From CAN:CNN.com reports that five Muslims in Florida have been sentenced for planning a bombing campaign with Al-Qaeda that included an attack on the Sears Tower and the FBI’s office in Miami.
The highest sentencing was given to the leader of the plot, Narseal Batiste, who was given 13 ½ years in prison plus 35 years of supervision after release.
The plots were thwarted after someone told the FBI that Batiste had tried to recruit him for “jihad” in the U.S., and the Bureau then planted an undercover operative posing as a member of Al-Qaeda to infiltrate Batiste and his network.
The men were arrested before weapons were obtained and their plans were described as “more aspirational than operational.”
Batiste was recorded as pledging allegiance to Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist group and telling the undercover FBI agent that his group needed training and assistance so they could wage a “full ground war” inside the U.S. and “kill all the devils we can,” according to MSNBC.com.
The conviction and sentencing of the five came after two mistrials and the acquitting of two other suspects arrested for allegedly being involved in the plots.
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