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Home Front: WoT
Convicted ISIS supporter tells Chicago judge he's 'just a normal guy'
2021-04-11
The Chicago Sun Times has a photo of the two miscreants taken in happier times.
[ABC7Chicago] A north suburban man who was once pictured holding the ISIS flag at a popular state park, and who fantasized about seeing the terrorist flag on display at the White House, was sentenced Friday to 13 1/2 years in federal prison for terrorism-related offenses.

Edward "Abdul Wali" Schimenti, 39, from the lakeshore community of Zion north of Chicago, had been convicted in June of 2019 for conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization and for lying to the FBI. Schimenti's co-defendant in the terrorism case, Joseph D. Jones, 38, was sentenced last month to 12 years in prison. Federal prosecutors had asked that Schimenti receive a longer sentence than co-defendant Jones.
...Joseph D. Jones, also known as Yusuf Abdulhaqq, is a loving family man, former army brat, and convert. Edward Schimenti was banned by the local Black Lives Matter group for being too radical...
As ABC7's I-Team first reported five years ago, both men had a jihadist scheme to attack Great Lakes Naval Base , the Navy's sole basic training facility. They also expressed an interest in throwing people off the roof of the (former) Sears Tower skyscraper in Chicago. The violent mostly peaceful scenarios were not serious threats, according to Schimenti's attorney on Friday but were merely stated for "shock value."

"I'm not a terrorist," Schimenti told U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood during Friday's sentencing hearing.

"I'm a big softie; a big teddy bear," he said prior to the lengthy sentence being imposed by Judge Wood. Schimenti and his co-defendant both maintained that they had been entrapped by several government informants, an argument that the jury didn't believe.

During his courtroom statement delivered on Friday, Schimenti said only that he had "some off-color ideas" and that he "could've made better decisions." Schimenti admitted having lied to federal agents after he was arrested in 2017 but told Judge Wood that "I don't support terrorism."

In a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI, Schimenti allegedly stated he was considering attacking the Naval graduation that takes place on "Buckley." The Great Lakes Naval Base, where every U.S. Navy recruit is trained, is located on Buckley Street in North Chicago.

Among the ISIS fantasies that federal prosecutors say Schimenti shared with an informant: gay people would be thrown off of Chicago's tallest building, the Willis Tower.

Investigators have said that Jones and Schimenti believed all three undercover federal agents were ISIS backers. Prosecutors have said Jones and Schimenti are both U.S. citizens who pledged their allegiance to ISIS and advocated frequently on social media for violent mostly peaceful extremism.

"Drench that land with they, they blood," Schimenti is alleged to have said of the U.S. on one occasion.

Schimenti was sentenced to 13 1/2 years on the conspiracy count and a year and a half for the false statement conviction. While the sentences total 15 years, the terms will be served concurrently which means he will face a total of 13 1/2 years behind bars, of which most federal prisoners serve 80%.

In addition to the total 15 year prison sentence, Schimenti will face five years of probation when he is released.
Related:
Schimenti: 2019-06-22 Two Chicago-area men convicted of providing support to Islamic State
Schimenti: 2017-05-04 2 charged in Chicago ISIS case plead not guilty
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Home Front: WoT
Terror Bomb Plotter Released from Cook County Jail
2015-02-12
[JudicialWatch] The narco-terror ringleader who planned the 2009 bombing of Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago studios and the iconic Sears Tower has been released from jail, his newfound freedom facilitated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Emad Karakrah was incarcerated in Cook County Jail since taking police on a high-speed chase through Chicago streets in late August and threatening to blow up his car. An Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) flag waved from the vehicle and Karakrah got charged with making a false car bomb threat. But on January 7, 2015 Karakrah reached a plea deal in Cook County Court and was released from prison.

Karakrah’s role in a sophisticated narco-terror ring, centered in El Paso, Texas, has been extensively reported by Judicial Watch over the past four months. The operation, uncovered with Judicial Watch’s help, has connections running from Chicago to New York City and involves two of the FBI’s “most wanted.”

Karakrah was reportedly recruited as an FBI confidential informant (CI) in 2009 after his plot to bomb Winfrey’s Harpo Studios and the Sears Tower (renamed Willis Tower) with a truck bomb was foiled. It wasn’t long before he broke contact with his FBI handlers, according to Judicial Watch’s sources, and for years he successfully evaded them.

It is not clear why the FBI would have any interest or confidence in its ability to control or direct Karakrah. The agency was contacted for comment on this report and failed to respond as it has when reached for comment on other stories in this ongoing narco-terror series.
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-Obits-
Al Qaeda Terrorist Wanted by FBI Crisscrossed U.S.-Mexican Border Before Killed In Pakistan
2014-12-11
More about the gentleman killed in Pakistan. A taste:
[JudicalWatch] An Al Qaeda terrorist on the FBI's most wanted list for years crossed back and forth into the United States from Mexico to meet fellow myrmidon Islamists in Texas and piloted an aircraft into the Cielo Dorado airfield in Anthony, New Mexico, law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch.

The same Al Qaeda operative helped plan the 2009 bombing of talk-show superstar Oprah Winfrey?s reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
 studios and the iconic Sears Tower (renamed Willis Tower), a story that Judicial Watch broke just last week. His name is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (also known as "Javier Robles") and over the weekend he was killed in Pakistain, according to military officials in the Islamic republic.
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Home Front: WoT
Gene Healy: Clowns or killers in al Qaeda
2010-07-21
Last week, federal jurors in Brooklyn heard tapes from an undercover informant in what one prosecutor called one of "the most chilling plots imaginable," a 2007 Islamist plan to detonate underground fuel tanks at JFK International Airport.

On the tapes, defendant Russell Defreitas promised "high-tech," "ninja-style" tactics that included releasing rats in the main terminal to distract security. "We got to come up with supernatural things," he told the informant.

Despite his bluster, Defreitas seemed unaware of the technical difficulties involved in igniting hardened underground pipelines, and he never secured explosives.

The JFK plotters' trial follows May's attempted Times Square bombing, in which Faisal Shahzad -- trained in explosives at an al Qaeda camp in Pakistan -- failed to set off a bomb made of gas cans, propane tanks, fireworks and nonflammable fertilizer.

You ever get the feeling that some of these guys aren't the sharpest scimitars in the shed?

If so, you're not alone. The notion of "savvy and sophisticated" Islamist supervillains is "wildly off the mark," Brookings' Daniel Byman and Christine Fair write in Atlantic magazine.

Many Afghan suicide bombers "never even make it out of their training camp," thanks to the jihadi tradition of the pre-martyrdom "manly embrace": "the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests." (Theological question: Do you get fewer virgins for an own-goal?)

On the American home front, al Qaeda and its sympathizers often don't look much brighter:

" In 2006, an FBI sting rolled up the "Liberty City Seven," whose ringleader, the Washington Post reported, "wanted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, which would then fall into a nearby prison, freeing Muslim prisoners who would become the core of his Moorish army. With them, he would establish his own country." Sounds like a plan!

" 2007 saw the arrest of six Islamists who planned to launch an armed attack on New Jersey's Fort Dix, but were rounded up after they "asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad."

" In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed associate Iyman Faris went to jail on charges involving a plan to topple the Brooklyn Bridge by severing its suspension cables with a blowtorch.

" The 2005 Jose Padilla indictment revealed that some Islamic terrorists haven't quite mastered speaking in code. One of Padilla's co-defendants insisted he was just talking about sporting goods on the surveillance tapes, but couldn't explain why he'd asked his co-conspirator if he had enough "soccer equipment" to "launch an attack on the enemy."

Lest you think I'm just cherry-picking particularly incompetent jihadis, recall that the Bush administration once considered Padilla, an American citizen, too dangerous for a civilian trial, and cited Faris' capture as the crown jewel of successes with its warrantless wiretapping program.

The fact that many terrorists are morons doesn't mean all are, and even morons get lucky sometimes, so vigilance remains essential.

But the myth that al Qaeda is 100 feet tall has fed dramatic government growth since 9/11. The Washington Post's new series on "Top Secret America" shows that D.C. has erected vast pyramids in the name of homeland security, with some 1,200 agencies and 850,000 people trolling through e-mail and clear-cutting forests to produce mounds of useless, redundant intelligence reports.

We've given al Qaeda power over us they don't deserve. When we recognize that they're often inept and clownish, we weaken their ability to sow terror. For the sake of our liberty and security, it's prudent and patriotic to allow an occasional smirk to cross your stiff upper lip.
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Home Front: WoT
Liberty City Six convicted -- or five of them, at least
2009-05-12
A federal jury in Miami has convicted five men of plotting with al-Qaida to topple Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection. A sixth man was acquitted.

Tuesday's verdicts came after six days of deliberations in the third trial of the "Liberty City Six." The first two trials ended in mistrials when jurors could not agree on the men's guilt or innocence. A seventh man was acquitted in the first trial.

The men were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with an undercover FBI informant they thought was from al-Qaida. Defense attorneys said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI tapes was not serious and the men wanted only money.
Link


Home Front: WoT
U.S. begins third effort to convict six in Liberty City terror case
2009-02-19
In the government’s third effort to convict six Miami men of planning to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad, federal prosecutors Wednesday portrayed the group’s ringleader as a man obsessed with overthrowing the United States government. In her opening argument, Assistant United States Attorney Jacqueline Arango told jurors that the ringleader, Narseal Batiste, was a “power-hungry vicious man who wanted to make his mark on the world.”

The prosecution has failed twice to convince juries that Mr. Batiste and his followers were serious supporters of terror, with both trials ending in hung juries. Mr. Batiste and five co-defendants face four counts each, including conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism and to wage war against the United States, or sedition. A seventh suspect, Lyglenson Lemorin, was acquitted after the first trial ended in December 2007.

Prosecutors said the government would show how the 34-year-old Mr. Batiste recruited the other five defendants to form a “paramilitary and cultlike group” that trained in martial arts and met in a ramshackle warehouse in an impoverished Miami neighborhood known as Liberty City. It was there and at other locales in South Florida, Ms. Arango said, that an F.B.I. informant posing as a member of Al Qaeda met with Mr. Batiste and his followers to discuss providing money and weapons for his group in exchange for helping Al Qaeda carry out attacks in South Florida and elsewhere. While posing as a member of Al Qaeda from Yemen, the informant also secretly videotaped the suspects taking an oath of allegiance to the terror group.

In a shift from the first two trials, Ms. Arango appeared to be trying to draw attention to Mr. Batiste’s admiration for a former Chicago gang leader, Jeff Fort, who in 1987 was convicted of conspiring with the Libyan government to carry out terrorist attacks on American soil. Mr. Fort had been mentioned in the earlier trials, but not in opening arguments.

On Wednesday, Ms. Arango noted that the informant had secretly recorded Mr. Batiste identifying himself with Mr. Fort and that Mr. Batiste mentioned the Fort case in detail in his first meeting with the informant in a hotel room in December 2006.

Mr. Batiste’s lawyer argued that the informant entrapped Mr. Batiste and his followers with the promise of thousands of dollars. “This case is a 100 percent setup; this is a manufactured crime,” the lawyer, Ana M. Jhones, said in her opening argument, which drew several objections from the prosecution, most notably when she remarked that “taking an oath to Al Qaeda is not a crime.
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Home Front: WoT
Prosecutors make a third attempt in Liberty City terror plot
2009-01-27
And the NYT dismisses their chances
A group of Miami men accused of planning to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad will return to federal court this week as prosecutors try for a third time to win convictions.

The government's first two efforts ended in mistrials. And legal analysts say the prosecutors face an even greater challenge this time because, nearly three years after the men were arrested, the public mind-set has changed. "The fear card was what they were playing," said Bruce Winick, a University of Miami law professor. "If it didn't work the first two times with the juries that were selected, I think it's less likely that it will work right now because that fear of terrorism is a little more distant in our minds."

Former jurors in the first two cases have said they could not agree in part because of disputes over what some considered a lack of evidence. Prosecutors tried to prove that the original seven defendants, a group of laborers from the tough Liberty City neighborhood, provided "material support" to a terrorist organization, and planned to destroy buildings. But they relied mostly on the men's words, citing their loyalty oath to Al Qaeda and aggressive comments made to two F.B.I. informants. More concrete evidence did not emerge. Testimony showed that a search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of what it called the group's headquarters did not yield guns, explosives or blueprints for an attack. Besides a samurai sword, no weapons were found.

"There was really nothing that indicated that this was a real threat," said Jeffrey Agron, a lawyer who served as the foreman at the first trial in 2007. "Another thing was the credibility of the confidential informants. The first informant, in the minds of most jurors, had no credibility, and with the second informant, a lot of the jurors felt he was trying to lead these guys on."

The first trial ended in December 2007 with an acquittal for one of the seven, Lyglenson Lemorin, and a mistrial for the other six: Narseal Batiste, accused of being the ringleader; Patrick Abraham; Burson Augustine; Rotschild Augustine; Naudimar Herrera; and Stanley G. Phanor. The second trial followed a similar path. Each side laid out many of the same arguments, and another jury deadlocked. On April 16, Judge Joan A. Lenard of Federal District Court ordered a mistrial for the second time. About a week later, prosecutors said they would try again. Assistant United States Attorney Richard Gregorie, at a hearing where the decision was announced, said another trial was necessary to "safeguard the community." Mr. Gregorie cited some of the violent comments allegedly made by Mr. Batiste, including a threat to "kill all the devils."

Mr. Winick said that no new evidence was expected, and that this would probably be the last trial for a case that he, some former jurors and other legal scholars have seen as politically driven. The timing in particular has attracted scrutiny because the arrests came just a few months before the 2006 elections, and they were widely publicized by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who outlined the most sensational evidence at a news conference.

Mr. Winick said that by that point, "The plot, to the extent there was a plot at that point, was falling apart," suggesting that it would have made more sense to continue observing the group, rather than making arrests. Winning a conviction at this point, he and others said, will be difficult. "I don't see it ending any differently than before," said Mr. Agron, the former juror. Mr. Winick agreed. "It's a case where a government informant got a bunch of guys together to swear a loyalty oath to Al Qaeda," he said. "It's a B movie really, more than a criminal case."
Link


Home Front: WoT
No verdict as Ft. Dix jurors set for day 5
2008-12-21
The jury deciding the fate of five foreign-born Muslim men charged with plotting an attack on Fort Dix in hopes of killing U.S. military personnel will begin it fifth day of deliberation this morning.

The anonymously chosen panel wrapped up their considerations shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, completing more than 25 hours of deliberations since getting the case Tuesday night. The jury remains sequestered at an undisclosed hotel until it reaches a verdict. U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said the jury told him it was making progress and getting along. It gave him no other information.

On Saturday, the eight women and four men asked for the transcript of the testimony of a Philadelphia Police sergeant, who testified about his involvement with defendant Serdar Tatar of Philadelphia. He testified that Tatar told him a man was pressuring him for a map of Fort Dix and feared it could be terrorism related. The officer contacted the FBI and told Tatar not to give the man, since identified as FBI informant Mahmoud Omar, the map. By the time the FBI interviewed Tatar weeks later, he had given the map to Omar. Tatar took it from his father's former Cookstown pizzeria, Super Mario's, just outside the main gate of Fort Dix.

The government contends Tartar was not trying to avert an attack by Omar. Instead, authorities allege he was trying to figure out if the FBI knew about the alleged Fort Dix plot he is now charged in. When Tatar was questioned by the FBI, he denied giving the map to Omar three times, an officer testified during the eight-week trial.

Tatar and co-defendants Mohamad Shnewer and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, all of Cherry Hill, are all charged with conspiracy and attempted murder. Tatar, a legal, permanent resident, is the only defendant not charged with weapons offenses. He also is the only suspect who the jury was instructed did not watch the jihad-training and propaganda videos and cannot use that evidence against him.

The jurors have some 48 binders of evidence to consider.

There are some parallels between the Fort Dix case and the so-called “Liberty City Seven,” men who were accused of planning to attack the Sears Tower and several FBI offices. One of the men was acquitted last year, while federal jurors in Miami twice deadlocked on the charges for the other six and mistrials were declared. There were nine days of deliberations before the first mistrial was declared and 13 before the second.
Link


Home Front: WoT
Terror suspect's wife claims husband rejected group
2008-08-28
The wife of a Haitian immigrant facing deportation despite his acquittal on terrorism charges testified Wednesday that she and her husband quit a Liberty City religious group the government claims plotted attacks on Chicago's Sears Tower because of disagreements with its spiritual teachings and authoritarianism.

Charlene Mingo Lemorin -- testifying for the first time in the long-running case -- told an immigration judge that she never heard her husband, Lyglenson Lemorin, or any of the group's leaders or members speak about ''jihad'' or any terrorist action. Instead, Mingo told U.S. Immigration Judge Kenneth S. Hurwitz that she and her husband objected to alleged group ringleader Narseal Batiste's advocacy of polygamy, as well as his urging they distance themselves from friends and family. ''We saw many things we didn't like about their teaching and the way they were leading us, and we started pulling back,'' Mingo said, speaking so softly that at one point the judge had to ask her to move her chair closer to the court's recording microphone.

Lemorin, 33, was acquitted of terrorism conspiracy by a federal jury in December, but the U.S. government placed the legal U.S. resident in deportation proceedings on virtually the same charges. The standard of proof in immigration court is lower than the ''beyond a reasonable doubt'' threshold that applies in criminal trials.

Batiste and the five remaining defendants in the so-called Liberty City 7 case face a third trial in January after two hung juries. Lemorin's attorneys have called Batiste to testify next week to bolster their contention that their client was only marginally involved in the group, and left after Batiste began talking about an alliance with al Qaeda and attacks. They also plan to call Lemorin, who did not testify in his criminal trial, to the stand in Hurwitz's courtroom at the Krome immigration detention center, where he is detained.

As in the criminal trial, lawyers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have pinned a significant portion of their case on an ''oath'' to al Qaeda that group members took at the behest of Batiste. Lemorin told investigators that he was ''tricked'' into the oath. Mingo said she was ''shocked, shocked!'' to learn of the alleged oath on TV news after Lemorin and the other six men were arrested in June 2006, and said she doesn't believe her husband took it willingly. By then, the couple and their three children were living in Atlanta, where they went to get away from Batiste's group, she said. They chose Atlanta because Lemorin has a sister there and it offered a better family environment than Miami, she said. Mingo said they accepted Batiste as a mentor for spiritual reasons and were initially excited by his teachings.
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Home Front: WoT
The Wages of Treating Terrorism as a "Law Enforcement Matter"
2008-04-16
Yes, by all means, let's close Gitmo and bring them all here to stand trial.
After 12 difficult days of deliberations, a federal jury on Wednesday deadlocked in the second trial of a Miami group accused of plotting with al Qaeda to overthrow the United States — an unprecedented outcome in the government's legal war on domestic terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks.

''At this juncture it is clear to me this jury is unable to reach a verdict,'' U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard said in declaring a mistrial. The decision came after the jury's third note to the judge indicating the panel was unable to reach a verdict.

The judge set a status conference for April 23 for federal prosecutors to decide whether to try the six defendants for a third time.

''The United States will announce its position on this matter at that time,'' said Alicia Valle, special counsel to the U.S. attorney in Miami.

The mistrial came after the 12 jurors failed to reach a verdict on the four terror-related conspiracy charges against the six Liberty City defendants. The central charge was conspiring to provide ''material support'' to the global terrorist organization for plans to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and federal government buildings.

The outcome, which was hinted at in the panel's first note issued Friday, was like the previous jury's verdict. In December, it deadlocked on the four charges against the six defendants and acquitted a seventh after nine days of deliberations.

On Wednesday morning, prosecutors urged the judge to make the jurors deliberate further. ''It just seems to me that it's a little premature to declare a mistrial,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Arango.

But defense lawyers, who moved for a mistrial, sharply disagreed. ''At this time, at this point, enough is enough,'' defense attorney Rod Vereen said, citing the jury's note saying it was deadlocked for the third time. ``I don't think it's going to be any clearer.''
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Home Front: WoT
Sears Tower Terror Jury Told to Work On
2007-12-11
MIAMI (AP) - Jurors said Monday they were still deadlocked in the trial of seven men accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices, but a federal judge ordered the panel to continue deliberating.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard denied a defense request for a mistrial. ``It is your duty to agree upon a verdict if you can do so,'' Lenard told the jurors, who have debated the group's guilt or innocence for six days at the end of a two-month trial.

The panel of six men and six women met for three more hours Monday without concluding the case and were ordered to resume work Tuesday. Jurors sent a second note Monday to the judge indicating they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict against any of the ``Liberty City Seven,'' named for the Miami neighborhood out of which they are accused of operating. A similar note had been issued Thursday.

Lenard has refused to publicly release the contents of the notes or allow them to be read in court. ``The trial has been expensive in time, effort, money and emotional strain to both the defense and the prosecution. If you should fail to agree upon a verdict, the case will be left open and may have to be tried again,'' Lenard told the jury in a set of instructions known as an Allen charge.

Lenard did not specify how long deliberations might continue. If jurors cannot reach a verdict, the U.S. Justice Department would have to decide whether to try the case again, drop the charges or negotiate plea agreements with some or all the men. Federal prosecutors took no position on whether a mistrial should be declared.

The seven defendants each face as many as 70 years in prison if convicted on all four terrorism-related conspiracy charges. The case is built mainly on meetings between the group's leader, 33-year-old Narseal Batiste, and a pair of paid FBI informants. There was no evidence the men had acquired any explosives or even had a definitive plan for attacks But some in the group took reconnaissance photos and video of the Miami FBI office and other federal buildings, and all seven took an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden that was recorded by federal agents.
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Home Front: WoT
'Miami group accused in Sears Tower plot was primed for holy war'
2007-10-31
A group of men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower were in the final stages of forming a homegrown terrorist cell dedicated to waging an Islamic holy war before they were arrested, a prosecution terrorism expert testified in a Miami courtroom Tuesday.

Raymond Tanter, a Georgetown University professor and terrorism scholar for 40 years, said suspected ringleader Narseal Batiste and the other six had nearly completed the "radicalization process" and moved toward acts of terrorism before their arrests in June 2006.

Hallmarks of this process include religious conversion, operation within a military-style hierarchy and adoption of goals shared by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to destroy US landmarks, Tanter said. The final stage - which he called "jihadization" - means the group is ready to plan, recruit and prepare for an attack.

Evidence introduced at trial shows that Batiste "was talking only about violent jihad" and not other meanings of the Arabic word, such as self-examination, Tanter said.
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