‘Homegrown terrorists’ arraigned in court

MIAMI - 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.”

Gonzales stressed that “there was no immediate threat” in either Chicago or Miami because the group didn’t have the materials it was seeking. FBI Deputy Director John Pistole concurred, saying, “This group was more aspirational than operational.”

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 on Thursday when authorities swarmed a warehouse in the Liberty City area, removing a metal door with a blowtorch. A seventh was arrested in Atlanta.

Five are U.S. citizens, one is a legal immigrant from Haiti and the other is a Haitian national who was in this country illegally.

All had taken an oath to al-Qaida and sought help from someone they believed was a member of the terrorist organization, the indictment alleged.

First court appearance
Five of the defendants, including alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste, made their initial appearances in federal court in downtown Miami on Friday. They were brought into and out of the courtroom under heavy security in single file, chained together at the wrists and wearing ankle chains.

No pleas were entered during the brief hearing. U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick White scheduled another hearing for next Friday to consider a motion by prosecutors that the defendants be kept in custody until trial. White also appointed lawyers for Batiste and the four others after each said he could not afford one.

In answer to the judge’s questions, Batiste said he was “self-employed” and earned about $30,000 a year, but he provided no details. He also said he has four children.

Batiste allegedly met in December in a hotel room with someone posing as a representative of al-Qaida — someone law enforcement officials say was actually an agent of a country friendly to the United States.

Another defendant was scheduled to make a court appearance in Atlanta. It was not immediately clear when the seventh man would have his first appearances.

Gonzales outlined the contents of an indictment handed up Thursday, which identified 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.”

Alleged mission: Worse than 9/11
In February 2006, it said, Batiste told the “al-Qaida representative” that he and his five soldiers wanted to attend al-Qaida training and planned a “full ground war” against the United States in order to “kill all the devils we can.” His mission would “be just as good or greater than 9/11,” the indictment accused Batiste of boasting.

The seven defendants were charged with conspiring to “maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive” the FBI building in North Miami Beach and the Sears Tower in Chicago.

They were are also charged with conspiring “to levy war against the government of the United States, and to oppose by force the authority thereof.”

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