Free Republic

May 12, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Leader of Liberty City Six Convicted on All Counts, Four Others Convicted on Multiple Counts, and One Defendant Acquitted on Charges of Conspiring to Support Al Qaeda, Attack Targets in the United States After a three-month trial, a Miami jury convicted five men of multiple charges that include conspiring to provide material support to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. by discussing and planning attacks on targets in the U.S., including the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building and other federal...

MIAMI, (AP) -- Five 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. The jury in Miami acquitted another member of the so-called "Liberty City Six" in the sixth day of deliberations. Two previous trials ended in mistrials when jurors could not agree on the men's guilt or innocence. 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...

Standing in an empty Miani warehouse on May 24 with a man he believed had ties to Osama bin Laden, a dejected Narseal Batiste talked of the setbacks to their terrorist plot then uttered the words that would put him in a federal prison cell. "I want to fight some jihad," he allegedly said. "It's all I live for." What Batiste did not know was the bin Laden representative was really an FBI informant...

When the terrorist attacks flashed across the Rev. Narcisse Batiste’s television set five years ago, he quickly shut it off. The images of innocent people suffering and dying were too much for the Bunkie Baptist pastor to bear. “I hope to God anybody who ever attempts to do this thing,” he remembers thinking at the time, “gets caught.” On Friday, the gentle-spoken 72-year-old Batiste again turned on the television only to discover his own son — who mysteriously left the family farm shortly after 9-11 — may have hatched a similar plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago...

Two recent news items provide a certain insight: First Item: “A group of Muslim and Arab-Americans, frustrated by what they say is the climate of suspicion and fear that dogs their re-entry into the United States from trips abroad, sued the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. yesterday, demanding that the courts protect their civil rights. The seven main plaintiffs in the class action suit assert that both the United States Congress and the federal government are ignoring the plight of innocent Americans harassed repeatedly because of problems with the terrorist watch list.

"I couldn't believe it but its true - that's him I saw on TV," says Narcisse Batiste. Family members woke him up Thursday night when they saw his son - Narseal - was one of 7 suspects arrested for plotting Al-Queda like attacks. Narseal Batiste and his five brothers and sisters grew up in both Marksville and Chicago. His father is a baptist preacher at a church in Bunkie. "They were brought up under strict supervision - church - school - they were taught to love everybody," says Narcisse Batiste. "I don't believe it - I don't believe my son's...