One acquitted, jury hits deadlock in Seas of David terror sting; mistrial declared
A Miami jury has acquitted one man, and declared itself deadlocked on the verdicts of six others, all members of the “Liberty City Seven” black Muslim/voodoo cult set up by federal law enforecement in a much 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, Homeland Security and various agencies to cheer the arrests and highlight how effective the government has been in expensively clamping down on international and domestic terrorism.
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.”
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” (or “Six”), and a new jury is to begin to be chosen early in January of 2008. The arrested blacks were members of a sect called the Seas of David, a splinter from the Moorish Science Temple of America, the black nationalist cult that provided the inspiration for the early Nation of Islam. (Moorish Science teaches that blacks in the United States are the descendants of the http://wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2635 to their belief system, which also apparently had an antigovernment component.
According to reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted the Seas of David, who were based in Miami’s Liberty City slum, spinning an elaborate plot 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 fool.
The idiocy surrounding this prosecution may be amusing to some, but to those with a belief in Anglo-Saxon justice this kind of manipulation belongs with Alberto Gonzales’s origins: in Latin America. Setups and scams in the name of the lesser evil are just the kind of things America was supposed to be against. But when this behavior is done to take cynical advantage of real and justified public fear of terrorism, and to cover up the fact that the “war on terror” (like the war on Iraq) has been a pricey failure, with Osama still at large despite the most expensive manhunt in world history, contempt sets in.
The post 911 “national security” establishment has become adept at selling form in place of substance. Another case similar to the “Liberty City Seven” happened around Ohio black Muslim http://wvwnews.net/story.php?id=310, charged with uncommitted crimes nearly a decade old, based partly on “evidence” going back to 1990 and 1991 and involving that old chestnut, a “weapon of mass destruction.”
Most worringly is the fact that the same “national security” establishment that shamelessly launches ridiculous operations like the Seas of David “sting” is exploiting public fear to erode freedom in America. The latest legislation is a http://wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2367 act, the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007,” which has the potential of criminalizing peaceful dissent.
When the Seas of David arrests went down, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) accurately (if dishonorably) disavowed the cult. “Black Islam” in America, which tends to recruit largely among prisoners and is prone to various heretical deviations, is often http://wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1985 region. The Arabs use the same word for “black” and “slave.”
One black Muslim terrorist who complained about Arab racism was Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, convicted of the 1998 United States embassy attacks in Tanzania and Kenya. In the penalty phase of the United States vs. Osama bin Laden et al (2001) trial, Mohamed’s attorney argued that al-Qaeda was an Arab racist organization that discriminated against his client because he was black. He argued that al-Qaeda provided escape routes for its Arabs but not for its black operatives.
All in all, the Seas of David “sting” was a gross abuse of public fear, and should give pause to anyone concerned about the potential for havoc when a government is unaccountable.