Sears tower plotters wanted to overthrow US government and relace it with Islamic one

AP/Houston Chronicle:

The leader of a group accused of plotting to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago and other buildings viewed the attacks as a prelude to the overthrow of the U.S. government and its replacement by an Islamic regime, prosecutors said at a hearing Thursday.

Prosecutors also said they have video of the group's members swearing allegiance to Osama bin Laden in a March meeting, and that they had pledged to support a plan to bomb FBI buildings in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington. The plan came from an FBI informant posing as an al-Qaida operative.

The details were revealed at a hearing in which one suspect, Lyglenson Lemorin, was denied bail and ordered transferred to Miami, where his six co-defendants were arrested last week at a Miami warehouse that allegedly served as their hide-out. Lemorin, a permanent U.S. resident from Haiti, was arrested in Atlanta.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Getchell said that the alleged ringleader, Narseal Batiste, told an FBI informant as early as October 2005 that his mission was to take over the U.S. government in the name of Allah. He added that although Batiste said he was aware some people would consider that "crazy," he thought that all was possible with Allah's help.

When he was pressed by one of the informants about his plans after the Sears Tower attack, Batiste allegedly said it would be "all over, period."

The seven men face conspiracy counts that carry maximum prison terms of 15 to 20 years.

Prosecutors said the fake al-Qaida operative was introduced to Batiste by another informant after Batiste told him he wanted to meet "Muslim brothers" from Yemen to "wage a holy war."

In several dozen meetings and phone conversations monitored by authorities, Batiste allegedly said he wanted to start his jihad with a dynamite attack to destroy the Sears Tower. He said he knew the building and its below-ground floors because he had worked for a delivery firm in Chicago.

Batiste also said he had about 100 "soldiers" in Florida, Chicago and other parts of the U.S., as well as Louisiana land he wanted to use as a training camp. He asked for weapons and told the informants that with resources, he could start the Chicago attack in much less than a year, the prosecution said.

At a March 16 meeting allegedly attended by all defendants, the FBI informant led the group in an oath to bin Laden, in which the defendants pledged to be loyal to "the path of holy war until God's word is exalted," prosecutors allege.

When Batiste agreed to the informant's plot to bomb FBI buildings, the informant gave him a video camera to get footage of some of the buildings, which some of the men then did, according to Getchell.

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Just because they are crazy does not mean they are not dangerous. I think they should also be charged with treason. If their plot was not treason, then the word has no meaning. Their ploy also proves that it is not phobic to believe that some Muslims want to engage in terrorist acts against this country. The Islamophobia assertions by Islamic groups should have less of an audience.