Reporter Says Inside Look (Miami suspects' warehouse) May Change Opinions

[Newsjock]

http://www.local10.com/news/9428938/detail.html

Local 10 Goes Inside Terror Suspects' Warehouse
Reporter Says Inside Look May Change Opinions

POSTED: 6:24 pm EDT June 26, 2006
UPDATED: 7:06 pm EDT June 26, 2006

MIAMI -- For the first time, Local 10 takes an inside look at the Liberty City warehouse where federal agents said seven men plotted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and the South Florida FBI building.

Local 10's Glenna Milberg checked out the warehouse that was infiltrated by an FBI informant who said that the men who used the building were part of a terrorist conspiracy.

Milberg said the warehouse where agents say a holy war was being planned seemed to be filled with the trappings of a man living the simple lifestyle of a missionary of sorts in the Liberty City neighborhood.

... Family members of Narseal Batiste, the man accused of being the ringleader of the group, said some of what the FBI carried off was actually donations from a Christian church that had made contributions.

... The Batistes decorated the walls of the warehouse with dozens of awards and honors their children earned in a Miami-Dade elementary school. The family told Milberg that the children prayed, played videogames and watched "Shrek" in the warehouse at some point.

more

[Old and In the Way]

1. Here's an interesting conversation with Brother Corey

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001000.php

A real terrorist....riiiight.

[rosesaylavee]

2. So, evil doers were deeply influenced

by multiple viewings of Shrek...

It all makes sense now!

[eridani]

3. Religious fruitcakes can cause problems, but they are not terrorists

How stupid can you get? I'd say that groups like this need watching, in case their leaders decide to go all Jim Jones or David Koresh on everybody. But terrorists? Puleeze, Louise!

[ladjf]

5. I think that they might have had in mind ripping off the FBI guy

for the $50,000. The arrests were made because the entire charade was in the verge of simply melting down, a breakup of the group.

[Thickasabrick]

17. I've thought the same thing all along. The FBI guy supposedly

kept raising the amount to talk them into it. Can you say entrapment?

[qanda]

4. I was with my family and a lot of friends from church yesterday

We all went out to eat and all of us are black. It was very interesting that every single person at the table was upset about how they had set these men up. No one believed that they were real terrorists. Bush's popularity among black people probably dropped another point and I think he only had two points left.

[Erika]

6. And Alberto Gonzales held a national press conference

The 7 could be guilty of dropping an ice cream cone on the floor of the Sears tower...but they would have cleaned it up, and then prayed for forgiveness.

The prosecution of this should be hilarious. Maybe they can get 12 Ann Coulters as jurists and the judge being Clarence Thomas and the main witness being Anton Scalia, and Homeland Security has the tape of Shrek as ultimate proof of terrorism.

[saigon68]

10. Alberto Gonzales works in the home of the man

And follows orders unquestioningly

[Supersedeas]

15. but Alberto went NATIONAL the way Ashcroft went National with the dirty

bomber -- and the Press will hold neither accountable.

[saigon68]

20. Alberto the slug is getting a pass

[Judi Lynn]

7. You might find this new article from the Miami Herald interesting, too!

Posted on Tue, Jun. 27, 2006
LIBERTY CITY

Accused terror plot leader was once a Guardian AngelThe alleged ringleader of the Miami gang that authorities say wanted to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower grew up in a family of ministers and volunteered for a time as a Guardian Angel, family members say.

BY CHARLES RABIN AND SUSANNAH A. NESMITH
[e-mail]

As a child, his life was orderly, some close to him say, full of music and art and religion in big-city Chicago, and on a rolling, animal-filled farm near a tiny town in Louisiana.

In his teens, Narseal Batiste wore a red beret, his father said, riding trains and buses in Chicago as a member of the Guardian Angels, the volunteer group that does public-safety patrols in several cities.
(snip)

A Bible, a saxophone and a drawing board were always near. In elementary school in Marksville, Narseal Batiste would model clothing at a local mall, his father said. In high school he played the sax and drew prints.

''We use to take him out on Lake Michigan when the sun was rising. He would draw the reflections,'' Narcisse Batiste said.

The Morning Star Worship Center, a little nondenominational church on the family farm, had once been the home of Narcisse Batiste's parents. He said his mother's deathbed wish was to resurrect it, so he did. Today, Narcisse Batiste has seven parishioners. Like their father, three of Narcisse Batiste's children are ministers. So was Narseal's mother.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14908435.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_Bush has absolutely no shame. This was NOT the group to set up. They were in such a rush to frame someone, ANYONE, they didn't even take the time to go after someone who would fit the terrorist image. Just the first minorities who came along in _Bushes' favorite town. (_Bush went there over 25 times in his first four years as pResident to rally his Cuban "exile" (very, very European descended) rightwingnut base.)

[RagingInMiami]

11. Bush's polls are less 30 percent down here right now

He never really had Miami, just some of the staunch Cubans. In fact, two weekends ago, I attended a protest in front of Ileana Ros-Lehiten's office where more than a hundred Cubans protested about not being allowed to travel to Cuba.

They will be protesting again this weekend in Hialeah.

[Judi Lynn]

13. What are the chances Vigilia Mambisa will join the protest?

I've read articles about them and their ability to mobilize bunches of protestors just as they did during the 2000 Presidential Election Miami-Dade recount, when they helped Tom Delay's group close down the recount before it was finished.

I'll bet this group of vipers is on the other side of the travel ban issue....

It should be very interesting seeing a protest in front of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's office, considering the fact she and Lincoln Diaz-Balart both have always claimed to speak for the Cuban community, as far as outsiders can tell. That would be priceless to witness.

[RagingInMiami]

14. There is always a good chance that some of the right-wing fanatics

will jump in and confront the protesters. That Saturday morning, there were a few Cubans with "Viva Bush" stickers that drove by and yelled things like "sin verguenza" (shameless), but there were more Hispanics (I can't really assume there were Cubans) that were blowing the horns and giving the thumbs up sign.

They had a few cops there so if anything went down, it would have been addressed quickly. Still, that was one of the reasons I was there with my camera. Nothing happened though.

Here is the article.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14845076.htm

[Judi Lynn]

16. The last line indicates there's another one planned for July 8th.

Doesn't sound as if they intend to forget about it!

Demonstrators passed out leaflets for a similar protest scheduled for 10:30 a.m. July 8 in front of Hialeah City Hall, 501 Palm Ave.

Thanks a lot.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. I think they can nail them on the Shrek video

maybe they didn't they read the FBI warning on the DVD.

[roguevalley]

9. I am appalled at what has happened. possibly innocent people to

be hung out to dry for politics. Al Qaeda? How can Christians be part of an Islamic militant group?

[Ganja Ninja]

12. I guess faith based counseling programs need to be approved

by the GOP. It's only a matter of time before they begin shutting down churches that don't meet the party's standards.

[Judi Lynn]

18. According to these LTTE's at the Miami Herald, the Bush stunt hasn't

been overly successful!

Posted on Tue, Jun. 27, 2006
Perspectives on local terror suspects

I am not afraid of seven men who sell shampoo during the day and leap over chairs and do jumping-jacks by night -- even if they did, on occasion, discuss ways to stick it to The Man. I am, however, nervous watching the FBI target struggling young black men from low-income neighborhoods and making terrorists out of them. The 9/11 hijackers didn't hang out in the 'hood. But as the arrests last week show, we get back from our communities what we put into them.

I know Buena Vista and Liberty City, and I've watched urban development in Miami. It destroys the positive culture and social networks that have evolved in low-income neighborhoods over the years. People are run out of these neighborhoods, which are left with no affordable housing. There is no concern for a social safety net, only for real-estate values.

The seven men, it appears, were trying to find meaning and purpose in a time and place that considers poor, immigrant and nonwhite men, at best, disposable and, at worst, an obstacle to progress.

If their resentment built up over the years, they were and are not alone.

They may have talked big, but they were not armed and dangerous. So far, I've seen no convincing evidence of a serious plot or threat. What we have seen is a preemptive strike against our own. Shame on us for spying on and baiting our citizens, rather than making good on our American promises: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14909214.htm

[superconnected]

19. This is our Nazi government in action.

What will they accuse the Gays of? They're watching gay groups.

How about the anti-war groups?

This guy getting taken away is no different than any of us suddenly getting taken away. They lied to make him an Enemy of the state, in an intangible war(terror) based on lies.