON - An alleged scheme to topple the Sears Tower in Chicago and attack Miami's FBI headquarters was "more aspirational than operational," a top FBI official said on Thursday, the day after seven Florida men were arrested on terrorism charges.
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John S. Pistole, deputy director of the FBI, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference that authorities chose to head off the would-be plot when it was still largely at the discussion stage.
Gonzales acknowledged that the men, who had neither weapons nor explosives, posed "no immediate threat," but added that "they did take sufficient steps that we believe does support this prosecution."
News of the arrests on Thursday night touched off widespread television coverage of the thwarting of a plot on the Sears Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world. But details of the indictment first revealed at news conferences in Washington and Miami on Friday presented a less alarming picture.
The indictment made clear that a key role was played by an unnamed undercover FBI informant who posed as an al-Qaida member and met repeatedly with the group's alleged ringleader, Narseal Batiste.
In May, after months of meeting with the purported al-Qaida representative, Batiste told him "he was experiencing delays because of various problems within his organization" but still hoped to continue his mission of building an "Islamic army" to wage jihad against the United States, the indictment said.
First order was for boots
The seven defendants — ranging in age from 22 to 32 and including five Americans, a legal immigrant from Haiti and a Haitian in the United States illegally — expressed grandiose goals during the yearlong investigation by FBI agents and the police, officials said.
Gonzales said the men said they wanted to "kill all the devils we can" in attacks that would be "just as good or greater than 9/11."
The men are accused of conspiring to blow up buildings and to provide "material support" to al-Qaida, but the indictment suggests that they mostly sought support from the purported representative of al-Qaida.
Among the first acts alleged by the conspirators was giving the FBI informant their shoe sizes so he could buy them military boots. Later, the documents say, Batiste gave the informant lists of other items needed for the proposed war: uniforms, binoculars, radios, vehicles, bullet-proof vests, machine guns, and $50,000 in cash.
The suspects got their boots, the indictment says, but it does not make clear which of the other items were delivered.
At a briefing later on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty answered critics who have said the government's terror prosecutions have often targeted seemingly unsophisticated extremists who are more talk than action.
Mix of Christian, Muslim
McNulty said the goal is "prevention through prosecution." Rather than allow a genuine threat to take shape, he said, investigators move in as soon as there is sufficient evidence to prosecute.
"Today's example is a good example of that approach," he said, referring to the Florida case. McNulty said 261 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty in "terrorism or terrorism-related cases" since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Neighbors said at least some of the men were in a religious group they called the Seas of David that appeared to mix Christian and Muslim beliefs. They wore uniforms bearing a star of David and met for Bible study, prayer and martial arts practice in a one-story warehouse in the heart of the predominately Haitian section of Miami's impoverished Liberty City neighborhood.
Workers in Bar-B's Grocery next door said they were always quiet and polite when they stopped in to buy drinks. But at least five of the men had been arrested previously on assault, drug and weapons charges, according to Dade County records.
In addition to Batiste, 32, who was known as "Brother Naz" or "Prince Manna," authorities identified others born in the United States as Burson Augustin, 21; Rotschild Augustine, 22; Naudimar Herrera, 22; and Stanley Grant Phanor, 31. The two Haitian-born defendants are Patrick Abraham, 27, and Lyglenson Lemorin, 31.
All appeared briefly in court in Miami on Friday except Phanor, who was being held in jail for violating his probation on an earlier charge, and Lemorin, who was arrested in Atlanta. At Phanor's neatly landscaped house on Friday, his relatives cried as they answered a reporter's questions about him.
"This is tearing this family to pieces," said Phanor's mother, Elizene Phanor. She described her son as a skilled construction worker.
"My son would wake up every morning and say he loves Jesus," said Phanor. "Stan is my son, my friend, my life, and if he dies, I die with him." |
