7 men charged in alleged U.S. terror plot
(AP)
Updated: 2006-06-23 21:45
A group of young men seized in a Miami warehouse 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.
The seven individuals indicted by a federal grand jury were taken into
custody Thursday when authorities swarmed the warehouse in the Liberty City
area, removing a metal door with a blow torch. The indictment also alleges plans
to blow a federal building in Miami in conjunction with the al-Qaida terrorist
network.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other top-level Bush administration
officials scheduled a news conference for later Friday and a similar briefing
was in Miami. The seven were expected to appear in court later Friday.
According to the indictment handed up Thursday, a young man identified as
Narseal Batiste, beginning in November 2005, recruited and trained the others
"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.
|
