No weapons, plot or Al Qaeda were involved in the biggest Al Qaeda plot that the FBI claimed it had foiled during the years after the attacks. The FBI was largely responsible for the vague and unlikely threat made by construction workers in Florida to set fire to U.S. buildings including Chicago's Sears Tower. Their undercover agents sought out the men and promised them money. They then coached them over several months to incriminate themselves in a plot to execute violent acts they didn't intend or have the means to do. After the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., the Liberty City Seven case, which was linked to the violence-ridden Miami neighborhood in which the men lived, was the most prominent FBI investigation into a suspected terrorist cell. The bureau, having failed to act upon intelligence received before 9/11 attacks, was under immense pressure to stop the next attack. This led to the transformation of the agency from a reactive crime-solving agency into a preventative national security agency, ex-Deputy Director John Pistole.
Two paid FBI informants tricked seven Black men into pledging loyalty to Al Qaeda by manipulating them, most of whom were Haitian Americans, is the story of the new Frontline documentary In the Shadow of 9/11. It was directed by Dan Reed, a British director. Reed, who previously directed documentaries on terror attacks in Mumbai and Moscow, described it as almost unbelievable. It was hard to understand how these Liberty City men could find themselves in such a predicament.
Five of the seven men were sentenced to 43 years each in federal prison for their involvement in this case. It is a story that has been forgotten about the extremes government agencies went to in the panicked aftermath 9/11. Also, it tells us about the absurdities sold to the public by the U.S. criminal justice system in the name national security. This case shows how quickly the so-called "war on terror" became a struggle to create a narrative. It was clear that there was a real threat, and the U.S. government was winning. In the years that followed, hundreds of FBI sting operations were launched. The bureau continued to frame people who were often poor and credulous and who had doubts about their ability to plan attacks independently. The agency relied on a vast surveillance system that was established after 9/11. It used constitutionally protected speech to monitor people even though bureau officials frequently denied it. FBI agents relied heavily upon well-paid informants who operated without accountability. They also expanded their stings to include a growing list of possible threats, not just foreign-inspired ideologies, but also domestic ones like the one posed by black identity extremism.
The Intercept has revealed in its Trial and Terror database that most of the more than 1,000 Americans who have been charged with terrorism offenses since 9/11 did not commit any act of violence. Many were made up of FBI agents and had no connections to terrorist organizations, just like the Liberty City Seven. These cases not only resulted in a huge waste of investigative resources and prosecutorial time, but also caused people's deaths. Reed stated that terrorists are trying to spread terror and make people fear for more terror attacks. The government can make terrorists do this, and that is what terrorists want. It is making Americans more afraid. The documentary tells the story of the Liberty City Seven. This is a compilation of interviews, hours of surveillance footage, audio recordings by informants, and hours of audio. It is difficult to believe that this was an FBI operation. Narseal Batiste was the alleged terror cell ringleader. He was a businessman and an eccentric spiritual guru. His primary belief was the improvement of the African American condition. His associates were mostly young, poor men who hustled on the streets of Miami. Batiste was their spiritual leader and they offered martial arts training to the neighborhood children. FBI was notified of the group by a Yemeni convenience shop clerk who claimed that the group had asked him for a connection to Al Qaeda. Even though the tip seemed unlikely, the FBI hired the clerk to act as an informant. The scheme was to introduce the group and another informant to Osama Bin Laden. Batiste was having trouble paying off business debts so he saw an opportunity to con the men out of some money. They kept promising more while Batiste made increasingly compromising statements in support of Al Qaeda. He agreed to do so. Batiste was able to give one of the informants a list of items that he needed to attack Chicago in one of the most important exchanges of his life. Batiste says that he had to come up with something right away. FBI surveillance footage shows Batiste struggling to distinguish between a pistol and a machine gun in front of his relentless handler. I did not know the names of guns. Batiste, who had never owned a gun, was forced to take a strangely-written oath of allegiance by the informants. He also convinced six associates to do the same. He continued to make bombastic statements about a plot to blow up buildings and kill survivors. At one point, he even boasted that it was more than 9/11. Batiste agreed to drive around Miami in a vehicle and use a camera provided by the FBI to take photos of federal buildings. Batiste believed that Batiste was trying to coerce the FBI informants who were creating a threat they didn't know was real. Both parties wanted to cash in. The threat was not real to the FBI agents who worked with the informants to create the sting, but the Justice Department did cite Batistes for terrorism-related offenses. Even though officials knew that the seven were not terrorists, the Justice Department hailed the case as a victory in its new war on terror. Michael Mullaney, former chief of the Justice Departments Counterterrorism Section said in the documentary. The government staged the case as soon as the men were taken into custody in June 2006. Justice Department officials tried justify their decision to charge the men with the following acts: taking photos of federal buildings and swearing allegiance a terrorist organization. They argued that stings were used to predict who might plan an attack and not as traps for people who would never have thought of it if the FBI had not created the script. Mullaney said that the problem with terrorist cases is that you must stop the act. So stings are important in terrorism cases. You have to stop the act, and so you can't predict who will do what.
No lead is left undiscovered in the film. Mike German, an ex-FBI special agent, says that he once told his superiors that it was his intention to start an operation against terrorist groups. The bureau did not care that these tips were often from financial informants. The FBI did more than just investigate an unorthodox tip in the Liberty City case. Even though the FBI quickly recognized that Batiste, and other suspects, were not credible threats, they continued to push forward and invested countless hours of their resources in the sting. Prosecutors tried the case again after the trial ended in a tie.
The FBI did not abandon stings because they were harmful and pointless, but it doubled down.
