‘Homegrown terrorists’ arraigned in court

At a news conference in Miami, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said officials decided to raid the warehouse and make the arrests Thursday because investigators had sufficient evidence and were confident they had fully developed the case. Acosta said authorities are confident that each arrested member of the cell “had intent to pose a threat.”

“You want to go and disrupt cells like this before they acquire the means to accomplish their goals,” Acosta said. “This is exactly the kind of case we should be investigating.”

Acosta said the group came to law enforcement’s attention when Batiste approached an individual about waging jihad inside the United States. This unidentified individual went to authorities with that information and later posed as an al-Qaida member, Acosta said.

He would not more fully describe the individual other than to say it was a person “who was working with us.”

Self-described Black Muslims
Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Black Muslims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group. Tashawn Rose, 29, said they tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew for a karate class.

She said she talked to one of the men about a month ago. “They seemed brainwashed,” she said. “They said they had given their lives to Allah.”

Residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men had lived in the area for about a year.

Benjamin Williams, 17, said the group sometimes had young children with them. At times, he added, the men “would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbans.”

Security at the 110-floor Sears Tower, a Chicago landmark and the nation’s tallest building, was ramped up after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 103rd-floor skydeck was closed for about a month and a half.

“Law enforcement continues to tell us that they have never found evidence of a credible terrorism threat against Sears Tower that has gone beyond criminal discussions,” the statement said.

In addition to Batiste, the defendants were identified as Patrick Abraham, or “Brother Pat”; Burson Augustin, or “Brother B”; Stanley Grant Phanor, or “Brother Sunni”; Naudimar Herrera, or “Brother Naudy”; Lyglenson Lemorin, also known as “Brother Levi” or “Brother Levi-El”; and Rotschild Augustine, or “Brother Rot.”

Lemorin was arrested in Atlanta.

‘Not a violent boy,’ father says
Joseph Phanor, the father of defendant Stanley Grant Phanor, said he didn’t believe “anything they say about” his son being involved in a terrorist plot.

“This boy, he’s not a violent boy. He never got into trouble. ... He didn’t want to kill people,” the elder Phanor told The Associated Press.

He said his son and his friends studied the Bible together in Miami. “All I know is that they have a construction job there and they have a contract to do some construction job. That’s what he told me,” he said.

The person they believed to be an al-Qaida representative gave Batiste a digital video camera, which Batiste said he would use to record pictures of the North Miami Beach FBI building, the indictment said. At a March 26 meeting, it went on, Batiste and Burson Augustin provided the “al-Qaida representative” with photographs of the FBI building, as well as video footage of other Miami government buildings, and discussed the plot to bomb the FBI building.

But on May 24, the indictment said, Batiste told the “al-Qaida representative” that he was experiencing delays “because of various problems within his organization.” Batiste said he wanted to continue his mission and his relationship with al-Qaida nonetheless, the document said.

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