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Success Against Terrorism: The Miami Terror Bust

By John Scott, Fox News

June 23, 2006

Transcript

John: A Fox News Alert—and we now have a copy of the indictment issued in this Miami terror bust case. Seven men arrested, we have their names now: Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Berson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, Rotschild Augustine. Seven men who were arrested at a Liberty City warehouse; they were apparently using it as sort of a home and training ground, and the indictment charges them with pledging an oath to al-Qaeda. Apparently, authorities had an informant who met with the leader apparently of this group, the man that the indictment calls Narseal Batiste. He said that—he told this informant who was portraying an al-Qaeda representative, that he was organizing a mission to build an Islamic army in order to wage jihad. He provided this informant with a list of materials and equipment needed to do so. The list included boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios and vehicles. Batiste said he needed a video camera to go to Chicago so he can surveil the Sears Tower, which they planned to blow up, and apparently they said that the damage they intended to cause would be worse that what was caused on 9/11. Joining us now, former Indiana congressman and former 9/11 Commissioner, Tim Roemer; he joins us now. Tim do you see this as success the kind of thing your commission was calling for as we try to suss out some of these terrorist groups?

Tim Roemer: Yes John, good morning. This is certainly success. It’s good news with a caveat. Certainly it’s good news; seven plotters, we foiled the plot ahead of time, we seem to be getting good intelligence on the ground. The targets are consistent with al-Qaeda. It appears they were going to try get the Sears Trade Tower and an FBI building in Miami and maybe some other buildings. They swore allegiance to al-Qaeda. Most of that is very consistent with the al-Qaeda plotting, planning and organization in the past. What the caveat is John, is that al-Qaeda is adapting to an author by the name of al Nasar’s plan very, very quickly. Growing these strategic incubators that have self-generating cells whether they be in Madrid, London, Toronto, or maybe in Miami and if they can get disaffected Americans to join up, that’s a worrisome issue there.

John: So you can surveil all the communications that might be emanating from some al-Qaeda central and not necessarily disrupt the plots.

Tim Roemer: What this shows us more and more is that al-Qaeda is strategically adapting. They’re going on this global jihad plan to grow cells and eliminate the middlemen. We saw on the 9/11 Commission; prior to 9/11 they often had to go to Khalid Sheihk Mohammed or Osama bin Laden to get both tactical and strategic approval of plans. Now we’re seeing, whether it’s looking at the plot that came out of Toronto, analyzing what happening in London, or just starting to see what happened here in Miami, that the middleman is eliminated. The inspiration is coming from people on tapes like Zawahiri and bin Laden, which by the way it’s important to get them. It’s important that these inspirational tapes don’t continue to come out, and it’s also important in places like Europe, Canada and the United States, that we don’t let our Muslim communities become disaffected so that inspirational tapes and other communications and plotting eventually allow them to, or encourage them to sign up with al-Qaeda.

John: Former congressman Tim Roemer, a member of the 9/11 Commission. Thanks.

Tim Roemer: Thanks John.

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