Six Seas of David members remain behind bars while judge ponders a third trial
The United States government was dealt a http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4034 “war on terror” to scrutiny.
After two weeks of deliberations, jurors announced that they were unable to reach a verdict in a case that ended in http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2643, which also incubated the Nation of Islam.
The Seas of David were targeted by federal law enforcement in a highly publicized “terror” case that was launched to massive fanfare when the group was arrested in the summer of 2006. The now disgraced Alberto Gonzales, then the Attorney General, joined the White House and various agencies to cheer the arrests, which they claimed highlighted how effective the government has been in expensively clamping down on international and domestic terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. When details of the case were released to the press, however, the government was widely derided for concocting a prosecution that many saw as weak and cynical. The government admitted at the time of the arrests that America was never in any danger from the “terror ring,” calling the “plot” “more aspirational than operational.”
According to reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted the Seas of David, spinning an elaborate tale to make the blacks think they were part of a vast al Qaeda plot. The gullible blacks were never in touch with al Qaeda; instead their “al Qaeda contact,” known to them as “Brother Mohammed,” was an undercover federal informant. A crack squad of technical officers recorded the luckless blacks allegedly agreeing to Brother Mohammed’s proposals, in living color: bomb Chicago’s Sears Tower, level the Empire State Building, blast various Hollywood landmarks and, while they were at it, take out Miami’s FBI offices.
The case was packed with absurd details that would be comical if they were not so sad, but among them were a request from the “terror cell” for “al Qaeda” to supply the Seas of David members with shoes, and the need for a bus pass for federal “surveillance personnel” following the marks: the “terror suspects” couldn’t afford their own cars. The most egregious display of pathos was probably when the feds, with full hidden video coverage, persuaded their black targets to “pledge allegiance” to Osama and al Qaeda. Unsurprisingly, the main plank of the defence was the claim that the Seas of David were not the pathetic clowns they appear to be, but were actually hustlers seeking to “play” al Qaeda out of $50,000. Better a knave than a chump.
In December, Lyglenson Lemorin, a Haitian national, was acquitted after jury deliberations lasting nine days. The jurors also said that they were unable to reach a verdict on the other men. The government immediately declared that it wasn’t finished with the “Liberty City Seven” (“Six” since Lemorin’s acquittal), and a new jury was chosen in January of 2008. (http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3873 is the black Miami slum where the group was based.)
The second jury complained twice that it was deadlocked on a verdict, and Wednesday the juudge finally acquiesced. The group will stay behind bars in lieu of bail until the judge decides on whether or not a third trial is warranted.