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Manufactured Crime on the margins of society
5 Miami men convicted of Sears Tower attack plotAlso known as entrapment. On the third trial over three years, convictions result after two jurors excused (one was "booted off") from the secret jury.
This is a manufactured crime," Batiste attorney Ana M. Jhones said earlier in the trial.
A key piece of evidence is an FBI video of the entire group pledging an oath of allegiance, or "bayat," to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in a March 16, 2006, ceremony led by an Arabic-speaking FBI informant posing as "Brother Mohammed" from al-Qaida.The grand jury indictment (pdf) makes it clear that the "informant" was in fact the ring-leader and chief supplier of "material support" of boots and cameras etc. in this tragic farce of Bush era Alberto Gonzalez insanity.
The US Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales has warned that home-grown terrorists could pose as much danger to the US as foreign al-Qaeda operatives.Seven men have been charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, and attack FBI offices. --BBC June 2006
Other current Miami article about the convictions here.
Older snippets:
Liberty City 7 trial runs like a B-movie
Someday, the United States will infiltrate, disarm and prosecute a genuine terrorist cell. In the meantime, we have the Liberty City 7. The trial of the Bumbling Jihadists in Miami federal court is a bittersweet farce for our times, a case that offers the illusion of progress in the "War on Terror" without actual war or terror. That such a case even made it to court is testament to our weird, paranoid age. - Nov 18, 2007 Miami Herald about earlier trial
"Nobody knew about it. Like I said, this was imagination," Batiste testified. "I would have been deeply embarrassed if any of the brothers knew I was engaging in that kind of conversation."
Batiste got choked up after his attorney, Ana M. Jhones, asked how the "mission" of the six other defendants differed from the violent attacks he was discussing with the informant, a man he knew as "Brother Mohammed."
"The only mission the brothers had was just walking through the neighborhood and preaching about Jesus," Batiste said. A lunch recess was called after he became emotional and was unable to continue on the witness stand. -- from a blog citing old article by same journalist Curt Anderson re earlier trial
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Thanks for this eds.
I'll have to slog through the links, but this case should be causing more outrage then it currently does.
(Kneejerk response)
May 12, 2009 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
It hasn't become political, it's not seen widely enough as symptomatic of the insanity of the Bush Administration.
And the people involved are marginal (the defendants)...
May 12, 2009 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good catch. I really don't believe they were convicted. They were dumbasses with the whole oath for $50K thing (srsly ... HELLO! set up!) but that's petty dumbassery - and total entrapment - not terrorism. Hopefully something happens on appeal.
May 12, 2009 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
They were not all convicted on the same counts. I suspect the main guy Batiste just couldn't give as good a performance the third time around.
I'd love to read an interview with the juror who was booted out for not being cooperative.
May 12, 2009 11:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I find it interesting that the second-biggest terrorist attack on American soil was conducted by genuine home-grown right-wing nutjobs. This is what happens when the Fox is watching the henhouse.
May 13, 2009 2:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bush and Cheney are gone. The show's over. We aren't required to torment our scapegoats any longer. These men have suffered enough. Free the Five!
May 13, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to start, here.
May 13, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn right. Cosigned.
May 13, 2009 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
It really is too bad that he got talked into taking a plea before the defense got started (as I recall the story).
May 14, 2009 12:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good post eds.
May 13, 2009 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, eds! Whatever happened to --
"The Jury Has Spoken!"
May 13, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't recognize the context, but Appeals Courts exist for good reasons. Are you think of Libby, Montana?
May 14, 2009 12:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Beware, Islamofascist Christians preaching love! Do you really know your neighbors?!
Well, at least we can now say the $trillion WOT was worth every penny.
May 13, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank goodness for that!
May 14, 2009 2:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Crime has always been used as an instrument for social control, just as they used Vietnam as a pretext for thinning out the ranks of the young and less Nixonly of my parents' generation, and marijuana to keep those jazz negroes from pawing our delicate white daughters. I'm calling Vietnam the crime, committed by the state. It works both ways.
More famously, an actual country was invaded, overthrown, occupied in a pretty slick extortion campaign in an effort to pile up huge stacks of cash and cause us to all accept permanent war and RNC hegemony. They manufactured the infractions of Hussein's Iraq, conflated it with actual events and characters, co-branded it with 9/11, and expected it to carry them to a third season as they've been led to expect from their social engineering workshops.
Miami, Fort Dix should serve to remind us why we have a government based on restricting the powers and activities of government: detention without cause.
June 4, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink