Third trial starts for men accused of Sears Tower plot

MIAMI -- A group of Miami men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices sold out their country for money, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday at the start of the men's third trial.

Prosecutors are trying to convict the so-called "Liberty City Six" on four terrorism-related charges after two previous trials ended in hung juries. The men are accused of plotting terror attacks with an FBI informant they thought was an al-Qaida operative.

Prosecutors said the group's leader, Narseal Batiste, 34, sought an alliance with al-Qaida to stage major attacks. The men took an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden -- captured by the FBI on videotape -- led by a man claiming to be an al-Qaida operative who was an informant posing as a terror financier.

Batiste, who owned a construction company where the men worked, testified at both earlier trials that he was faking interest in the terror plots in hopes of scamming $50,000 from the purported al-Qaida operative. Attorneys for the other men insisted they were barely involved and that the terrorist "oath" was not taken seriously.

One of the original defendants in the case was acquitted after the first trial. That defendant, 33-year-old Lyglenson Lemorin, is still in immigration custody as the U.S. works to deport him to his native Haiti.

There has been no evidence the men ever took any steps toward pulling off an attack. When they were arrested in 2006, the Bush administration trumpeted the case as an example of heading off terrorists early.

"What's relevant is their intention -- what they wanted to do," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Arango said.

Prosecutors said the men took photographs and video of possible targets in Miami, including the FBI building, a courthouse complex and a synagogue. In exchange, they wanted money to build what Arango described as their paramilitary group.

"They all agreed to sell out their country for money," Arango said. "The fact that they did so for the mighty U.S. dollar is no excuse."

The men each face 70 years in prison if convicted of four terrorism-related counts, including conspiracy to support al-Qaida and conspiracy to levy war against the U.S.

The trial is expected to last at least two months. Defense attorneys were to present their opening statements later Wednesday.

The group of men were named after their hometown of Liberty City, an impoverished area of Miami.