Global War on Terror,  Terrorists

Global War on Terror Watch: Miami Terror Suspects Sought to Work With Al Qaeda

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, front right, accompanied by Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, left, and Deputy FBI Director John Pistole, gestures during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, June 23, 2006 to discuss the arrest in Miami of a group of ‘homegrown terrorists’ who sought to work with al-Qaida but ended up consorting instead with a law enforcement informant.

AP: Terror Suspects Sought Ties With al-Qaida

Seven young men arrested in an alleged plot against the Sears Tower were part of a group of “homegrown terrorists” who sought to work with al-Qaida but ended up conspiring with an informant, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday.

Outlining an alleged plot to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and a federal building in Miami, Gonzales told a Justice Department news conference: “They were persons who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy.”

The seven individuals – ranging in age from 22 to 32 – were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami. Six were taken into custody in Miami Thursday when authorities swarmed a warehouse in the Liberty City area, removing a metal door with a blow torch. A seventh was arrested in Atlanta.

The alleged terrorists – five U.S. citizens, a legal immigrant from Haiti and a Haitian national who was in this country illegally – were expected to appear in federal court in Miami later Friday. They had taken an oath to al-Qaida and sought help from someone they believed was a member of the terrorist organization, the indictment alleged.

Homegrown terrorists but two immigrants and one who was illegal. And maybe the Congress will get serious about border security?

In this undated photo provided by the Florida Dept. of Corrections Stanley Grant Phanor is shown. Phanor, also know as “Brother Sunni” is one of seven young men arrested in a Miami warehouse who have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiring with al-Qaida to “levy war against the United States” by committing acts of violence including blowing up Chicago’s Sears Tower.

Said Gonzales: “The convergence of globalization and technology has created a new brand of terrorism. Today terrorist threats come from smaller more loosely defined cells not affiliated with al-Qaida but who are inspired by a violent jihadist message, and left unchecked these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al-Qaida.”

Gonzales outlined the contents of an indictment handed up Thursday, which identified Narseal Batiste as having recruited and trained others beginning in November 2005 “for a mission to wage war against the United States government,” including a plot to destroy the Sears Tower.

To obtain money and support for their mission, the conspirators sought help from al-Qaida, pledged an oath to the terrorist organization and supported an al-Qaida plot to destroy FBI buildings, the four-count indictment charged.

Batiste met several times in December 2005 with a person purporting to be an al-Qaida member and asked for boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, vehicles and $50,000 in cash to help him build an “‘Islamic Army’ to wage jihad’,” the indictment said. It said that Batiste said he would use his “soldiers” to destroy the Sears Tower.

Gonzales said “the individual they thought was a member of al-Qaida was present at their meetings and in actuality he was working with the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

Those named in the indictment are:

Narseal Batiste

Patrick Abraham – “Brother Pat”

Stanley Grant Phanor – “Brother Sunni”

Naudimar Herrera – “Brother Naudy”

Burson Augustin – “Brother B”
Lyglenson Lemorin – “Brother Levi” or Brother Levi-El”

Rotschild Augustine – “Brother Rot”

An indictment handed up against the men by a grand jury in south Florida said they pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda in order to “wage war” against the U.S. government and build an Islamic army.

It said at least one of them plotted to blow up the 110-story Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States.

Read the indictment here.

110 Story Chicago’s Sears Tower

A handout photograph from the U.S. Department of Justice shows Burson Augustin, one of seven people arrested in Miami Thursday, who, U.S. officials said on June 23, 2006, had discussed attacks on the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago, the FBI building in Miami and other government buildings. An indictment handed up against the men by a grand jury in south Florida said they pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda in order to wage war against the U.S. government and build an Islamic army.
Stay tuned as this story develops…….

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