US 'domestic terrorists' appear in Miami court

US authorities have arrested seven men over an alleged plot involving Al-Qaeda to blow up the Sears Tower skyscraper in Chicago. PHOTO: AFP

Five US nationals, a Haitian legal US resident and a Haitian illegal alien appeared in court in Miami Friday, a day after their arrest. Six were detained in Miami and a seventh in Atlanta, Georgia, authorities said.

They were caught after approaching a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) undercover agent who they believed was an Al-Qaeda member, prosecutors said.

According to the charges, the seven had sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The leader of the group asked the undercover agent for weapons, equipment and money to finance a "war against the US government", the charges said, adding that the group had pledged to "kill all the devils we can".

US Muslim groups denied the plotters were Muslims and claimed they were members of a cult, while relatives of one of those arrested said the charges were trumped up to scare Americans.

The seven face four terrorism conspiracy counts, including a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI regional headquarters and other buildings in Miami.

While acknowledging that the plot was "more aspirational than operational", FBI deputy director John Pistole called the arrests in Miami an "important step forward in the war on terrorism here in the United States".

Gonzales said recent attacks in Madrid and London and the arrest of 17 men for plotting attacks in Canada "demonstrated the challenges posed by small improvised groups of homegrown terrorists who live in the area that they intend to attack.

"Today, terrorist threats may come from smaller, more loosely defined cells who are not affiliated with Al-Qaeda but who are inspired by a violent jihadist message. And left unchecked, these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like Al-Qaeda."

"The terrorists and suspected terrorists in Madrid and London and Toronto were not sleeper operatives sent on suicide missions.

"They were students and businesspeople and members of the community. And they were persons who, for whatever reason, came to view their home country as the enemy. It's a problem that we face here in the United States, as well."

According to the charges, the Miami group, which called itself the "Seas of David", had studied the 442-meter-high (1,450-foot-high) Sears Tower, the third-largest building in the world, and other targets.

The charges said that its alleged leader, Narseal Batiste, recruited individuals for an operation "which included a plot to destroy by explosives the Sears Tower".