Last Wednesday here in South Florida, Asst. U.S. Attorney Richard Gregorie made clear his plan to try the Liberty City 7, er 6 yet again. They were seven, but the jury in the first trial acquitted one of them (here are the recent details with links to all of the background "news you can use" articles beginning in July of 2007 when the government first "uncovered" this terrorist plot: 'Liberty City 6' To Be Tried For Third Time).
Like those oh, so elusive WMDs that precipitated our occupation of Iraq, draining both our human and monetary capital, this farce is yet another exercise in fear-mongering. Somebody tell me how these damn-near homeless, assuredly greedy yet undeniably gullible Black men, could perpetrate this massive act of terrorism in America with no guns, no explosives, no knowledge of making said explosives, no apparent prior connection to Al Qaeda and most importantly - no damn money???
But for Mr. Batiste saying on tape he wanted to "kill all the American devils" coupled with the urging of the FBI informant who offered these men $50,000, hiking boots and a camera (he bought them a camera to take surveillance photos of buildings that al Qaeda wanted blown up) if they would pledge allegiance to Al Qaeda, no one, I repeat NO ONE, would give two shits about the likes of Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Agustin and Rotschild Augustine and Lyglenson Lemorin, the seventh of the group who was found not guilty in the first trial. Hell, Louis Farrakhan's been talking about "American devils" since his rise to power in the Nation of Islam and nobody's ever charged him with terror conspiracy. And I certainly need not go into the Church Committee's final report on the FBI's COINTELPRO shenanigans to point out why all this prosecution is so much entrapment bullshit.
Two juries to date have said the government has no evidence to show that these men were ever a real terrorism threat - TWO! Yet the government, after having spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 - $8 million taxpayer dollars, plans to go ahead and spend a minimum of $1 mllion more - with the same evidence used in the prior two trials! I guess the prosecutor's decided if he tries this case over and over and over again, it will make it so.
UPDATE: The third trial's been set for January 6, 2009. See CNN's "Wannabes or terrorists? Third jury may decide"
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