Defence attornies are bleating: but they didn't actually do anything. Just planned? Isn't that what bin Laden did? Yada, yada, yada.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.
| Which means the FBI shouldn't have arrested them, of course. No need to do that until they're driving a rental truck filled with ammonium nitrate northbound on the Dan Ryan expressway. |
Download DOJ indictment here.