Free Republic

TROUBLED pop queen Whitney Houston is dabbling with a strict Hebrew sect in a bid to sort out her life. The singer was in Israel with wayward husband Bobby Brown yesterday to find out more about the Jewish group. The pair also prayed at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Whitney, 39, who had a No1 hit with Saving All My Love For You, became interested in the Black Hebrews after her sister-in-law Pat joined them. They are an African-American community that moved to Israel in 1969 and settled in the southern town of Dimona. Followers are banned from eating...

On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta. Brian Ross reports on the undercover agent in al Qaeda. In an exclusive interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early...

Officials said the woman exhibited unusual behavior and began making threatening remarks to responding officers. "They ran over to where the subject was, and that's when she began to yell in what appeared to be in Arabic language," said Zabaleta, "and then in English told the responding officers she had a bomb in her possession."

Given that hard evidence is often scarce in trials of unsuccessful terrorists, prosecutors in Miami no doubt felt fortunate to be trying defendants who participated in a ceremony pledging allegiance to al Qaeda — and it was captured on video. Add to that ironclad proof that the leader of the cell requested — from a man he believed to be a terrorist financier — boots, uniforms, vehicles, machine guns and $50,000. Several of the defendants took surveillance photos of government buildings. Just in case the reason for the request was unclear, Narseal Batiste stated — on tape — that it...

MIAMI — In a stinging defeat for the Bush administration, one of seven Miami men accused of plotting to join forces with Al Qaeda to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower was acquitted Thursday, and the case against the rest ended in a hung jury. Federal prosecutor Richard Gregorie said the government planned to retry the six next year, and the judge said a new jury would be picked starting Jan. 7.

One of seven Miami men accused of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower was acquitted Thursday, and a mistrial was declared for the six others after the federal jury deadlocked. Federal prosecutor Richard Gregorie said the government plans to retry the six next year. The Bush administration had seized on the case to illustrate the dangers of homegrown terrorism and trumpet the government's post-Sept. 11 success in infiltrating and smashing terrorism plots in their earliest stages.

MIAMI - A group of men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower were in the final stages of forming a homegrown terrorist cell dedicated to waging an Islamic holy war before they were arrested, a prosecution terrorism expert testified Tuesday. Raymond Tanter, a Georgetown University professor and terrorism scholar said suspected ringleader Narseal Batiste and the other six had nearly completed the "radicalization process" and moved toward acts of terrorism before their arrests in June 2006. Hallmarks of this process include religious conversion, operation within a military-style hierarchy and adoption of goals shared by al-Qaida and other terrorist...

Federal Judge Denies Request To Ban Video (CBS) -- MIAMI A federal judge has denied a request for a temporary injunction which would have prevented CBS 2 sister station WFOR-TV CBS 4 in Miami and their Web site, CBS4.com, from showing undercover surveillance video of seven men implicated in a terrorism scheme that involved a plot to blow up the Sears Tower. Attorney Ana Jhones had filed the request with Federal Court judge Joan Lenard at the US Courthouse in Miami, asking that CBS, and any other media outlet, be prevented from showing the undercover video showing her client, Narseal...

Assem Hammoud, 31, the architect of a plan to bomb New York tunnels, was trained and directed by Al Qaida to strike by the end of this year, U.S. and Lebanese officials said. "Security forces were able to track e-mails and conversations on an extremist Islamic website used to recruit terrorists," the Lebanese Internal Security Forces said in a statement. Hammoud, nicknamed the "Andalusian prince" in an apparent reference to Islamic emirs who once ruled Spain, was trained in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein Hilwe near Sidon, the ISF statement said. Ein Hilwe has long been a hotbed of...

Planning to murder innocent Americans in the name of radical Islam doesn’t necessarily make one a Muslim terrorist. At least that was the opinion expressed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) after last month’s arrests of seven black men in Miami for plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and the FBI headquarters in Miami. “Given that the reported beliefs of this bizarre group have nothing to do with Islam, we ask members of the media to refrain from calling them Muslims,” read a statement from Ahmed Bedier, Director of CAIR Florida chapter. In fact, the men arrested were...

A federal judge Wednesday denied bond to six men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and conspiring to help al-Qaida blow up several federal buildings in Los Angeles and other cities. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ted Bandstra ruled that the men posed too great a risk to the community to be released. "The charges against each of the defendants are serious charges and constitute counts of violence," Bandstra stated, adding that it was "not relevant that the plans appear to be beyond the abilities of the defendants." The six men, who have pleaded not guilty, were arrested June...

A US judge has denied bail overnight to six Miami men charged with conspiracy to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago because he considered them a threat to the community. "The charges against each and everyone of these defendants are serious charges and involve crimes of violence," said Judge Ted Bandstra. "The government presents a strong case in support of conspiracy charges," he said, citing videotapes submitted to the court that show one of the defendants discussing with an FBI informant plans to blow up the Sears Tower. One of the tapes also shows the whole group pledging loyalty...

MIAMI - Minutes after U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta announced indictments on Friday against an alleged terror cell, a Muslim leader took to the steps of the city's federal courthouse and said the suspects "were not known" at either of two mosques near the warehouse in the Liberty City neighborhood where authorities arrested them. Ahmed Bedier, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he and other Muslims feared some would try to connect Islam and the men's alleged plot to blow up a slew of federal buildings and the Sears Tower in Chicago. "This seems like some kind of cult group...

CHICAGO, March 16 (UPI) -- U.S. federal officials have confirmed they are investigating an incident where three men were seen studying and taking pictures of Chicago's Sears Tower. The men were spotted outside the 110-story building by security guards about three weeks ago. The men were questioned and allowed to leave, but the guards notified the Chicago Police Department. They in turn notified the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Chicago Tribune reported The guards recorded the car's license plate and it was traced to a rental agency, which said the car was returned about an hour after the incident.It was...

There are many incongruities surrounding the arrest of seven men from the impoverished Liberty City neighborhood of Miami on charges of conspiracy to “wage war on the United States” that suggest it, like so many previous “terrorist plots” announced by the Bush administration, is a government-inspired provocation mounted for reactionary political ends.None of the claims made by the government and repeated uncritically by the media concerning the arrest of these young working-class men can be accepted as good coin. Both the flimsiness of the criminal indictment and the lurid headlines surrounding it mark this event as an escalation in the...

MIAMI - Seven men accused of trying to blow up the Sears Tower with help from al-Qaida never actually made contact with the terrorist network and were instead caught in an FBI sting involving an informant who posed as an al-Qaida operative, authorities said Friday. Federal prosecutors said the men _ who operated out of a warehouse in Miami's blighted Liberty City section _ took an oath to al-Qaida and plotted to create an "Islamic Army" bent on violence against the United States. Five of those arrested are U.S. citizens. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stressed that there was no immediate...

No one died and the plot never got off the ground, thank goodness, but America yesterday got another chilling reminder of the threat from the homegrown enemies next door. Federal agents busted a group of al Qaeda wannabes with dreams of destroying the Sears Tower in Chicago and several federal buildings in Miami. Much of law enforcement's success surely is due to the kinds of warrantless-surveillance programs loudly decried by Democrats and the civil-liberties crowd - including the financial-transactions monitoring that was disclosed Thursday. But this latest plot offers a troubling glimpse of a homegrown fifth-column group on U.S. soil...

Calling them "homegrown terrorists," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday that seven men had been charged with conspiring to work with al-Qaida to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and five federal buildings. “They were persons who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy,” Gonzales said at a news conference at the Justice Department. The suspects, ranging in age from 22 to 32, are five U.S. citizens, a legal immigrant from Haiti and a Haitian national who was in this country illegally. Gonzales cited court documents that said the ringleader boasted of wanting to "kill all...

FBI says suspects sought to form own army By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer Seven Men Indicted in Alleged Bombing Plot MIAMI (AP) -- Seven men accused of trying to blow up the Sears Tower with help from al-Qaida never actually made contact with the terrorist network and were instead caught in an FBI sting involving an informant who posed as an al-Qaida operative, authorities said Friday. Federal prosecutors said the men - who operated out of a warehouse in Miami's blighted Liberty City section - took an oath to al-Qaida and plotted to create an "Islamic Army" bent on...

"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...