The Miami 7

[zak247]

I just had the laugh of the month watching the propaganda ministry of the Bush regime (Fox News) tell us about the “terrorist” in Miami who have been arrested by the FBI for allegedly planning to blow up the Sears Tower and an FBI building. Even the chief apologist for the Bush war Bill O’ Reilly couldn’t keep a straight face while telling us about these guys. It’s clear they couldn’t blow up a store front Church in their own neighborhood, let alone the Sears tower.

It seems that these guys who by the way according to the story are not even Muslims, but some kind of weird group of black militant mal-contents with minor criminal records. These “terrorists” apparently went capering about in an old garage in the ghetto, reciting Al Qaeda oaths of allegiance, in some strange ritual. Getting the attention of the ever vigilant FBI, via an informant, they eventually were found out and accused of plotting with an Al Qaeda representative(FBI agent) whom they had solicited a sum of 50, 000 dollars to perform these terrorist acts. These seven pitiful men, whose one member was labeled “Al Rot” are apparently backed up and supported by their families, who claim they are just community activist, and not any kind of terrorist.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/23/miami.reax/index.html

This is another illustration that the method of the rightwing branch of the elitist are going to use flimsy small incidents of “terrorist activity’s” “exposed” by their police force, the FBI, to further their power and try to hold off a democrat route in November.

I hope it doesn’t work.

[Ormond]

"Homegrown terror cells" is the new twist in the script of War on Terror public relations. The public reaction to the London bombings last year showed that the Al Queda boogey men presentation was wearing thin. I made a point of communicating with as many Londoners as would speak with me about it last August and September. Nobody bought it.

It has nothing to do with US agencies or law enforcement seeking prestige, or US elections. The new 'homegrown terror plot foiled" theme has been running simultaneously in the US, Canada, and the UK this year. I found several such reports back to the "LA plot" Bush made a speech about back in February.
This is a different psyop than a psywar event like the London bombing or 911. These are raids on idiots who've taken the bait of COINTELPRO propaganda sites and/or community plants encouraging malcontents to make bombs. After the arrests, photo ops, and headlines, the stories fade into relative obscurity with little or no followup. The real followup are government statements on the 'need' to tighten domestic security.

Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 Terrorists who face increased security abroad will target Canada: expert

23 Mirror, UK June 2006
AL-QAEDA 'PLOT TO CRASH JET INTO CANARY WHARF'

[zak247]

I agree, but I don’t think we should downplay the fact that the puppets of the elitist, the right-wingers, mostly Republicans, and the supposed liberals of the Democratic Party are allowed to “play” their game of dispute on all levels. Even on a level of the FBI doing their police work, and the CIA, doing theirs.

Remember my theory is that this thing works based on a real or phony division in the US between the Conservative/Republican/Right-wingers and the Liberal/Democratic/Left-wingers, that goes all the way up to the top and separates along the line of the eastern-Liberal group, led by the Rockerfellow, Harriman clique whose police force is the CIA, and the western/southern group led by Murchison, Hunt, and guys like them, whose police force is the FBI. They are allowed to play “games” with us, along the lines of this phony division, but only to a point, and the games must be in line of course with the top elitist and their goals.

http://breakfornews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=169

A good example of this is in the 2004 elections where you had the classic liberal in Kerry, and the classic conservative in Bush supposedly being against each other, while at the same time being brothers in the secret order of Skull &. Bones!

I wouldn’t be surprised if 911 was in fact a “game” where the eastern group and western group were “playing” at an inner private war between each other. (Or it may be a real private war) This would explain a lot of the peculiarities and anomalies that not even the 911 truth movement could get a handle on:

Like where are the missing passengers?

What was the dummy Bush doing staying in that school reciting that goat story when the buildings were burning?

http://www.osfa.org.uk/begin.htm

Why a missile in the pentagon, we know there probably wasn’t a plane.

The strange things happening in Pennsylvania over 93.

Taking down building 7; a blatant absurdity.

And many more incidents of strange anomalies in 911 even in light of the fact that we know it was fake.

[Ormond]

Zak:

[bornfree]

[Ormond]

[Fintan]

Best comment I found on the "Miami 7"

[Fintan]

Miami 7: A Case of 'Terrorist Bubblegum'

by Fintan Dunne, BreakForNews.com 27 June, 2006

The FBI case against seven Miami men accused of plotting to bring down
the Sears tower is collapsing in farce as a picture emerges of harmless
religious community workers snared and smeared by US officials.

The Miami 7 terrorism suspects were declaring allegiance to Allah --not
to Al Qaida, say relatives of the detained men, and the FBI took away
cases of bugbblegum they planned to distribute to children, they say.

The rebuttals of the FBI claims came in a Local 10 News report in which the
news anchor said viewers would get a "different perspective" on the arrests.

It showed the inside of the warehouse used by the men, depicting just
a construction business and living quarters which was also a holding area
for charitable donations.

Meanwhile a lawyer for Patrick Abraham, one of the men, said the
evidence is likely to flimsy to ensure a conviction. There was "a lot of
talking going on by the informant and more listening by the defendant
and or the defendants," Albert Levin told Fox News.

The Miami Herald reports that the alleged ringleader of the Miami group
grew up in a family of ministers and volunteered for a time as a Guardian
Angel, according to family members.

The case against the men is clearly collapsing into farce as these details
emerge. It follows on the heels of a similar embarassment for UK officials
after friends, family and the local community of a man shot by UK police
defended him against similar terrorism suspicions.

In the public mind, what is supposed to be "War on Terror" is now looking
a lot more like a bad case of the "Keystone Cops".

[PatrickSMcNally]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/apr2008/libe-a18.shtml

Second mistrial in Liberty City “terror” case
By Kate Randall
18 April 2008

A mistrial has been declared for a second time in the case of a group of Miami men charged by the US government with plotting with Al Qaeda to carry out terrorist acts within the US.

US District Judge Joan Lenard declared the mistrial when the 12-member jury deadlocked after 12 days of deliberations on charges against the six “Liberty City” defendants, named for the impoverished, predominantly Haitian immigrant Miami neighborhood where they lived.

The defendants were retried after the first trial ended in a mistrial last December. In those proceedings, one of the Liberty City 7, Lyglenson Lemorin, was acquitted and the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other six. (See “Miami: Collapse of Liberty City 7 case exposes fraud of ‘war on terror’”)

This second mistrial is a blow to federal prosecutors and underscores the fraudulent nature of the charges brought against the defendants.

The six men faced four terror-related conspiracy charges. The central charge was conspiracy to provide “material support” to Al Qaeda in connection with plans to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and two Miami-area federal government buildings. At trial, defense attorneys were able to convince a section of the jury that the driving force of the alleged terrorist plot was a paid FBI informant posing as an “Al Qaeda representative.”

Each of the defendants—Narseal Batists, 33; Patrick Abraham, 28; Burson Augustin, 23; Rothschild Augustine, 24; Stanley Grant Phanor, 32; and Naudimar Herrar, 24—faced up to 70 years in prison if convicted on all four terror-related conspiracy counts.

The panel of seven women and five men, picked anonymously for the second trial because of the judge’s concerns with potential jury tampering, were led away from the federal courthouse by US marshals and have made no comments to the press about their deliberations.

Judge Lenard set a status conference for April 23, by which time federal prosecutors are to decide whether to try the six defendants for a third time. Defense attorneys indicated they will be seeking to have the men released on bail at next week’s hearing. They have been imprisoned for nearly two years, since their June 2006 arrest.

At the time of their arrest, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales charged that the Liberty City group represented a “new brand of terrorism” created by “the convergence of globalization and technology.” The White House hailed their arrest as “yet another important victory in the war on terrorism.” However, at the second trial as at the first, prosecutors were unable to back up these claims.

The FBI produced no evidence of explosives, weapons or blueprints for any planned terrorist activity. Rather, prosecutors held up as their central incriminating evidence a videotape of defendants pledging an “oath” to Al Qaeda. This video was recorded in a warehouse set up by the FBI and the group was led there by an informant.

The other key evidence presented by the prosecution was alleged surveillance photos of the FBI building and federal courthouse complex in Miami-Dade County. An FBI informant provided the camera and car for this purpose. The two government informants involved in the case—Abbas al-Saidi and Elie Assad—were paid over $130,000 for their services.

At trial, the defense was able to demonstrate that rather than uncovering a terrorist plot, the government had concocted the plan and manipulated the impoverished defendants, who had no terrorist motives, but hoped to benefit financially from their relationship with the FBI informants posing as Al Qaeda operatives.

During closing arguments in late March, Ana Jhones, Narseal Batiste’s attorney, told the jury, “This is not a crime of terrorism, this is a sad, sad state of affairs.” She described Batiste—portrayed as the mastermind of the terror plot by the prosecution—as a “dirt poor” contractor and father of four motivated by a desperate need for money.

Defense attorneys argued that the six men tried to trick the FBI informant out of the $50,000 he claimed would be provided by Al Qaeda for the operation, while never having any intention of carrying it out. Jhones also said that Batiste pawned a camera he was given by the informant for $56 in order to buy food for his family.

Assistant US Attorney Jacqueline Arango argued that it didn’t matter whether Batiste’s association with Al Qaeda was for financial or ideological purposes, and that the central argument of the defense was “just silliness.”

At the time of the arrests, while the FBI claimed it had preempted a terrorist plot, it acknowledged that the targets of this plot were never in any real danger. Even in the early stages of the case, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole stated that the alleged plot was “more aspirational than operational”—i.e., that there were no terrorist plans in place.

The managing director of the Sears Tower, as well as the Chicago Police Department, were assured by federal authorities at the time that there was never a credible threat to the skyscraper.

At the first trial, Narseal Batiste testified that none of the other defendants had any knowledge of the Sears Tower plot. “Nobody knew about it,” he said. “Like I said, this was imagination. I would have been deeply embarrassed if any of the brothers knew I was engaging in that kind of conversation.”

Jeffrey Agron, an attorney and the jury foreman in the first trial, predicted the jury would deadlock the second time around. He said some jurors would have doubts about the prosecution’s central case—that the defendants intended to carry through on the terrorist plot after taking Al Qaeda loyalty oaths in front of the FBI informant.

He told the Miami Herald, “These cases where the government will go after groups that are more aspirational than operational may present problems for the jury.” He said many jurors would be more likely to believe the defense’s presentation of the case—that the defendants were motivated solely by the prospect of making some money.

The collapse of the government’s case a second time round in the Liberty City case highlights the fraudulent character of the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism,” a political pretext for war abroad and attacks on democratic rights at home accepted and defended by both big business parties and the media.

The administration has mounted a series of “anti-terror” prosecutions in an attempt to justify military aggression and a vast expansion of the police powers of the government.

In these cases, the government has utilized the services of informants and concocted scenarios of terrorist plots with weak or nonexistent evidence. Unlike the outcome in the Liberty City trials, the government has won convictions in a number of these cases.

* Hamid Hayat, a US citizen of Pakistani descent, was convicted in April 2006 of providing material support for terrorism based on testimony of an informant who was paid $250,000 for his services. Hayat was sentenced to 24 years in prison. No evidence was presented to prove the prosecution’s claims that he attended an Al Qaeda training camp.

* Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Pakistani-American, was convicted in 2006 of an alleged plot to bomb a New York subway station. An informant—paid $100,000—concocted the plot. Siraj received a 30-year sentence.

* Jose Padilla, a US citizen, was sentenced to 17 years and four months in January following a conviction on terrorism conspiracy charges last August. Padilla was arrested in May 2002, the government claiming he was plotting to explode a “dirty bomb” in the US. (See “US ‘enemy combatant’ Jose Padilla sentenced to 17 years in prison”)

He was held for three-and-a-half years as an “enemy combatant” in a Navy brig, where he was interrogated and tortured. After a number of court rulings rejecting the government’s claims that he could be held without charges or access to legal counsel, his case was transferred to the civilian court system, where he was tried on charges unconnected to the “dirty bomb” allegation.

See Also:
Miami “terror” arrests—a government provocation
[24 June 2006]