http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/1 … 02371.htmlFive men were convicted Tuesday of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection.
They were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with an undercover FBI informant they believed was from al-Qaida. Defense attorneys said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI audio and video tapes was not serious and the men wanted only money.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard set sentencing for July 27 for the five convicted men, most of whom are Haitian or have Haitian ancestry. They lived in Miami's downtrodden inner-city neighborhood known as Liberty City.
But Batiste, who testified in all three trials, insisted he was only going along with Mohammed so he could obtain $50,000 or more for his struggling construction business and a nascent community outreach program. Batiste was leader of a Miami chapter of a sect known as the Moorish Science Temple, which combines elements of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and does not recognize the U.S. government's full authority.
Defense lawyers also claimed the case was an FBI setup driven by informants who manipulated the group.
"This is a manufactured crime," Batiste attorney Ana M. Jhones said earlier in the trial.
So total bullshit case used by the Bush admin to scare people into supporting them or terrorist who should be taken out behind the court house and hung?