Details Emerge In Sears Tower Plot
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 in Atlanta.
Six co-defendants in the case face a court hearing Friday in Miami.
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 Qaeda operative.
The details were revealed at a hearing in which one suspect, Lyglenson Lemorin, was denied bond 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 believed that all was possible with Allah's help.Confession by Lyglenson Lemorin to FBI (pdf)
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 Qaeda 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.
The group splintered in mid-April after a Chicago man, identified as Charles Stewart or "Sultan Khan Bey," confronted Batiste in Miami over what he feared was law enforcement surveillance of the group's operations, Getchell said.
According to separate documents filed by prosecutors Thursday in Miami, Stewart told Batiste at one point that he wanted to nationalize 10,000 people into a "Moorish nation" and the group's mission, "to rid the Earth of filth," could only be entrusted to "each other and those that they train."
Stewart was arrested in early May after allegedly shooting Lemorin's gun at a person after an argument inside the warehouse, according to the documents. It was unclear from the documents whether anyone was injured. He then told federal authorities he was knew of people "plotting" against the U.S.
Around that time, Lemorin, 31, moved to the Atlanta area.
His attorney, Jimmy Hardy, argued that Lemorin wanted to distance himself from the group and had been tricked into giving the loyalty oath. U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Walker, however, found that Lemorin was considered a "key figure" by Batiste.
Lemorin and another defendant from Haiti face deportation if convicted. The other five defendants, including Batiste, are U.S. citizens.