Original subtitles

Viewers like you make this program possible.

Support your local PBS station.

What time is it?

6:48.

I think he's just gonna be so

happy to be a free man.

So happy to see his children.

Oh, man.

Damn, boy...

13 years ago, my face was

all over the news media.

The FBI told me I was on "Larry."

"King Live" the day I was

arrested.

All right, let me get one more

hug from everybody.

Now, I'm just the average person

walking down the street.

This what took place

because of bad choices of words

that he made.

And that's all he ever did was

say... speak, talk.

Nonsense.

Batiste intended to recruit

and supervise individuals to

organize and train for a mission

of war against the United.

States.

Narseal, he had good

intentions, but he is also a

good conman.

And when the two run afoul,

this is what you get... mayhem.

Federal authorities described

the group as radical Black.

Muslims.

Their goal was simple: To

commit attacks against America.

Just like the gang that

couldn't shoot straight, they

got convicted on not what they

were able to do, but what they

were able to say.

Six to eight people are now

in federal custody after

allegedly plotting to attack

well-known U.S. cities.

The federal government is

calling this bust a major

victory on the domestic front in

this shadowy war.

Next to being a pedophile, a

terrorist is the next-worst

thing you can be.

Narseal Batiste claimed his

soldiers would, quote, "Kill all

the devils we can."

An FBI informant promised

them $50,000 if they pledged

allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

Federal Bureau of.

Investigation, they invented

the players, they invented the

theme, they invented how it was

gonna go down... they, they

wrote this script.

They wrote this script.

They conducted surveillance,

they conspired to murder

countless Americans through

attacks that would be in their

words "just as good or

greater than 9/11."

It can be just as good or

greater than 9/11.

This is not the case that

they want America to see.

There are, there are some

serious terrorists out there

that America needs to be

concentrating on.

This right here was just a...

It was almost like a, "Let's do"

a dry run.

If we can convict somebody as

lazy and sorry as this crew was,

"then we can convict anybody."

Support us and become VIP member to remove all ads from www.OpenSubtitles.org

In 2005, I was the acting

supervisory special agent with

the FBI in Miami.

The domestic Al-Qaeda squad.

I was born in the Bronx, my

brother and I.

Both my parents became addicted

to heroin.

Which wasn't very unusual for

that period in American history.

My father had been arrested a

few times.

He was involved in a credit card

ring.

Another time, he was arrested

for, uh, narcotics.

Coming from that experience,

you're always looking for an

angle because everybody has a

hustle.

So I graduate high school.

How, I don't know, but I did.

Spent nine years in the

military, went to school at

night, and then I put in an

application with the FBI.

FBI calls nine months later and

I end up at Quantico.

Got out in '92, ended up in

Miami, and you wake up and ten

years have gone by.

And then 9/11 happens.

On September 10, if we would

have saw a movie on the

events that happened on

September 11, we all would have

left that movie theater and

said, "That is a phenomenal

movie, but it could never happen

in the United States."

And on September 11, it did.

And what did they use?

They didn't use bombs or

weapons, they used box cutters

and, and complacency.

We got sucker-punched.

On September the 11th,

enemies of freedom committed an

act of war against our country.

The evidence we have gathered

all points to a collection of

loosely affiliated terrorist

organizations known as Al-Qaeda.

Director Robert Mueller had

been the director of the FBI for

one week prior to 9/11.

He went to brief President Bush.

Within a minute of telling the

president, vice president, and

others, uh, about the 19

hijackers that we'd already

learned about and everything,

President Bush cut him off and

said, "That's all well and, and

good, Mr. Director, but I wanna

know what the FBI is doing to

prevent the next attack."

Director Mueller's job was then

to take that mission, to take

the FBI from that reactive

crime-solving agency to a

preventative national security

agency.

Mr. Pistole, with respect to

preventing 9/11, obviously, you

get a failing grade.

So, the concern within the

FBI immediately after 9/11 is

that there were other either

sleeper cells or there were

other terrorist operatives in

the U.S.

And who else did they have

positioned to commit a second

attack?

And what, how that attack might

manifest itself.

We didn't know.

Because there was a gap, uh, in

the intelligence about what

attacks might be taking place.

We realized, there are huge

gaps that we didn't know the

answers to.

One of the, the good things

about the FBI's history was the

ability to identify and develop

cooperating witnesses and

informants.

So, in the decade after 9/11,

let's say, there was a great

focus on developing human

sources of information about

attacks, potential attacks.

We would get a tremendous

amount of intelligence in the

form of leads.

Now, it's post-9/11, so each one

of these has to be shaken out.

One of my colleagues comes in

and he says, "Look, I have some"

information, um, from an

informant that there's a group

of guys in Miami, in, in Liberty.

City, that are conducting

military training, that are

interested in overthrowing the.

U.S. government, um, and that

"wanna meet Al-Qaeda."

This was, you know, like a

unicorn.

How does Al-Qaeda pop up in

Liberty City?

Some areas were high drug

trafficking areas, and there

were shoot-outs all the time.

The group were part of this

hybrid religious-militant

organization.

They do military-type training,

they do not believe in the laws

of the United States.

They were basically

anti-government.

So at this point, we're

assessing the veracity of the

informant's information.

The person he was referring to

was Narseal Batiste.

Batiste was the leader.

We're still trying to determine

what his motive is.

What is he really up to?

I wanted to be an actor.

It was interesting to see myself

intrigue people over a

character.

I went to modeling school.

I had a big interest in

modeling and in acting at the

time.

I always loved martial arts.

That's just come from watching

Shaolin Temple, kung fu master

movies, you know?

Narseal was the baby, he was

the last one.

My mother had just had Narseal.

She came home from the hospital

and put him in my bed and told

me it was my baby.

That she don't change diapers

and she don't fix bottle milks.

And for me to take care of him.

My mom and dad, they did.

Baptist preaching.

They was ordained Baptists.

At that time, my parents were

very wealthy from my dad's

construction company.

My dad was doing government jobs

like building post offices,

colleges, prisons.

So, he really blew up in his

construction business.

What changed in Narseal's life,

he met this man that wore these

diapers on his head and carried

a cane, and his name was.

G-G-G something 'thena.

He was telling me Narseal's the

33-something of the

76-something, that he's Jesus.

I said, "No, my brother is not

Jesus."

Then the next thing I know, my

brother start changing.

He start wearing diapers on his

head and carrying a staff.

Well, I created my own style

of religion.

You know what I mean?

My, my robes and what I wore was

very unique.

Nobody else on the street wore

what I wore.

My style had something like, um,

much more of a martial arts

Egyptian type of mixture

outfit.

I wore a lot of velvets and

Indian cotton.

Sage rope.

A staff in my hand or a rod.

That's what I looked like.

An ancient type of holy man,

looked like I stepped out of the

Bible.

Naz, beautiful brother.

Beautiful brother.

You see, like, he fell out of.

Heaven.

You know, he had that innocent

quality to him.

And we choose

(translating to Haitian.

To worship almighty God...

On this day...

You are trusting in God.

I've come here to tell you

today.

I was born in the United.

States, but my mom and dad from

Haiti.

17, 18, I got baptized.

And when I got baptized, I was

feeling it, you know.

It was just something on me, I

was feeling it.

And by that time in my life, I

knew things wasn't fair.

And have power and

authority...

When we talk about leaders

and who we look up to, you

know, we looked up to Naz.

'Cause Naz knew the Bible, he

spoke it, and he really was

about it.

As a prophet of God.

He grew up, you know, real

close to God.

So, we always was searching.

So, when he smiled, you know, it

was something that he had that

was almost innocent.

You know, he ain't, he wasn't

spoil, spoiled like the rest of

us.

Naz was perfect.

There was no street in him at

all.

I was, like, 19, 18.

I was the youngest one out of

everybody, and I, I was still

going to night school trying to

graduate... a high school

diploma.

Naz was a Black activist.

Wanting to help out the

community.

That's what you got off the top.

He was really...

Savvy when it came to the

Bible.

Decoding it or making the Bible

in, in laymen's term, making it

so, the point where I could

understand it.

He asked me to read a passage or

something, he realized I

couldn't read.

And then he was, like, "Okay",

it's all right, you can stop

"right there," and...

Pulled me to the side later,

he was, like, "Um, how

old are you?"

I was, like, "I'm, like, I'm

19."

He's, like, "You really should

work on that, learning how to

read."

And I was, like, "Yeah, I know."

He's, like, "If you want, I

could help you sometimes."

And I said, "Okay, cool."

I done introduced Naz to Naudy.

I done introduced Naz to my

brother.

Pat knew Sunny.

Sunny brought Levi.

Eventually, they did become

my followers, they joined the

temple, and they agreed to give

me the, um, the head position

as the, uh, the high priest of

the temple.

The actual temple was right

across the street from a

projects that they call the Pork

and Beans projects.

There's a lot of gun selling,

drug dealing, and a lot of

violence that goes on.

And, um, drive-by shootings.

So we rent the warehouse.

But it was supposed to be a

temple.

A temple.

We had Bibles, we had Quran,

we had certain books, the Hare.

Krishna, we had certain books,

'cause...

It was, everybody was welcome

to our table... that was the

whole one thing about why we

called it the temple.

Because what's in a temple, is

where you actually get in your

temple and pray.

We wasn't Muslims.

But we had to understand the

religions of the world and how

they related to the people that

we going to talk to.

So, 99%, we studied the Bible.

The temple was called Moorish.

Science Temple of America and.

Universal Divine Saviors.

It sounded cool.

Naz said, "The whole reason I

came to Miami was to make all

of you guys Moorish, Moorish

Americans."

I'm, like, "Moorish Americans?"

You may not have heard of the.

Moorish Nationals.

It comes from a Black religious

group that's been around for

nearly a century.

Most of its members obey the

law, but not everyone.

This man was arrested by

police in Fayetteville, North

Carolina.

But his wife claims the arrest

was illegal because he is a

member of the Moorish Nation.

He has diplomatic immunity.

Why are y'all doing this?

He was telling me, um, the.

Moorish Science Temple is,

like, indigenous people to.

America and we have sovereign

rights.

And I didn't understand what

none of that was.

I was, like, "What the

Is sovereign rights?"

What snatch you up is when

they tell you you didn't

come over here just on no slave

ship.

And the Moorish Science Temple,

it mixed Christianity, Judaism,

and Islamism all in one.

They are geared to help the.

Black community.

So we sitting down just

building on the Bible and

talking about making a great

change, you know, and can we

do it, can we actually, you

know, change not just our

condition, but the condition of

our moms and dads and cousins

and community?

You know, you can't come into

the community if you ain't no

strong man.

So, we came across, like, "Yo,

we are soldiers."

You know, "We soldiers for God."

They had uniforms that they

would wear, paramilitary

uniforms.

Khaki-type shirt and they would

wear the same type of pants.

This is the Moorish star, you

know, for the religion.

And then of course, them living

in America, they have the

American flag.

And what was so ironic about

this whole thing is that the

government tried to paint them

as that they were un-American.

You know, we brought in

experts to tell us, "Hey",

what...

Which, uh, what flavor of.

Kool-Aid is this, 'cause we

"haven't seen this before?"

Something is not making sense.

You had a group of guys that

were in Liberty City that

wanted to meet somebody from.

Al-Qaeda.

Everything had to be followed

up.

Because some of the things that

fell through the gap that

allowed 9/11 to happen, we

could not allow for anything

like that to fall through a gap

again.

I had never heard of the

informant, Abbas Al-Saidi.

Abbas had worked at a

convenience store, you know,

in a medium-to low-income

neighborhood.

He started out as a snitch

initially for drugs.

New York City has its own

intelligence unit, which was

focused on terrorism after 9/11.

They found this young guy from

Yemen who's pretty street-smart

to be somebody that they could

use in their investigation in.

New York.

At some point in time, there

became a threat that they

considered to be a threat

against him.

They encouraged him to move out

of New York City.

And, and ultimately, he, he

moved down to Miami.

I was 18 years old at this

time, going on 19.

I just kind of was in love

with him and did what he... told

me to do.

And I trusted him.

And that was one of my biggest

mistakes.

We had three dollars between

the both of us and we got into

a really physical argument.

He beats the crap out of

Stefanie one day.

Uh, ends up in jail.

I had bite marks on my neck,

bruises on my face.

Even though it was his first

domestic violence, he went to

jail for a couple of months.

He kept calling the connections

that he had in New York.

He reaches out to the

lieutenant in New York, "Hey",

can you help me out, I'm in

"jail," yadda yadda, tells him

the story.

The guy says, "Look, I can"

maybe, you know, reach out to

the FBI and see if they might

"have an interest," and an

agent comes and visits him in

jail.

He told me that when he came

out of jail, that the FBI was

waiting there to go to work.

He found the brothers and that's

all he needed to do the job.

I used to go to the corner

store and see him all the time.

And he was extra-friendly.

He would try to act Black so

much.

Smoking weed in the

Store, blasting Tupac.

And I'm, like, damn.

I was, like, this dude is wild.

He was, like, "What's up?"

I was, like, "Man, what's up?"

I used to go over to the store

all the time buying 'gars and

to smoke.

The weed that he had, the

marijuana he had, was great

substance and it was the kind of

substance that I really enjoyed,

so my friend that worked there

would get it for me.

One day he see me with Naz,

he, like, "Oh, you know the

brother!"

And he switched it up, now he's,

like, all Muslim and he's, like,

"Yes, brother"... he's not even

using it, he's not smoking, he's

not using the N word, he's not

cussing, he's all Muslim now.

: He's a Muslim now.

I'm, like, "What happened?"

He seemed very religious but

he seemed very street.

Like, street hustler.

So, that's why I related to him

in a sense, because he had

game, he had a street vibe.

One day, his cousin comes

down, he, like, "Man, y'all"

don't wanna mess with Abbas,

"man," and then, we couldn't get

it, 'cause we ain't thinking

about no FBI, no police, or...

He, like, "Man, y'all don't

wanna mess with him, man, he

dirty."

I remember him saying, "Abbas

is working with the police."

Now, I was, like, "What?"

He said Abbas was involved

in setting people up with law

enforcement.

And that if he ever gets a

chance to, he'll fabricate a

story on me.

That's where we met him.

The government said that

when I met Abbas, I went into

his store asking him, "Can you

hook me up with Osama bin.

Laden or any terrorist guy?"

That's what they were saying.

And...

Is that true?

No, it never happened.

What the informant initially

said: "I met a guy who has a"

group.

They wanna overthrow the United.

States, they wanna meet an.

Al-Qaeda operative, and they

wanna align themselves with.

"Al-Qaeda."

One of the critical capabilities

that a terrorist organization

such as Al-Qaeda needs is

resources here in the States.

If they could acquire the

capability of a U.S. citizen or

a group of U.S. citizens that

are completely off the radar,

well, that's, that's a pretty

formidable threat.

So, at the time, I'm thinking

maybe something was

miscommunicated, misunderstood.

You know, one of the ways we

resolve that is reconstitute the

conversation and capture it on

audio.

This is Special Agent John P.

Stewart with the Federal Bureau

of Investigation, Miami.

Division.

Today's date, October 3, 2005.

The time, 2:45 p.m.

Hm.

It was just one of the worst,

I guess you could say, things

that could have ever happened

to us in our life.

Because this cry from this

man for Narseal to help him

turned out actually to be

what actually set

everything for us in turmoil.

The turning point between me

and Abbas is when I went to the

store, I seen ICE there.

Immigration Custom Enforcement.

Abbas was rampaging back and

forth in the store, "Brother,

um, I'm in a lot of trouble

right now, they, they're

trying to deport me."

Of course, being the man that.

Narseal is, he would want to

help at any given opportunity.

Narseal had told him, "If you

need any help, reach out to us."

And of course, he did.

: And then from there

started the nightmare.

How you doing, brother?

Eid Mubarak.

Just working like crazy.

What time, what time exactly

are you gonna be at the temple?

Uh, I can't really say right

now, 'cause I got so much work

ahead of me today.

The phone calls of him

calling me just, just increased.

Instead of being at, like, every

two weeks, he'll call me, see

how I'm doing, it was, like,

every day.

Um, I don't know, if you want

me to come over or if you wanna

come over, I'm, I'm, I'm free

right now.

They just called me on a job

and I have to go look at a job

at the airport, so I'm gonna be

leaving in about an hour.

He's saying he needs to meet me

right away.

And what was your response?

Uh, as soon as I get a chance

to, 'cause I was very busy with

work.

With the construction company.

Azteca Stucco & Masonry.

I loved the name Azteca because

of the Aztec, um...

Ancient Indians were, uh,

master builders, so I adopted

that.

Pat was in the construction

field.

Sunny was in the construction

field.

Naz was a truck driver.

I was doing security and a

little side hustle.

And we needed to make money.

Pat was, like, "I have an idea."

We gonna team up and, you

know, let's put a small

construction company together.

We got the skills, we got the

determination, we got a

willingness, and we got...

There's the need.

I'm coming home, dead tired,

and man, I was happy.

I was, like, "Man, I'm doing

something, I'm doing something.

You know, change is coming."

It was the first time in my life

I was working towards my own

business.

My own business.

I dived all in, I had all

my cards in the construction

game.

Sacrificed weeks without even

getting paid, wake up... early,

and go to sleep late.

And there's no money on the

table... I'm not getting paid.

We had several instances

where we were not getting paid,

plus the investment we already

had made into, uh, remodeling

the temple.

So we was at a financial...

Just rough.

The biggest mistake he was

consistently making was using

other job money to cover other

job because he underestimated

this job.

The number-one rule in

construction: Every job pay

itself.

You don't use money from another

job to cover bills in another

job... that's bad business.

I just knew it became very

overwhelming for him.

Oftentimes he would just not

sleep.

Everybody wanted a, a better

way of living, so he felt the

pressure of all these families

on him.

Test.

This is Balan, today's date is

11-21-2005.

Time is 1:38 p.m.

This recording includes A.K.A.

Brother Naz.

Hi.

As-salaam alaykum.

Yeah?

How you doing, akhi, what's

going on?

Hey, what's up, Ab?

Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah,

you okay, akhi?

Yeah, , hanging in

there.

I hear you, brother.

I've been working, but I'm

gonna get off early today.

I'll probably be at the temple

around 7:00.

Okay, so you want me to meet

you at the temple at 7:00, or do

you wanna come over to the,

to the, um, to the house?

Uh...

I mean, I'm in my house.

It's, it's more safe, you know?

Over here, it's, it's quiet.

Okay, I'll, I'll be there

around 7:00, then.

All right, brother, thank you

very much, man.

Abbas kept begging and

begging, begging, he just

kept promising, "You just don't

realize the opportunity that

I can have for you."

You know, "We're gonna do

something really, really, really

great.

Together, financially."

"I could really help you guys,

if you just trust me just a

little bit, just to come by and

talk."

So it wasn't, "Let's see how

we can build a mousetrap, put

a big piece of cheese on there."

Listen, I don't even know if

this is a mouse.

And if it is a mouse, I don't

even know if this mouse wants

any cheese.

So...

We looked at Batiste and said

he doesn't look like, you know,

I don't know, he's...

He's saying these things that a

mouse would say, but let's give

him another shot.

And then we had nowhere else

to go but to put the piece of

cheese on the trap.

When you're sending an informant

into a meeting, you're not

giving them a script.

You're giving them an outline,

with a, with some objectives

to achieve.

Revisit this conversation.

Let Batiste explain in his own

words what it is that he was

asking Abbas for assistance in.

The outline for that was in the

form of Abbas telling Narseal.

Batiste, "Remember you told me

you wanted to meet an Al-Qaeda

guy.

Um, well, I, I got the guy."

Abbas has a friend of his

that he wants me to meet who's

a financial guy, a rich guy,

this, that, and the other.

And that he would help back us

at whatever we needed.

But we need to follow his

direction in this.

Okay, so he wants us to make

sure that we're really good.

Muslims.

He's, like, "Yeah, you gotta be

really good, good Muslim men.

And no Christianity, so, so go

buy some Qurans."

I'm, like, "Uh-huh."

Abbas told Naz he has a uncle

coming down who's a

philanthropist.

And he love people who's helping

the community.

That's what Abbas must have

repeated a thousand times: "Man",

my uncle like to help people

who help people.

Don't worry about nothing.

"He's... that's what he do."

"I'm gonna talk to my uncle."

My uncle going to help you.

You know, he gonna get some

money and we all gonna, you

know, we're all gonna make

"some money."

We wanted the money, we

wanted the funds, 'cause we...

We were up bad.

Nobody had the knowledge of how

to run a business.

So we was up what we was

doing.

This is Balan, the date is

11-21-2005, the time is 7:58

p.m.

Akhi!

Akhi, how you doing, man?

That's Brother Naz, huh?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm waiting for you, man.

How you doing, what's going on?

Rock on, brother, rock on!

All right, all right, I just

don't wanna be missing anything,

because I'm praying alone and I

don't like it, man, I'm waiting

for you for isha.

Oh, inshallah, we're gonna be

there in two or three minutes.

Okay, inshallah, akhi.

Inshallah, man, salaam

alaykum.

Mashallah.

The time is 7:59 p.m.

This recording is ended.

When we get there, we're

still in our work clothes

'cause we just left a job.

Me and Patrick Abraham.

We were just kind of, like,

clowning around.

Just laughing and talking

about the situation that Abbas

was, was talking to us about.

Our intention from the

beginning was to put this to

bed.

He wants to meet Al-Qaeda?

Okay, tell him you got a guy,

see what he says.

The expected response would be,

"Well, what are you, what are

you, what are you talking about?

I, I never... I don't

remember ever saying that."

He could have said, "Hey",

listen, I, I was a little out

of my lane, I was off my meds,

and I don't know what you're

"talking about."

And then we would have happily

have closed that investigation,

because it wasn't like we were

looking for work.

I thought Abbas was an avenue

to relinquish my financial

difficulty.

If I can just get the money, I

can pay these immediate bills.

That was the only thing that

kept driving me: That if I get

that one handful of money, then

it's over with.

I had no belief into, um,

fighting any jihad, holy war,

or anything that's going on in

the Middle East.

And even though it was against

my morals and values, I felt

like if I could go through it

and just get the money, then all

of that would be washed away.

"Well, Tony, we got the

tape."

"Okay, so what are we doing?"

"Well, he asked him, 'Hey, you

remember when you wanted to

meet the...?', and he said,

'Yeah.'"

"So what, what are we doing

now?"

"Okay, well, you, you're gonna

have to put somebody that's

gonna pretend to be Al-Qaeda

in front of him."

My name is Elie Assaad,

former undercover operative for.

United State, uh, government.

We identified an informant

that had been previously used in

another FBI investigation in

Miami.

So, they needed to, to get

somebody else, a little bit

stronger, a little bit more

forceful, so they bring in the

closer.

The closer is, is, uh, Elie.

Assaad.

And Elie Assaad was a

professional informant.

He used to refer to himself to

his friends as Tony Montana

from the, uh, "Scarface," you

know, the, the evil character.

Are we ready?

You ready?

Hold on, one second.

Sure, okay.

When we initially got the

information, we're looking at

this, and we're, like, "Do we

think that these guys really

wanna meet somebody from.

Al-Qaeda?"

You know, common sense sort of

suggested probably not, but

let's see where it goes.

And so we decided on using him

because we did not expect for it

to go beyond that first meeting.

I'm good, I never lost a

case.

I never lost a case all these

years... even sometimes, uh,

when they have already on,

ongoing cases, where they feel

they gonna lose it, and they

bring me to, uh, jump in and put

it back on track.

Abbas is talking about Elie.

Assaad, but he's using his name

as "Uncle."

Yeah, that's, that's his name.

Elie Assaad.

No good mother.

We rented a hotel room.

The Hilton, Downtown Miami.

Again, we set up surveillance so

we could capture the meeting in

video and audio.

I'm in a room close by, where we

can monitor the meeting.

We also have a surveillance unit

outside of the hotel.

Abbas continued to call us

and call us until Elie Assaad

came and he called me on that

day to go meet him.

He initially promised me, like,

around 20 grand or whatever.

He said, "I'll have it for

you.

I just need you to meet him ."

The surveillance team says,

"You're not going to believe

this, but your subject is

walking down Biscayne Boulevard

in a white robe and a cane

that's six feet tall, looking

"like Moses."

I got on the radio and I said,

"Are you sure it's our subject?"

And they're, like, "It's, it's

your guy."

I look at our team in the room

and I'm, like, "What, what's

going on?"

Room 612, I knocked on the

door.

Assaad opened up the door and he

says, "Come on in, brother,

let's talk."

I figured I could be slick

enough to say what I had to say

in there and just get that

money and break off.

Batiste doesn't blink.

He could have said, "Listen, I

was just joking, I'm going to a

Halloween party..."

And fine.

Elie Assaad.

He had somewhat of an ego

if you will.

I think he sort of felt he

needed to guide this

conversation more affirmatively,

and at times I think he, he may

overdo it.

I was never good at being no

type of scam artist.

This is, this is the first time

in my life I'm ever really

trying to run a scam.

And he was, like, "All

right, so what do you need?"

I knew that I had to make

something up right then and

there.

Course, I was not prepared for

any kind of list, I didn't bring

any kind of list, because this

was just something I was just

brainstorming on.

So I wrote a whole bunch of

crazy things down on the list.

I needed knee-high boots, things

that didn't make sense.

Yes, I put guns on there.

I couldn't name them, he kept

asking me the name for them.

I didn't know any name of guns,

'cause I never owned a gun.

The list that he took he tore

up several times, and

eventually, there was a list

that was made.

And he was, like, "I'll go back

and talk to Abbas about

everything and we'll work on

getting the money to you."

I left the room.

I felt a lot of fear.

I felt like a big cavity was

inside my chest.

Empty.

We're... we're in the room and

we're, like, "Okay, well, what

happens now?"

So, we went back to the, uh, to

the bullpen, and sat down and

says, "Okay, guys, it's, let's

whiteboard this.

What are, what are we gonna do?"

Okay? We could go knock on.

Batiste's door and say, "Hey",

listen, we...

You met with somebody who said

they were with Al-Qaeda.

Now, how serious are you?

'Cause if you're not, okay,

"you need to knock it off."

They could just... go off and

not do anything for another

year, or two years, or three

years.

There aren't enough resources to

commit to that type of, you

know, monitoring.

So, we wanted to find out, um,

how committed Batiste was to

what he had told Elie Assaad.

This whole thing was way

beyond me.

The rhetoric and the talk and

the relationship with Abbas just

went... way out of control.

My hustle wasn't even talking

about terrorists at the very

beginning.

I was slowly wielded into that

with Abbas.

He really set these guys up.

There's really no other way for

me to put it.

Abbas saw, from working in the

store, that these men didn't

have a lot of money.

And he also played on that,

that they were poor.

They just kept getting pushed

forward and forward and forward

by Abbas.

And Abbas is putting all these

ideas in their head.

It was like a big joke to him at

home, it was...

All he could do was laugh about

it, it...

He thought it was hilarious.

He was, like, "I can't believe

they think I'm really Al-Qaeda."

It didn't matter if that's how

he was gonna get his money, if

that's how the FBI was gonna pay

him.

In the informant world, are

they paid?

Of course they're paid.

They got paid expenses.

It wasn't, like, "Hey, listen,

if you get a conviction, you're

gonna get a hundred, a hundred

thousand dollars."

That's not how we operate.

I finally get a call from Abbas

telling me, "Look, um, Assaad

definitely wants to meet with

you... he's got the money, you

just have to pick him up."

He told me that, "If you gonna"

get the money, you gotta make it

sound for real.

Talk big, like you gonna blow

"something up."

He said, "If you say that,

they're gonna come through."

I was high off marijuana one

time when we was riding in the

back seat of a car, and he

whispered over to me, says, "You"

got anything in mind you could

say big?

Say, you're from Chicago, you

should be able to come up with

"something."

And I thought in my mind, "Well,

the Sears Tower, I guess I'll

blow that up, how does that

sound?"

And he cracked up laughing and

he said, "That would be great."

That was the basic

motivation of it, was, the whole

thing was about who could scam

who out of the money.

Did you think that that could

go wrong for you?

Yes.

Did I linger on that thought?

No.

He's gonna give you money.

What the you think the

money is for?

Terrorism.

He wants you to do an act, just

like a, uh, murder for hire.

What's present in our mind is,

"When you give it to me, I'm not

killing nobody.

This is mine, you.

What you gonna do?

'Cause if you really that

powerful, you would have had

your own crew right here.

You ain't .

You just a rich mother

That is gonna give the money to

us and then you gonna

"disappear."

Whoa, man, it's, like,

terrorism.

You know, it never popped in

our mind like, "Yo, this is

something serious."

It's like these two fake

guys playing some -damned

game.

Batiste fighting for control

over some damn donations, and it

was... it all made me sick.

I wanna prove these guys

didn't wanna do this.

I wanna prove that this

conversation that the informant

may have misquoted didn't

happen.

And this is what it is.

But that's not what happened.

Every time I thought we were

gonna get off the highway, we

hit another mile marker.

Yeah, he left yesterday.

He left yesterday, so...

I was taking a lot of

marijuana substance.

At least an ounce every two

days, and it had me living in a

world of fear.

And fear was pulling all of this

into a detrimental path with

myself.

As far as trusting my own, uh,

judgment of what's right and

wrong, in terms of the scam, of

going further or not.

Whenever I, I, you know, my

attention fell on him, it's

like, "Yeah, he talking",

talking crazy.

You know, doing all of that just

to get the, convince the guy

"to get you some money."

I was just trying to get into.

Assaad's head, you know, say

what would make him happy.

'Cause he kept looking at me

like, you know, "I need more.

Say something more."

This guy just make a

crazy-ass statement and then,

less than ten second later, he's

in a basketball game.

The TV faced us.

So, a lot of time, you see me

there, I'm, I'm looking, I'm

watching the game.

I wasn't feeling good about

what I was saying.

But at the time, I felt like I

had to, to make up this story

one more time for this guy.

So, I was just constantly just

flipping through different

pictures in my mind that I seen

on the media.

I grabbed that from just end of

world type of movies.

'Cause a lot of that was going

on at the time.

Tidal waves type of movies.

I'm not gonna do anything.

I'm just talking a whole bunch

of crap here.

And I'm high.

If Batiste is having these

conversations with somebody he

believes is from Al-Qaeda, you

know, Al-Qaeda would say, "Okay",

maybe, maybe we should target

the Sears Tower.

And, and, and by the way, you

think we should, as the

survivors run out, shoot them?

We didn't even think of that.

"Write that down."

Dude.

You, you, you really have to do

all of that?

Did you have to really, doing

all that back and forth with the

guy?

"Yeah, he, he gonna, you know,

I'm gonna get the money.

I'm gonna get the money."

All right, whatever, man.

I was sick of it.

Matter of fact, I remember,

uh, when I went home, I got

sick somehow or another, I was

doing a lot of vomiting.

It's, like, "Okay, let's say

he is crazy.

That's a dangerous dialogue."

We never expected, again, to get

to where we ended up, because we

thought at some point, he would

say, "Look, this is what I'm...

This is all a charade."

Director Mueller was being

briefed daily.

And we knew that this was

included in his presidential

briefs.

That brief is, "Look, there's a"

group of kids in Miami-Dade that

formed an organization, that

want to align themselves with.

Al-Qaeda to start a war in the.

"United States."

The prosecutors wanted more

overt acts.

So anytime there's a conspiracy

involved, you have to have overt

acts in furtherance of that

conspiracy.

Anything that a prosecutor could

use as evidence to convince a

judge or jury that these people

were serious.

A conversation is an act.

So, uh, you don't need to pick

up a gun or, or let off a bomb

or make a bomb for it to be an

overt act.

I think the idea came from the

FBI through C.I.A., and the idea

was to have some sort of formal

allegiance, some pledge to.

Al-Qaeda, to see if they went

forward with it.

The idea was introduced to

further test their commitment to

their interest in aligning with.

Al-Qaeda by saying, "Well, look,

you have to take an oath of

loyalty."

Assaad came by the temple.

He says, "The reason why I hold

back the money from you is

because you don't have a

commitment."

I said, "Well, what do you

mean?"

He says, "We gotta have some

type of commitment between us."

And he didn't call it an oath or

any, uh, swearing allegiance to

any organization or anything.

He says, "Just a commitment."

So he says, "Well, we have to

meet and we have to discuss

this commitment some more and

then we can proceed further."

I drove to his location and he

got in the car and he pulled out

this piece of paper and he says,

"This is the commitment or the

oath that I need you to read."

Listen, if, if you're not a

hundred percent on board with

this, here's your, here's your

chance to get out.

Here's your chance to get out.

And so eventually, I read it.

I felt like it was stupid.

I didn't feel like it was a real.

Al-Qaeda oath.

Um, usually, when somebody

wants you to swear allegiance to

a dangerous organization, it's

gonna be something, some type

of dramatic thing... they ain't

gonna actually read from no

piece of paper.

They're gonna probably, you

know, do something crazy to you

or have you do something crazy.

Were you not worried that

this could all catch up with you

very quickly?

Of course I was worried.

And yet...

Yet I thought I could still,

uh, make this deal go through.

The direction that was given

was, if, if Batiste takes the

oath, then you tell him that all

of the members of his

organization have to take the

oath.

So, this was already

pre-planned.

I felt like I was getting deeper

into a trap.

That I might not be able to get

myself out of this trap if I

play this game even further.

The approach that we took was

to create a platform to capture

conversations with the group.

That particular area where their

warehouse was was incredibly

difficult to surveil.

It was a high drug trafficking

area.

So, we looked at telling.

Batiste, "Hey, listen, one of

the things we can do is, we

could get you a better training

facility."

The idea came up, renting a

warehouse, pre-wiring it, so we

could capture audio and video.

Then take that warehouse and

identify three other warehouses,

and tell Batiste, "Hey, listen,

let's go, look at some

warehouses."

I was told by Assaad, "I got"

a warehouse.

And we need to go look at one,

you can pick out any one, and

we'll just give it to you.

And that'll be a part of the

financial help that we'll give

"you."

I mean, this isn't rocket

science.

We got a really nice warehouse.

It's a Bentley of warehouses,

and then two other warehouses

that, you know, you wouldn't

even wanna, you know, burn for

insurance money.

The question is posed to.

Batiste, "Which warehouse do you

want?"

We picked the one the FBI

wanted us to pick.

How, how much control is...

That's why I'm tripping.

The one we pick, we pick, is the

one they had set up that they

wanted us to pick so they'll...

This is how so much it was

over our head... they knew how to

make us pick what they wanted

us to pick.

There was a boat in there.

There was a van in there.

They both had keys, both had

deeds in them.

It was all ours.

There was a, a refrigerator

filled with fish and all type of

seafood.

Like, ten pounds of shrimp.

I was, like, "Wow.

Somebody just bought this.

It was fresh."

And we flipped the switch.

We got a Title III wiretap

intercept.

Okay, let's see what happens.

It was huge.

You know, so we had places for

bunks, places to work out,

places to store our equipment.

It was an office in the front.

So even for us, it was, like,

whoa, this would be a step up.

Did you talk to the brothers

about this?

Uh, in part.

In part.

Do you feel you were being

honest with the brothers at this

point?

In terms of holding back

information?

Yeah.

Yeah, I held back

information.

Why?

Uh, I felt like they would

have judged the situation to be

not worth it.

And we could lose out on an

opportunity that we've already

worked ourselves into.

Naz was telling us already

that, "Don't worry about what

this guy is saying.

It's just all bull."

'Cause before then, we came from

a construction site.

Before we went in here that day,

we came off of doing a job.

I didn't give a what

he was.

Really?

I really didn't, that's what

I'm trying to get you to, I

don't give a .

We grew up from... nothing.

We grew up from watching people

that we love die, get shot in

the street.

We didn't grow up where

everybody talked their way out

of trouble.

We grew up, everybody got killed

or got sent to jail.

So it's, like, our way of life

was if he didn't...

If we didn't see him display

this type of violence, then

he's not on it.

He's not, he's just talking.

And he's full of .

The scenario was: Batiste

would bring them in and each one

would have to take the oath.

Not as a group.

Again, the reason for that is,

maybe somebody is in that group,

and they're not saying anything,

but they're, like, "I..."

You know, "I, I draw the line

here."

I told them that he had some

silly commitment that he was

asking us to read, but don't

take it serious.

Batiste already spoke to us,

that's, no matter what's going

on, he's just trying to get some

money, to just, don't say

nothing and just back him up.

Okay.

And I can't really tell you

detail of how it transferred to

the whole oath thing.

I just know it happened.

'Cause during this whole time,

I'm getting high like a

mother.

When he says that, I looked

towards Batiste, I was, like,

"Hey, uh, Batiste, is this cool,

or this, this all right, man?"

We, like, gritting our teeth

and we, like, we put our hands

up.

You know, we backing up our man.

That's crazy, man.

Meanwhile, I was in the

background just giving the

brothers the eye wink for

assurance, like, this is just...

This ain't real, it's just a

game.

.

Okay.

We barely had time to even

think, and who gives oaths to.

Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda?

That is for the movies.

This is what we see on TV.

It's not... even if it was real,

it wasn't real.

'Cause it doesn't happen where

we come from.

Once everyone took the oath,

Elie Assaad was instructed to

introduce a plot by Al-Qaeda to

blow up five FBI offices, Miami

being one of them.

And that Al-Qaeda would like

some assistance in doing

reconnaissance and surveillance

and other things.

And then provide a video camera.

Even though it didn't make sense

to me, I was more focused on...

Batiste.

That moment, I felt betrayed.

I felt betrayed.

And, and honestly, that was

the one time I should not have

hold my composure, because that

time, I really wanted to punch

him in the face.

I'm thinking, this, this

straight bullcrap.

This straight bullcrap.

I felt really like Batiste

crossed the line.

So, after everything finished

happening, I took my wife, my

kids, I took my kids out of

school, rented a rental car, and

left.

That soiled us to a point

where...

I don't know if we, we would

have, we was able to come back

from that, that night, 'cause

we started to lose respect for,

you know, not just ourselves,

but for Batiste and for what we

was doing and...

It's, it was, it was ugly.

It was ugly.

They were very disappointed

in themselves, as well as

disappointed in me.

That all this had to happen from

just one single thought of, what

about if we can scam money out

of these people?

It was just a nasty deal, a

nasty scam, that nobody really

liked.

Assaad had rented a van for us.

'Cause I told him I didn't have

any transportation or anything.

I figured that if I just ride

around with a camera in my hand

and then say it's all I'm gonna

do, that would satisfy as far as

the end of my hustle and my

scam.

Batiste, he, like, "Man",

these pictures right here, you

can get these pictures online,

you know, we gonna just give it

to him, and this is the last bit

we have to ever do, to deal with

this guy.

You know? This is it.

"It's over."

Assaad said, "You do this one

more project for me, take the

picture, I'll give you the

money."

It was $50,000, too.

Do you know why he wanted

pictures of those buildings?

Oh, yeah, he wanted to blow

them up, oh, yeah.

That was no secret.

Did that bother you?

No and yeah, because...

I didn't believe it.

I didn't believe it.

You know, I'm not scared as

thinking there's a real

terrorist group, really wants

some pictures of federal

buildings.

You know, I'm not scared of

that, 'cause this guy is not no

terrorist.

Assaad.

You know, I was trying to put

him together... why is he doing

this?

My mind can't see that it's the.

Feds that's pulling the strings.

I can't imagine, you know, a

government agency put this

together.

They take footage of the U.S.

attorney's office in Miami.

And I believe they took footage

of the Miami Police Department.

We had only asked for

reconnaissance on the FBI

office.

Um, and then they provided that,

that video footage to, to.

Assaad.

They could have gone to

Walmart and took a picture of

the back.

So, they could have done a

number of things, even at that

point in the investigation, but

they didn't.

What they did was, they gave who

they thought to be an Al-Qaeda

operative exactly what he had

asked for.

Batiste is mentally competent

to represent a threat that would

be of interest to somebody like.

Al-Qaeda or ISIS, you know.

They, they'd love to identify

people like this.

And I'm not suggesting that

they're gonna recruit him to put

a backpack filled with

explosives and walk into a mall.

The fact that he's willing to

assist in a conspiracy to blow

up a building in the United.

States is no less dangerous.

Whether that's acquiring SIM

cards, or checking out library

books, stealing a car, on its

own, it's, doesn't seem like

much.

But if the ultimate purpose is

to conduct a terrorist attack,

well, then, yeah, I think he

does represent a threat.

So the decision was made that we

were going to indict Batiste,

the other six members of his

group, and arrest them.

One of the things that they did

to earn a living was, they did

stucco for buildings.

And so, we called a contact that

has several rental properties in

Miami and says, "Would you call

these guys and see if you could

hire them to do some stucco

work for you?"

My understanding is, they were

actually on ladders when they

were arrested by the SWAT team.

Breaking news out of Miami.

Anti-terrorism raids by the FBI,

as well as state and local

police.

Seven people right now are under

arrest.

I had Minerva there, I had my

daughter Narcassia, and my son.

Prince.

And they told me and my family

to get on the ground.

They all, they held machine

guns to my kids' and my wife's

head and my head.

I was scared for my life or

they would shoot us.

They had guns drawn at us,

pointing at my children.

I thought it was just something

of, as, a ticket he hadn't

paid, or, or maybe a violation

he had made somewhere.

It was, like, 50 agents.

They swarmed around me real

quick.

They were, like, "Get on the

ground, get on the

Ground!

Get on the ground."

I said, "!"

I'm thinking of everything I did

back in the day.

I'm, like, "Damn, they caught up

with me."

And then the oath and then the

pictures and everything flashed

in my mind, I'm, like, "It was a

setup."

Breaking news tonight,

terror-related arrests in Miami.

FBI agents swoop in on a

Liberty City neighborhood to

foil an alleged plot to commit

terror acts in Miami and

Chicago.

I see my brother on

television saying he's a, a

terrorist.

Investigators say one of the

seven, Narseal Batiste, was the

ringleader.

"Ringleader"?!

I said, "A ringleader?!"

Oh, my God.

I said, "This boy can't even put

cows in the pasture, how's he a

ringleader?"

I'm, like, this is no way, and I

mean, I was so hurt.

I just fell to my knees and I

started crying, because I'm,

like, "This is not true.

This is not my brother."

We now go back to Larry.

King's exclusive interview with

the director of the FBI, Robert

Mueller.

Federal agents are conducting

a terrorism-related

investigation in Liberty City.

That's an area of the city of

Miami.

What can you tell us?

I can tell you that we do

have ongoing operation in, in

Miami.

We are conducting a, a number of

arrests and searches.

Big concern?

Whenever we undertake an

operation like this, we would

not do it without the approval

of a judge.

We've got search warrants and

arrest warrants and the like,

and so, yes, it's a concern.

Good morning, I'm joined

today by FBI Deputy Director

John Pistole and Assistant.

Attorney General Alice Fischer

of the Criminal Division.

The fact that there was a

press conference where the

attorney general speaks,

it's a pretty big deal for the.

Department of Justice.

Seven men were arrested

yesterday in Miami on charges

of, of conspiring to support the.

Al-Qaeda terrorist organization

by planning attacks on numerous

targets, including bombing the.

Sears Tower in Chicago...

Listen, we're gonna go after

people that engage in any, any

kind of contact that's similar

to this.

And I think that's a very

powerful message, a very

powerful tool, that the attorney

general is using the stick of

the Department of Justice to try

to discourage this kind of

behavior from happening again.

These individuals wished to wage

a, a "full ground war against

the United States."

The ridiculousness of that

opening announcement by Gonzales

is astounding.

I think I wrote that, "Wage a"

ground war against the United.

States?

This group couldn't wage a

ground war against a jar of

"peppercorns."

It was clear that from the

highest levels of the Department

of Justice, that this

prosecution had been approved

and was being touted as, like, a

success of the government's

counter-terrorism program.

I think what struck everyone was

that Alberto Gonzales seemed to

know very little about the

specifics of this case.

Did any of the, uh, men have

any actual contact with any

members of Al-Qaeda, that you

know of?

Any...?

No.

Yeah.

The, the answer to that, the

answer to that is no.

They had no money.

They had no weapons.

They weren't even Islamic

extremists.

Ultimately, we realized it was a

sting operation.

The way this all unfolded seemed

very improbable.

Very forced.

And it really looked like the

FBI had led these men down the

primrose path.

Was there anything against

the Sears Tower except this one

apparent discuss... just kind of

a mention of the Sears Tower?

Doesn't look like they ever took

pictures or did any of...?

One of the individuals was

familiar with the Sears Tower,

had worked in Chicago, and had

been there.

So was familiar with the, with

the tower.

I wanted to distinguish this for

the media, 'cause one of my

concerns was that we not

over-hype things.

That, you know, this is, this

is another 9/11 cell, that

they're ready, willing, and able

to die and had means of

accomplishing their attacks.

And so, I described it as an,

that this was an aspirational

group rather than an operational

group.

In terms of the plans, it was

more aspirational than, than

operational.

I think the public and the

media began to realize very

quickly that this was just not a

strong case.

That it was a weak case.

It looks like these guys were

actually asking for material

support from what they thought

was Al-Qaeda.

These, these guys couldn't buy

boots on their own?

They don't sound like very

sophisticated or, or, you know,

effective operators.

These guys didn't have, you

know, the ability to, you know,

blow up anything, let alone the.

Sears Tower.

Did you find any explosives,

weapons...?

And you raise a, a good

point.

You know, you know, our

philosophy here is that we try

to identify plots in the

earliest stages possible,

because we don't know what we,

what we don't know about,

about a terrorism plot.

You know, I hate to criticize

an attorney general, but when he

said, "We had taken out an."

"Al-Qaeda cell," yes, I...

I knew that was going to be a

problem.

He went overboard.

They were not an Al-Qaeda cell.

They were not directed by.

Al-Qaeda.

You know, that is an

overstatement.

So the charges were valid.

It was, it was the over-hyping

of the case.

So they're charged with

providing material support to a

terrorist organization, namely.

Al-Qaeda, even though there was

no actual connection to.

Al-Qaeda.

The problem with terrorism

cases is, you have to stop the

act.

And so, you really, in a way,

have to predict who's going to

do what.

And so, stings are very

important, but if you overstate

what you have done in a sting,

then people begin to lose

confidence in what you're doing.

They think that you're just out

there creating a terrorist

yourself.

I had been doing undercover

work in terrorism cases for a

decade before 9/11.

And before 9/11, if I had called

FBI headquarters and said, "I

want to initiate an undercover

operation targeting a terrorist

"group," uh, the first question

they would have asked me is,

"Okay, what terrorist group do

this, these individuals belong

to?"

And if I said, "Well, they don't"

actually belong to a terrorist

group, they're just saying

things that sound kind of scary

and things that terrorists

"might say."

And they would say, "Okay, well,

what kind of weapons do they

have?"

And if I replied, "Well, they

don't actually have any weapons,

and part of the plot would be

to supply them with weapons."

And then they would say, "Well,

what plot do they have in mind?"

And I would say, "Well, they"

haven't actually identified a

plot yet.

Part of the operation would be

to identify a plot and then

provide them the weapons so that

"they could be terrorists."

Uh, they would have sent me

for counseling.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Through 2005 and 2006, there

had been a very heated debate

over extending expiring

provisions of the Patriot Act.

So I think that there was great

pressure on the FBI to

demonstrate both that there was

a powerful threat that still

existed inside the United States

that justified this expanded

surveillance authority, and that

the tools that they had been

given through the Patriot Act

were actually effective in

identifying these plots.

Correctional officers in the

building all of a sudden start

running to my cell and pointing

at me, and bringing people.

So, it's, like, all of a sudden,

everybody coming to take a look

at me.

And it was, like, "Well, this is

a terrorism case.

You know, you finna get shipped

to Guantanamo."

When he said that, I could feel

my stomach turn.

I think for the next three

days, I had, like, diarrhea... it

was just, it was a shock.

And then I knew what I was

getting charged with, and, you

know, I just, I just hid up

under the, um, the blanket, you

know, while people come point at

me, and, you know, it was, it

was horrifying.

If they were homegrown

terrorists, they grew up here,

on this Miami street.

Stanley Phanor was born in this

house.

Lyglenson Lemorin moved in

across the street with his mom

when he was just six.

And today, the two mothers, both

Haitian, told us in disbelief

there were no terrorists raised

on 45th Street.

They have this, everything.

They have this to put on...

And they calling him

illegal immigrant on the TV.

My son is good from your

country!

The objective then becomes to

solicit the cooperation of one

of the defendants.

To flip someone.

And he was telling me, "Are

you seriously thinking about

spending the rest of your life

in prison?"

I said, "Man, I don't wanna

spend the rest of my life in

prison."

They're, like, "Okay, then, so

the only way you could do that

is by signing these papers."

I'm, like, "I'mma set myself

free without signing those

papers."

We was looking at the younger

brothers, um, Naudimar and B.

And we was, like, "You know

what, just, um, just sign what

you gotta sign."

You know what I'm...

We told them brothers, Naudimar

and B, "Man, sign what you

gotta sign, man, and get out of

this.

You know, you real young."

And, you know, they got upset.

They was, like, "No, we're not

signing."

We facing 70 years and three

life sentences, and, you know,

them brothers was, like, nah,

they not.

You know, and I definitely

wasn't.

You know, so...

Yeah, nobody was willing to

sign off that they was

terrorism.

But more so, nobody was willing

to...

Yeah, nobody was willing to send

they brother, who they know

what we was out there doing in

them streets, you know, up the

road for a charge that, that

wasn't us.

I refused every plea.

I talked to my lawyer, I told my

lawyer... my lawyer couldn't

understand it.

I told him that's basically how

I got to be, because I was

with these brothers.

I knew what they was about.

I knew if I get, take any plea,

even regardless of plea that

said that I didn't know nothing

about that, then I'm, then it

actually saying something about

my, my brothers that's left in

there that I knew they was not

about what they say they was

about.

Prosecutors laid out their

case against seven men dubbed

the Liberty City Seven, accused

of conspiring to blow up the.

Sears Tower in Chicago.

You have to understand that,

in the counter-terrorism field,

the criminal penalties

associated with the laws that

are used, particularly laws like

the material support for

terrorism law, come with

draconian penalties.

So, if a defense attorney went

to a client who was charged with

terrorism charges and said,

"Hey, look, you know, you're

looking at 30 or 40 years in

jail if you go to trial and are

convicted, but the government's

offering you to plead out to

"five years," even somebody who

is entirely innocent or

believes that they were induced

into committing some kind of

crime, it wouldn't be unusual

for them to plead guilty to it.

So, the Liberty City Seven case

was fascinating to me, both

because it showed me that all of

the defendants were willing to

go to trial, showed me that they

were convinced they had done

nothing wrong.

And moreover, it gave one of the

very first opportunities to

really examine the FBI's

tactics, because all of the

information would come out

through the criminal trial.

The challenge for the Liberty.

Seven defense: The suspects did

indeed pledge an oath to.

Al-Qaeda.

When you have the attorney

general of the United States

having a press conference, I

realized that I was in for a

major battle going forward.

Our story was a simple one: They

didn't have the manner and

means, they had no money... they

barely had vehicles.

They didn't have horses and they

certainly didn't have bombs.

This is a case manufactured

primarily by the government, or

in my case, my client's case,

this wasn't his idea.

It was just a complete, you

know, setup by the government.

The plot was being moved forward

by the informants and the FBI.

Who directed their activities.

They ran this whole show.

They, they provided the script.

They provided the choreography,

okay?

They provided the direction.

This was not a terrorist case at

all, let alone a case where the

actors, the defendants, were

moving the plot forward.

They invented the players,

they invented the theme, they

invented how it was gonna go

down.

They, they wrote this script.

They wrote this script.

One of the other defense

attorneys said this was all

really a inner-city scam.

Well, we do know that, first

of all, that one of the things

that was done in this case was

that there was a serious

question with regard to $50,000

being given to these individuals

to help them to revitalize this

building.

Here's Narseal saying, "We've"

gotta get this $50,000, so, man,

just go along with this plan

for me, and then we're gonna be

good after that.

Just go along with it.

No, we're not gonna do anything,

"but just go along with it."

And so, the defense became

that, that these guys were doing

this just for the money, that

this was one big scam.

It would have been a scam.

It would have been a scam had he

given us pictures of the Waffle.

House.

Or, you know, given us a blank

disc.

Or, or just not have given us

footage of the FBI office, the.

U.S. attorney's office, and the

Miami Police Department.

So, it's not a scam.

I mean, that is a, an executed

agreement.

Whether these people were

being paid or not, the question

is, are they willing to commit

these acts?

Whether it's for money or it's

for free.

So it really made no difference.

Prosecutors told the jury

they'll hear from among 15,000

government recordings of the

group's plan to create chaos.

I'm hearing this for the

first time.

Now I know why we got indicted.

Because in my mind, I thought

the only meetings that occurred

was the ones I was there.

He's a nut.

What the is you running

your -damn mouth for?

On and on and on.

My life was on the line, but

I just couldn't believe the

words that was coming out of.

Batiste's mouth.

I couldn't believe I was on

trial for these conversations.

Narseal got on the stand.

I was literally yelling at him

about how his stupidity and the

things he did got these guys in

trouble.

And he's sitting up there and

he's crying.

And, you know, and I said, "And"

here you are.

You stepped off what we call

a, a... the square, if you will,

which is of righteousness, and

you led these guys down, you

know, to the wrong path.

And everybody is now sitting up

here indicted by a federal

government, looking at and being

"called terrorists," and he's...

He's bawling, he's crying.

I cried about it on the

witness stand.

Said it was something that I

really didn't mean inside.

That I was just going along with.

Abbas's game, using his

language.

Him and Assaad.

I wanted to stand up and shout

and say that, "I'm not this"

person.

I'm really a good person on the

inside.

I would never do these things.

"It was just a con game."

I kind of felt that he should

have been a little stronger.

You know what I mean?

'Cause we was all together, you

know, trying to give each other

support.

But he'll just, um, he'll just

ball up in a corner, and it was

just, it was a lot of guilt.

You know, of the things he said,

you know.

You know, all of us getting

locked up with him and, you

know, his family image, you

know, everything was destroyed

and, you know, it took a toll on

him.

I did a, maybe a year and eight

months in Miami FDC.

I was in solitary confinement.

They call it the SHU.

Yeah, you probably go crazy in

there, you know, and I tell

people maybe I am, maybe I'm

not, I...

But it's, um...

You don't do that to another

human being.

One day, a guy walked by me.

And then he, like, said, "What's"

"up?" to me with just a head nod.

And, you know, I was at the

little window, it's like a

little... six-inch window, and

I'm looking, and I gave him a

head nod.

And then I walked back to my

chair, and I'm just sitting

there, and it hit me, "I just

seen Batiste!"

So, I...

I couldn't believe it.

You know, I couldn't believe it.

He was a totally different

person.

He was skin and bones and, you

know, it was times I hear...

I heard him, you know, screaming

in his cell.

I think it just about killed

him.

I think it just about killed

him.

After two long months of

trial, the jurors couldn't

decide any of the charges for

the so-called Liberty City.

Seven.

There was a lot of

disagreement, but all of the

jurors worked very hard.

Um, everybody gave it, gave

it their all and came here every

day, for many, many months, and

uh, and did the best that we

could.

I think the jury as a whole kind

of felt sorry for these guys.

That they got, they've wound

themselves up in this position,

but, you know, they, to some

extent, they did it themselves.

There were a few people that

really bought into this idea

that they were just doing this

to scam this guy out of money.

Which seems sort of odd, like,

um, to be scamming Al-Qaeda.

They're not the type of people

that you would think about

really running a scam on, I

wouldn't think.

They would seem like kind of

scary guys to, to cross.

That's why I think there was a

hung jury, except that one

defendant who they felt really

had very little connection and

wasn't around for most of this,

and we dismissed the case

against him.

Found him not guilty.

One of seven Miami men

accused of plotting to join

forces with Al-Qaeda has been

acquitted, and a mistrial has

been declared for the six other

men.

They said, "Lyglenson Lemorin"

not guilty for the first charge.

Lyglenson Lemorin not guilty

for the second charge, for the

third charge, for the fourth

"charge."

And everybody was so happy.

Was he crying?

I couldn't tell...

Yes, we both were.

Very emotional.

Levi was found not guilty at the

first trial.

And it was fantastic.

Thought he'd be able to move on

with his life.

Well, I went back, we all

thought I'm going home, packed

my stuff, and then that's when.

Immigration came and got me.

The judge found that he had

associated himself with a

terrorist group, and that in and

of itself was deportable.

You look at my case, I have

no conviction... nothing.

That trial was my only thing and

I've been working all my life.

I got kids, wife.

I married a American.

I beat the case.

I beat the case and I'm sent

home.

You can be found not guilty,

but it still doesn't mean you're

not guilty in the eyes of the.

U.S. government.

He couldn't even come back to

the United States for his

15-year-old son's funeral when

he was killed, um, along the

highway, trying to assist a

motorist who had been stalled

and their car had broken down.

It's a pain where you

can't...

You don't know, it's almost

like your heart's closing and

you don't know what to do.

And I zoned out.

You know, life start over, life

ain't finished.

God is great.

I'mma continue to be me.

I'mma continue to strive to

better myself.

It's really, nothing changed

about how I feel America.

I love America.

America's a great country.

But what happened to us, it's

not America that did it.

You know, it's not America.

It's a few people in America

that people put their trust in.

Federal prosecutors say they

will retry the six men on whom

the jurors deadlocked.

Judge Joan Lenard set jury

selection for January.

It's hard to be able to look

at the media once you've

arrested somebody and called

them a terrorist, and then drop

the case against them after one

trial, saying, "Okay, we're

gonna let them back out on the

streets to complete what they

were trying to do."

And so the government had to

retry the case.

And they tried it a second time.

And it hung a second time for

the same reasons.

We did, we tried it again,

and there was another mistrial.

A federal judge has declared

another mistrial.

Prosecutors now have a week to

decide if they're going to try

them for a third time.

When that trial came to, um,

a hung jury again, we just knew

they was gonna throw this case

out.

There ain't no way they coming

back again for another trial

with us, 'cause it was so

embarrassing.

My experience has been, it's,

it's two times and they're done.

But it depends on the case.

If they want somebody bad

enough, they continue to go

after the person.

And they wanted these guys,

badly.

Two juries failed to reach a

verdict.

Now a third jury will try.

Imagine if we did nothing

about this case, and instead of

the FBI coming to, to Batiste,

one of these organizations

actually came to Batiste and

provided him the explosives.

So, could we ignore it?

And if we had ignored it, and he

had blown up a building, he had

done damage to this building

you're sitting in right now, and

people were killed, wouldn't

you be coming back to us to

say, "Why didn't you do

something about it?

Why did you ignore it?"

This is the question: Do you

want us to stop them before they

commit this kind of crime, or,

or do you want to let it happen

first?

So the government said,

"We're gonna give this one last

try.

A third time."

And each time they tried the

case, the case got smaller, and

more defined and more focused.

And even with the third trial,

they really flailed, because the

jurors were out for almost 12,

13 days.

So, it looked like it was gonna

be another hung jury.

The jury went out for

deliberations and there was one

juror who refused to deliberate.

She just refused.

So, the judge had to excuse that

juror.

Within 24 hours, an alternate

was brought in and he joined the

other 11 and convicted five of

the six.

A sixth defendant was found not

guilty.

After the verdict was read,

the one Liberty Six member who

was acquitted called the

prosecution of his friends

"bogus."

You had no intention of doing

any of the things that you

talked about?

It was all a whole bunch of

hogwash from the beginning.

You weren't serious about any

of it?

Nobody was serious about

nothing.

It's not real.

Give us a little space,

please.

It took three years and three

trials, but a group of Florida

men accused in a plot to destroy.

Chicago's Sears Tower are each

facing decades in prison.

I felt like I got hit in the

head with an 80-ton concrete

ball or something.

Or knocked out.

I cried.

Thought my life was over.

All based on what I said.

A certain part of me just

died there.

And now, I was left with four

young children to raise without

no other family, no other help.

But just me and them.

You're taking this innocent man

away from his... and all the

rest of these young men... away

from their families, without no

evidence.

I can't be living this.

I can't.

I can't be living this.

I have a responsibility to

the people that I, I work for,

which are the citizens of the.

United States, to, to go where

the facts and evidence leads.

I've looked at this a thousand

ways to Sunday.

I wish I could say, "Look, this

is what happened, and, and this

is how..."

I, I just can't...

I can't get myself there.

They did what they were

convicted of.

The problem was, there were a

lot of sensitive issues in this

case.

For instance, we got them a

warehouse where we had cameras

and, and they had a meeting, and

they swore the oath to Al-Qaeda.

But we could have delivered them

a, a load of arms and munitions;

Made the arms and munitions

inoperable, but delivered them.

Once they accepted that, we

could have taken them down with

the, the munitions in their hand

and I think that would have been

far, far more effective.

But at that time, the bureau was

so nervous about providing

potential terrorists with

weaponry that they just flat

out said, "No, you can't do

that."

Al-Qaeda didn't know any of

these individuals.

They didn't have anybody who

could have done a full ground

war in the United States or,

uh, taken down the Sears Tower.

But many Americans believe they

did because the FBI manufactured

this plot.

I was hoping that they would

learn that this case was an

overreach, they had gone too

far, and perhaps undermined

public trust in the

counterterrorism tactics that

they were using.

But they seem to have taken the

opposite lesson.

And what you see in the sting

operations after Liberty City.

Seven is an effort to

sensationalize the cases even

further, to where they will

go to the extent of actually

providing significant weaponry

to these groups.

Yesterday during an FBI

sting operation.

He's a U.S. citizen...

Demetrius Pitts faces charges

after he communicated with an

undercover agent.

He believed that the FBI

planted this bombing plot

undercover agents who said

they could help him bomb the

mall...

They set this kid up.

If you lay out sting

operations on a chart, you know,

what you see is this enormous

uptick after 2009.

I think it's just further

emboldened the FBI and the.

Department of Justice in its

use of these types of sting

operations, knowing that

essentially, if they can convict

these guys in Miami, you know,

they can convict just about

anybody.

The Liberty City/Sears Tower

case was significant in the

sense of taking people with bad

motives, bad intent, off the

street, holding them

accountable, and then serving as

a deterrent to other potential

terrorists.

Were these terrorists in a

real sense?

My personal opinion was no,

because... and that's why I

describe them as aspirational

rather than operational...

Because I didn't believe they,

they could do something based on

what I had seen.

I'm not gonna hype these

cases to be something that

they're not.

But they're very important,

because if, if we can't do 'em,

it's gonna be hard to stop

terrorists.

The Liberty City case was one of

the cases that we would use in

training: Okay, this is a

cautionary tale.

You know, be careful as to how

far your, your undercover agents

or your informants push.

And when you do arrest, you

know, don't overstate what,

what you've got.

The goal is not to take somebody

that is not a terrorist and make

them a terrorist.

They weren't really the, the

terrorists that we were seeking

out.

This is my job.

I was hired as a supervisor,

underneath the project manager,

to run the job site with

small contractors.

This is excellent, uh, it's...

It might not be as, as good as

me subcontracting things on my

own, and making more money in a,

in a momentous type of way.

But it's a steady income, I'm on

salary pay.

And I'm, I'm just happy.

Did you ever imagine that you

were being recorded?

Yes.

You did?

You knew that you were being

videoed?

Yes.

It was, it was clear.

Did you see where the video

cameras were?

No, they were hidden cameras.

Did you tell the brothers

that you thought your meetings

with Assaad might have been

recorded by law enforcement?

Yes.

I still don't really

understand how you thought you

could get away with it even if

you got the money.

Yeah, I didn't seem...

I didn't really...

At the end of the day, I

thought about it and said, "I

probably won't get away with it,

but I'll just spend some of it,

and if they caught me, 'Hey,

I'm sorry I took the money.

Can I give it back?

"I spent some of it.'"

That's what I thought I could

use as an excuse.

I wonder if he's trying to

save face.

Because he realized how stupid

he was.

Everybody makes mistakes, but

not everybody's mistakes is

recorded for the world to see

over and over and over again.

His is.

So that was his best answer is

trying to say, "Aw, yeah, I'm

smart."

Nah, you was just that dumb.

That's all that was.

That's all that was.

He didn't know?

He didn't know.

He didn't know.

Finance was becoming a

problem because of my case.

So it was hard to find

employment or anything else.

So, when I did find employment,

it was, like, a bull ass

job.

And I said, "I'mma take this

job, or take this check, and

I'mma mix this through what I

know best."

Which is go back to the street

and go back to the hustling

game, to the cocaine or

whatever, and just mix and

mingle with the people I know.

They're so concerned with

terrorist, uh, watch, I was

selling dope under their eyes

the whole time, and I was on

federal probation.

So they couldn't be that

concerned with me.

They couldn't have.

I made money.

In terms of Batiste, nah, I

wanted to strangle the guy, man,

because I felt like, you don't

listen.

You got caught up in yourself,

and now this is what this come

down.

And this is not just something

that affect us immediately.

It affect all, every last one of

our families.

Of course I wanted to strangle

his ass.

I lose part of me.

I lost everything I was.

My whole 30s was spent in

prison.

In your 30s, that's when you buy

a house, you know what I mean?

You start to be financially

sound, you know?

Having kids, you know... I spent

all that time in prison.

So, I'm out right now, I don't

got no kids.

No, no wife, no girlfriend...

No real job.

Oh, man!

Please rate this subtitle at www.osdb.link/8g8br Help other users to choose the best subtitles