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| Posted Friday, September 21, 2007 |
| Jury selected in terrorism trial of 6 Haitian,
Haitian-Americans, 1 Hispanic Miami men |
MIAMI: A jury was chosen Friday for the trial of seven men accused of plotting with a
man they thought was an al-Qaida operative to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI
offices in several U.S. cities.
The 12-person jury, plus six alternates, was selected over a two-week period. Opening
statements in the trial are scheduled for Tuesday, with testimony likely to last two
months or more.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard on Friday ordered that the jurors be chosen by number
only, making it initially unclear how many men and women were on the panel as well as its
ethnic makeup. All the defendants are black, many of them with ties to Haiti.
The seven men, all from Miami's blighted Liberty City neighborhood, face up to 70 years
in prison if convicted of conspiring to levy war against the United States and provide
material support to al-Qaida. They were charged after a lengthy investigation in which an
FBI informant posed as an al-Qaida emissary sent to help with their allegedly violent
plans.
Many in the group, including purported ringleader Narseal Batiste, 33, have said they
only went along in hopes of extorting money out of the man they knew as Mohammed. But the
FBI videotaped each of them pledging allegiance to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Today in
Americas.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press
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