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.

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Framing Nuwaubians as “al-Qaeda” Wannabes

by Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire

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.

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Feds' sting videotaped oaths to terrorists

BY LARRY LEBOWITZ, LESLEY CLARK AND MARTIN MERZER
The Miami Herald

Linda Lemorin, left, and and another relative of Lyglenson Lemorin, one of the seven men arrested in an alleged plot to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and a federal building in Miami, are seen outside federal court Friday in Miami.(J. PAT CARTER / AP)

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.

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Terror plan farcical

By ADAM HARVEY
The Herald Sun

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.
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.

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.