Entered into the database on Saturday, June 24th, 2006 @ 20:21:17 MST
In regard to arrested Nuwaubians in Miami, Time
Magazine writes: “The arrested men appear to be part of a cult organization
proclaiming itself to be Muslim—although a member of the same religious
group says it is, in fact, based on a homebrew of Islam and Christianity, and
calls itself ‘Seas of David.’ Its members, mainly Americans and
Haitan (sic) immigrants, clearly have an enthusiasm for emulating and following
al-Qaeda. But their only ‘connection’ with al-Qaeda appears to have
been the fact that a government informant who had infiltrated their ranks had
apparently convinced the alleged conspirators that he was, in fact, a Qaeda
operative. The oaths of allegiance to the organization alleged by the indictment
to have been taken by the accused were administered not by any representative
of the organization, but to a U.S. government agent posing as a Qaeda operative.”
In other words, they were entrapped, same as the “terrorists”
in Ottawa. It is now apparently a crime to have “enthusiasm for emulating and following
al-Qaeda,” absurd as this is on its face, especially for members of a
cult not strictly based on “Islam and Christianity,” as the stenographers
at Time would have us believe. Nuwaubianism is an odd mélange of Madame Blavatsky influenced spiritualism
and alien cryptozoology, among other things, and is not based on Sunni fundamentalism.
Nuwaubianism is counter to the austere monotheism of Wahhabism and no doubt
an operative from “al-Qaeda” would find the religion heretical and
his young charges unacceptable for a holy war against the United States. But then the “operative” behind the bust is an FBI agent, not a
Sunni fundamentalist hailing from the fantastical “al-Qaeda,” a
movement essentially created by western intelligence, Pakistan’s Directorate
for Inter-Services Intelligence, and funded by Saudi Arabia. Time Magazine admits these Nuwaubian influenced “terrorists” were
basically harmless, “strutting around a poor black neighborhood in military-style
uniforms, wearing turbans, standing guard around the abandoned warehouse in
which they lived and conducting late-night exercise drills, while telling neighbors
that they had ‘given their lives to Allah.’ The basic habit of trained
terrorists is secrecy and stealth; they do their utmost to fit in with their
surroundings rather than stand out. The Miami seven, according to reports thus
far, seemed to have been doing the exact opposite, behaving more like a Hollywood
B-movie version of terrorists than the real thing.” However, for the government and the corporate media, “Hollywood B-movie”
terrorists are just what the doctor ordered, as Americans are surrounded by
Hollywood stereotypes and these work just fine on their collective psyche. “The London bombings last summer were carried out by a self-taught group
of British-born men who had no direct connection with al-Qaeda, yet sought to
emulate it. But that grouping, perhaps having learned from the Qaeda terror
manuals widely available on jihadist web sites, seem to have observed many of
the same principles of secrecy that a group like the 9/11 plotters would have
. Friends, family and neighbors were shocked to learn that young men in their
midst who seemed no different from any others turned out to be terrorists. The
extent of the danger represented by such groups depends on their capacities:
Are they able to operate undetected? Do they have the means to carry out attacks?
Do they have workable plans for such attacks?” Never mind that the London bombings were masterminded by a known MI6 asset,
Haroon Rashid Aswat, and Iyman Faris, supposedly an “al-Qaeda” operative
who supposedly plotted to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge, was an FBI asset, or
in the weeks before nine eleven, the alleged hijackers were monitored by numerous
intelligence agencies as they attempted to bone up on their miserable flight
skills. It is of little significance Israeli “art students” (i.e.,
young Mossad agents) followed around and kept close tabs on Mohammed Atta and
his key accomplice, Marwan al-Shehi. “After 911 these so called terrorists have been allowed to go on with
business as usual, despite the ‘war on terror’ and in many instances
have been protected. It seems that the authorities find it more useful to restrict
the liberties of law abiding citizens by introducing draconian restrictive laws
such as the Patriot act and Free speech zoning, whilst allowing those they label
as terrorists to go undetected,” writes
Steve Watson. As well, the authorities, with the help of a complaisant corporate media, find
it useful to set-up and frame young African-Americans who may or may not espouse
al-Qaedaism, with more than a little help from the FBI. “From the indictment it is clear that the men had no shortage of ambition,
asking for al-Qaeda training to wage a ‘full ground war’ to ‘kill
all the devils we can.’ To his end, the group asked the undercover agent
for a wish-list of equipment that included boots, uniforms, machine guns, bullet-proof
vests, radios and vehicles—as well as $50,000 in cash,” Time continues.
“The group’s leader also provided the government agent with ‘a
list of shoe sizes for the purchase of military boots for his “soldiers”.’
The idea that these seven men could wage a ‘ground war’ in the U.S.
seems to have more in common with the fevered thinking behind various deadly
cults over the years than with the operations of international terror networks.”
In other words, without the help of the FBI, determined to establish a “homegrown”
terrorist threat, as elucidated by FBI head honcho Robert
Mueller in Cleveland as the bust unfolded in Miami, these “terrorists,”
hailing from a cult that believes in shape-shifting reptiles, would have gone
nowhere. “We’ve already seen this new face in terrorism in Madrid, London
and Toronto,” Mueller told the City Club in Cleveland. “They were
persons who came to view their country as the enemy,” a view helped along
by FBI “informants,” also known as agents provocateurs, practicing
a form of entrapment perfected during the halcyon days of COINTELPRO—now
back with a vengeance, as the neocons are in the process of demonizing Muslims
of all stripe, even if said Muslims blend Moorish Science, nominally Islamic,
with the belief their leader, Malachi Z. York, is from the planet Rizq. “Fevered minds can be very dangerous, of course. But the threat they
present is quite different from that of transnational terror groups. After all,
the government appears to have had no problem infiltrating and exposing this
group, which was hardly making itself inconspicuous or impregnable—unlike
the New York subway plot reported in TIME this week, whose perpetrators slipped
into the U.S., conducted their surveillance, prepared the operational details
of poison gas attacks, then aborted them on instructions from al-Qaeda leaders
and departed America, all with U.S. security none the wiser.” It appears the “fevered minds” of the Nuwaubians were exploited
by the FBI, a possibility that does not seem to bother Time Magazine, as it
is staunchly behind the effort to convince Americans, weary of war and terrorism,
they face “homegrown” terrorism, a threat, however preposterous,
more ominous than the alleged threat posed by “transnational terror groups,”
most in fact created by the CIA, MI6, Mossad, the Pentagon’s DIA, and
other intelligence outfits working in the shadows. Finally, although we were initially told these putative Nuwaubian al-Qaedaites
wanted to kill “white devils,” now we are told they wanted to “levy
war against the government of the United States.” It is absurd to believe
impoverished kids from a Miami ghetto would be capable of taking on the government,
especially when they are reduced to begging for boots and money from the FBI.
As usual, rationality does not figure into the equation, as the point here is
to scare the pants off clueless Americans perched before their idiot tubes,
digesting pablum dispensed by the Ministry of Neocon Lies and Fantastic Campfire
Stories. However, this did not stop U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta from declaring:
“You want to go and disrupt cells like this before they acquire the means
to accomplish their goals.” It also helps to plant an agent provocateur
in their midst to egg them on and offer assistance. In effect, Acosta is accusing
the “Miami Seven” of little more than thought crime. But then thought crime in America, as in Orwell’s Oceania, is
a punishable offense. __________________________ Framing Nuwaubians as “al-Qaeda” Wannabes
by Kurt Nimmo Reading the ill-informed and hysterical garbage put out by the corporate media
about the alleged Miami terrorists, or patsies rather, it becomes obvious the
people arrested are not Muslims at all. Instead, they appear to be “just a local African-American cult which
mixed Judaism, Christianity and (a little bit of) Islam. It seems to be a of
vague offshoot of the Moors group founded by Dwight York [aka Malachi Z. York
],” writes Juan Cole. York is the
leader of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors. “Nuwaubianism is an esoteric cosmology, a collection of religious teachings,
and a set of cultural practices that is multifaceted and ever-changing,”
explains Wikipedia.
It has influences and borrowings from many sources—such as a white
new-age Blavatsky-influenced movement like Astara, the Rosicrucians, Freemasonry,
the Shriners, the Moorish Science Temple of America, the revisionist Christianity
and Islam of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the numerology of Rashad Khalifa, the ancient
astronaut theories of Zecharia Sitchin, the alien cryptozoology of David Icke
including the UFO mythology of greys and reptilians, more terrestrial cryptozoological
stories like that of the chupacabra, the political theories of patriot mythology,
modern scientific and pseudoscientific legends like those of Area 51, the
Philadelphia Experiment, Project Blue Book, Montauk Project, and MJ-12, popular
conspiracy theories such as those about the Illuminati or multiple clones
of members of the Bilderberg Group, a paperback on fortune telling, and hollow
earth theories. Earlier today, reading sketchy corporate media accounts, I considered the possibility
the members of this alleged terrorist group were actually members of the Nation
of Islam. In order to spread anti-Muslim hysteria far and wide, and give it
a “homegrown” spin, it makes perfect sense for the FBI and the Justice
Department to go after the Nation. In fact, according to the Wikipedia write-up
linked above, some “of the Nuwaubian racial doctrine borrows from Moorish
Science and the Nation of Islam. York’s racial philosophy explicitly indicates
that certain blacks—’Nubians’ or ‘Melanites’—are
of a superior race in fact as well as in descent. Nubian explanations of racial
differences are quite complex and “draw on the Hebrew creation myths from
Genesis.” It is interesting to note the Nubians, or Nuwaubians, believe in a tailored
version of the New World Order conspiracy: “The Illuminati have nurtured
a child, Satan’s son, who was born on 6 June 1966 at the Dakota House
on 72nd Street in New York to the Rothschild/Kennedy families. The Pope was
present at the birth and performed necromantic ceremonies. The child was raised
by former U.S. president Richard Nixon and now lives in Belgium, where it is
hooked up bodily to a computer called ‘The Beast 3M’ or ‘3666.’”
“York and the Nuwaubians came under increased government scrutiny in
the early-1990s after building Tama-Re, an ancient Egyptian-themed ‘city’
featuring pyramids, temples, and living quarters for hundreds of his followers,
in Putnam County, Georgia near Eatonton. He was arrested in May of 2002, charged
with over 100 counts of child molestation and other charges, and was convicted
in 2004 and sentenced to 135 years in prison,” Wikipedia
notes. In October, 2005, a federal appeals court upheld York’s conviction.
“The federal government seized the 476-acre Nuwaubian compound in August
2004 and sold it in June,” the Associated
Press reported at the time. In short, York and the Nuwaubians have nothing to do with Islam or “al-Qaeda,”
as the dissembling corporate media would have us believe. Obviously, Osama bin
Laden, or the myth of Osama bin Laden, would consider the Nuwaubians infidels,
even more than the phantom al-Zarqawi considered Shi’ites infidels to
be slaughtered in numbers, or so the Pentagon has told us over the last couple
years. It appears the FBI informer assigned to this case spent a lot of time convincing
the young Nuwaubians in the poverty-wracked Liberty City section of Miami that
“al-Qaeda” was interested in their struggle against the “white
devils,” but then, considering the shameful history of entrapment and
law-breaking on the part of the FBI, we will probably never know what sort of
enticement, if any, was used to snare these apparently deluded young African-Americans.
Obviously, the corporate media is telling outrageous lies about the Nuwaubians,
facilitating a brazen effort to convince the American people they must now fear
“homegrown” terrorism, even if the terrorists believe in David Icke’s
shape-shifting reptiles instead of Allah. If a blogger in New Mexico can spend an hour or so investigating the history
of the Nuwaubians, who are basically New Agers and not Muslims, what is wrong
with the over-paid stenographers in the corporate media? It is, naturally, a rhetorical question. _______________________ Feds' sting videotaped oaths to terrorists BY LARRY LEBOWITZ, LESLEY CLARK AND MARTIN MERZER They thought they were joining al Qaeda, but they were not. They were led by
a ''Moses-like figure'' who carried a cane through Liberty City and wore a cape
or sometimes a bathrobe. They allegedly sought to sow death and terror, and
they ended up in leg irons. The seven men arrested in an alleged terrorist plot believed they were conspiring
with al Qaeda ''to levy war against the United States'' in attacks that would
''be just as good or greater than 9/11,'' according to a federal indictment
unsealed Friday. The campaign was to begin with the bombing of the 110-story Sears Tower in
Chicago, according to the indictment, though an FBI sting foiled the plot long
before it reached that point. Also discussed were attacks against federal buildings in Miami, officials said,
and four other cities not identified in the charging documents. ''Individuals in America made plans to hurt Americans,'' U.S. Attorney General
Albert Gonzales said during a news conference in Washington. But that's where it stopped -- with plans, authorities said. The men, allegedly led by Narseal Batiste, each swore an oath of fidelity to
al Qaeda called a bayat but never met with an authentic representative of the
group responsible for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to
authorities. They were not able to obtain explosives and no weapons were found, officials
said. In Chicago, police said there was no credible threat against the Sears
Tower and no arrests were made there. ''This group was more aspirational than operational,'' said John Pistole, the
FBI's deputy director. Authorities said the group was infiltrated by a government informant, was under
surveillance for months and no longer posed a danger. The loyalty oaths were
captured on videotape, indicating that FBI agents obtained a warrant to plant
recording devices in the group's windowless warehouse headquarters. But officials stopped short of saying that every member had been arrested. ''I can tell you that the investigation continues,'' Gonzales said. Other officials described the group as a distinct threat and, at the same time,
as something akin to the gang that couldn't think straight. Determined to wage
war against the United States, they had to ask the supposed al Qaeda contact
for money to buy boots. ''You don't want to dismiss it just because they don't have a pot to pee in,''
said a federal law enforcement source who asked not to be identified. ``What
happens if guys like this run up against somebody for real who can really finance
something serious?'' For the most part, authorities framed the case as one against a ''homegrown
cell'' of would-be terrorists, but said the seven could have inflicted great
harm. According to the indictment, Batiste, 32, called his men ''soldiers'' in an
''Islamic army'' that would wage a ``full ground war.'' He said he wanted to ''kill all the devils that we can,'' officials said, and
he wanted most of his group to attend al Qaeda training this past April. The suspects called their meeting place -- a warehouse at 6260 NW 15th Ave.,
where some of them were arrested Thursday -- ''the embassy,'' authorities said. ''They lived and worked in the United States, enjoyed all the freedoms our
great nation offers, yet they pledged their allegiance to al Qaeda,'' Pistole
said in Washington. ``Their goal was simple: Commit attacks against America.'' Gonzales compared them to terrorists in Madrid, London and Toronto. ''Left unchecked, these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as
groups like al Qaeda,'' Gonzales said. Someone approached by Batiste to join the group contacted the FBI, initiating
a full-court press from the Miami anti-terrorism task force, authorities said.
The task force soon planted the informant in the group. Their motive? ''They did not believe the U.S. government had legal authority over them,''
Pistole said. ``They were separatists.'' At the same time, the seven were fooled for six months by the government informant
who pretended to be an al Qaeda operative, according to the indictment. They needed help acquiring everything from machine guns to rental vans and
boots, even giving the informant a list of their shoe sizes, according to the
indictment, and they were led by an eccentric man who called himself Brother
Naz and Prince Manna. A friend described Batiste as a ''Moses-like'' figure who would roam the neighborhood
in odd clothing, carrying a crooked wooden cane as he recruited vulnerable young
men. ''He had a resentment in his heart toward God,'' said Sylvain Plantin. ``I
felt something wasn't right about him.'' Others said he was a martial arts devotee who sometimes wore camouflage and
led his followers through late-night physical exercises -- in plain view of
neighbors. The six other defendants were identified in the indictment as Patrick Abraham,
26; Burson Augustin, 21; Rotschild Augustine, 22; Naudimar Herrera, 22; Lyglenson
Lemorin, 31; and Stanley Grant Phanor, 31. None made any substantive public comment since the arrests, but some friends
and relatives expressed shock -- and doubt that the men were guilty. `HUSBAND IS INNOCENT' ''I believe my husband is innocent of all the accusations against him,'' said
Minerva Batiste, 34, wife of the alleged ringleader. Despite early reports to the contrary, it did not appear that the men were
members of mainstream Muslim communities. A close friend of one of the defendants said Batiste's teachings come from
the Moorish Science Temple of America, an early 20th century religion that blended
Christianity, Judaism and Islam with a heavy influence on self-discipline through
martial arts. On Friday, their Liberty City neighborhood resembled a parking lot for television
news trucks as numerous reporters set up live shots in front of the arrest scene
-- a windowless, coral-colored, one-story warehouse. Some residents watched the action, while others went about their business,
saying they didn't mind the attention if the arrests made their neighborhood
safer. ''Good, take them away,'' Daniel Bellamy said. ``I just got out of the Army
three years ago. If I learned anything, it's that we have to stay alert and
keep our eyes open. Always.'' Five of the defendants -- all except Phanor and Lemorin -- appeared in Miami
federal court Friday afternoon, though they said nothing about the case. The five, arrested Thursday in Miami, were dressed in the muddy brown jumpsuits
worn by new federal prisoners. Leg irons and handcuffs restricted their movements.
Batiste had a wispy beard and a shaved head. No pleas were entered during the brief hearing. None of the five spoke about
the cases. All responded in soft, respectful tones when U.S. Magistrate Judge
Patrick A. White asked about their financial situations. They said they were self-employed or unemployed and had scant financial resources.
White appointed attorneys to represent them. The defendants will return to court
next Friday. Lemorin was arrested Thursday in Atlanta and Phanor already was in state custody
for allegedly violating probation. Abraham is an undocumented immigrant from Haiti; Lemorin is a permanent resident.
The other five are U.S. citizens, officials said. The four-count indictment charges all seven with conspiracy to provide material
support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to provide material
support and resources to terrorists, conspiracy to maliciously damage and destroy
by means of an explosive, and conspiracy to levy war against the United States. If convicted, they would face maximum prison sentences of 15 or 20 years on
each charge. Four of the defendants had prior arrests for mostly small-time crimes -- misdemeanor
battery, marijuana possession, illegal possession of a firearm, or driving with
a suspended license. Nothing in their criminal pasts would have suggested an interest in domestic
terrorism, authorities said. TIMELINE According to the indictment: • The plot began in November, with Batiste recruiting the others for
the mission ``to wage war.'' • On Dec. 16, Batiste met in a hotel with the confidential informant. • The seven men pledged oaths of allegiance to al Qaeda. • Group members asked the supposed al Qaeda agent to provide machine
guns, boots, uniforms and vehicles. • Members of the group took reconnaissance photographs of the FBI's field
office in North Miami Beach and shot video and still photos of the James Lawrence
King Federal Justice Building, other federal courthouse buildings, the Federal
Detention Center and the Miami Police Department in downtown Miami. How serious were these threats and how close did the seven come to succeeding
with their plans? ''They certainly had the will. They were searching for the way,'' R. Alexander
Acosta, the U.S. attorney in South Florida, said during a news conference in
Miami. ``Our mission is to identify them . . . and prevent them from prosecuting
their plan.'' Miami Herald staff writers Jennifer Babson, Evan S. Benn, Oscar Corral,
Amy Driscoll, Susannah A. Nesmith, David Ovalle, Charles Rabin and Nicholas
Spangler contributed to this report. ____________________________ Terror plan farcical By ADAM HARVEY THE plot sounded menacing: a group of home-grown terrorists with sinister code
names seek help from al-Qaida to attack the tallest US building, the 103-storey
Sears Tower in Chicago. But as more details emerge of a supposed terror plot interrupted by US authorities,
the plotters and their half-baked plan seem less than deadly and more than a
little ridiculous. A man the plotters thought was an al-Qaida representative turned out to be
an undercover agent who helped them: he took their shoe sizes and gave them
boots, but failed to provide other items allegedly requested: guns, vehicles,
$70,000 cash and bullet-proof vests. While relatives said they were harmless and not even Muslims, an indictment
released by the US Attorney-General, Albert Gonzales, said the men had sworn
an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida. Ringleader Narseal Batiste had promised to
wage "a full ground war" against the US to "kill all the devils
we can" in a mission "just as good or greater than 9/11". It is unclear whether the Sears Tower attack was suggested by the suspects
or the undercover agent. The plotters also wanted to attack FBI buildings, the
indictment said, and Batiste used the informant's camera to photograph the FBI
building in North Miami Beach and other Miami government buildings. That was as far as the plotters got. "It was more aspirational than operational," said John Pistole, the
FBI's deputy director. Neighbours of the warehouse in an area of Miami called Liberty City described
the men as a militaristic group, in their teens and 20s, that did not seem threatening.
Relatives said the men were part of a community group that had tried to start
a local restaurant. A neighbour said they seemed "brainwashed". "They'd come out late at night and exercise," said Tashawn Rose,
29. "It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there.
They would come out and stand guard." The indictment said the men used code names like "Brother Naz" and
"Brother Sunni." Security at Sears Tower was already tight after previous bomb threats. "Federal and local authorities continue to tell us they've never found
evidence of a credible terrorism threat against Sears Tower," said building
managing director, Barbara Carley. Meanwhile Florida Islamic leaders said the men were not Muslims, not linked
to the local Islamic community and were members of a cult. "As far as we are concerned they have no relation with our community their
ideology has nothing in common with the ideology of Islam and they should not
be called Muslim," said Ahmed Bedier of of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations.
Another Day in the Empire
The Miami Herald
The
Herald Sun
The seven alleged plotters were mostly unemployed men from a poor suburb of
Miami who had no weapons, explosives or money, and were so disorganised they
asked their "al-Qaida" contact for uniforms and boots for their "Islamic
army", and a camera to take pictures of their target.