After 2 Mistrials, Prosecutors Try Again to Prove Jihad Plot

[struggle4progress]

Source: NYT

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: January 26, 2009

MIAMI — A group of Miami men accused of planning to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad will return to federal court this week as prosecutors try for a third time to win convictions ...

“The fear card was what they were playing,” said Bruce Winick, a University of Miami law professor. “If it didn’t work the first two times with the juries that were selected, I think it’s less likely that it will work right now because that fear of terrorism is a little more distant in our minds” ...

Prosecutors tried to prove that the original seven defendants, a group of laborers from the tough Liberty City neighborhood, provided “material support” to a terrorist organization, and planned to destroy buildings. But they relied mostly on the men’s words, citing their loyalty oath to Al Qaeda and aggressive comments made to two F.B.I. informants.

More concrete evidence did not emerge. Testimony showed that a search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of what it called the group’s headquarters did not yield guns, explosives or blueprints for an attack. Besides a samurai sword, no weapons were found ...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/us/27liberty.html?_r=1

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Jury selection begins in Fla. terror retrial
By CURT ANDERSON
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 27, 2009; 7:14 AM

... Two previous trials ended in hung juries for six suspects, with a seventh acquitted after the first trial. Jury selection for the third trial begins Tuesday in federal court.

Prosecutors say hundreds of FBI recordings show the men were an emerging al-Qaida cell intent on toppling the U.S. government. No evidence indicates the group acquired weapons or explosives.

Defense lawyers accuse the FBI of entrapping the men. Alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste has testified he faked interest in the plot to get money from an FBI informant posing as an al-Qaida operative ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012700964.html

3rd trial looms for alleged Sears Tower plotters
By CURT ANDERSON

... Prosecutors have indicated that they may change their approach for this week's trial after two juries didn't buy their case that the group's leader, 34-year-old Narseal Batiste, was trying to orchestrate a grandiose bloodbath. Jurors in both mistrials said they were skeptical Batiste could have chronic money woes and difficulty keeping a simple construction business afloat while at the same time planning to overthrow the government.

Some 30 months have passed since FBI agents swooped down on a Miami warehouse to arrest Batiste and his followers in a case President George W. Bush's administration pointed to as an example of its policy of preventing terror plots in the earliest stages possible ...

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard has imposed a gag order on everyone connected with the case to try to limit media coverage that might influence jurors.

The star prosecution witness is Lebanese national Elie Assad, a paid FBI informant who infiltrated Batiste's group by posing as an al-Qaida operative. Assad arranged for the group to obtain the warehouse — fully wired by the FBI for video and sound — and led the men in the al-Qaida oath ...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5idfDmrtarDonhbdqZdXQwhTtFYRwD95V01H08

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Why doesn't double jeopardy apply?

Is the US government allowed to keep bringing the same case to trial in the hopes of browbeating a confesson or a conviction?

[cosmicone]

4. Double jeopardy applies only in cases where the jury reaches a verdict. n/t

[GodlessBiker]

8. It also may apply if the prosecution does something to cause a mistrial.

[gratuitous]

2. J. Edgar Hoover started his career on cases like this

Scary immigrants! Funny-sounding names! They're gonna overthrow the government! Aaaaahhhhhh! PH34R!

It's my impression that conserva-whackos don't think very much of the United States, its constitution or its people. They think we're ready to topple at a moment's notice and fold up like a cheap lawn chair at the first sign of trouble. These seven garbanzos would have had trouble overthrowing second base from the pitcher's mound; it's highly unlikely that they were going to do anything resembling the grandiose plans their paid rat was pushing them to accomplish.

[cosmicone]

3. If all it takes

is six men and a samurai sword to bring it down, Sears tower must be poorly constructed indeed!

[GliderGuider]

5. Perhaps it was built by the same contractors

who built the WTC...

[cosmicone]

9. Or Haliburton !!! n/t

[AKing]

6. Aren't these the same clowns that couldn't even afford to buy a pair of boots?

[struggle4progress]

7. Yep. Homeless guys livin in a Miami warehouse, given boots and a cell-phone

by the FBI, who also promised them lots of cash