FBI Miami raids connected to possible terror plot

CNN has this is a breaking story, no specifics, trying to find some more info.

LIBERTY CITY, Fla. - Federal agents are conducting a terrorism-related investigation in Liberty City. Agents were at the Scott housing projects in the area of 15th Avenue and Northwest 62nd Street.

Several streets were cordoned off during the search.

A Miami Police Department SWAT team assisted federal agents in the search. Armed agents could be seen in the area.

Link: www.msnbc.msn.com...

brill

[edit on 22-6-2006 by brill]

Cool I wonder what there were trying to do. I bet they got this intel from the cell group in Toronto.

It looks like there was an insider in the group and that they have been following these guys for years. They thought that something may have been up, so they got em'. They still do not know if this was a foreign or domestic group. Glad they got these guys.

AP is reporting this is unrelated to AQ and supposedly against the Sears towers. None of which poses a threat to Miami.

MIAMI - Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., a federal law enforcement official said.

The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations. He spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt news conferences planned for Friday in Washington and Miami.
AP Reporting

Sadly home grown...perhaps.

mg

news.yahoo.com...

Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Mulims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group, which seemed militaristic.

The residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men had lived in the area about a year.

The men slept in the warehouse, said Tashawn Rose, 29. "They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard."

She talked to one of the men about a month ago: "They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah."

Rose said the men tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew for a karate class.

"It was weird," she said.

Homegrown... maybe they learn weapons training and hand to hand combat as well as other manuals dealing with being a cell for an organization on the internet.

Sounds like they hit a logistical center to me. There were repeated trips by the Toronto Cell into the states, along with trips back, in which three of the suspects were caught with 'prohibited firearms' of an undisclosed nature. Canadian gun laws label anything from a revolver with a 2 inch barrel to an M249 SAW a prohibited weapon. However, it is my thinking that they might have gotten said firearms from florida. Can anyone tell me what is required for a Floridan to aqquire a gun?

PS- Brill, your avatar kicks ass. reminds me a T-shirt: A fist with a baton, through the center of a police-badge star. Below it was emblazoned SUE ME. Damn, I wanted one. Those helmets also appeal to me, in a twisted sort of way.

DE

Originally posted by DeusEx
Sounds like they hit a logistical center to me. There were repeated trips by the Toronto Cell into the states, along with trips back, in which three of the suspects were caught with 'prohibited firearms' of an undisclosed nature. Canadian gun laws label anything from a revolver with a 2 inch barrel to an M249 SAW a prohibited weapon. However, it is my thinking that they might have gotten said firearms from florida. Can anyone tell me what is required for a Floridan to aqquire a gun?

PS- Brill, your avatar kicks ass. reminds me a T-shirt: A fist with a baton, through the center of a police-badge star. Below it was emblazoned SUE ME. Damn, I wanted one. Those helmets also appeal to me, in a twisted sort of way.

DE

Yah the avatar is a keeper

I think your right too about the Toronto ties.

brill

Originally posted by DeusEx
Can anyone tell me what is required for a Floridan to aqquire a gun?

Money…not much more than that.

The laws are fairly lax for the legal acquisition of firearms, with no registration necessary.

www.nraila.org..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow"> example


mg

i saw on the news that one suspect had taken the AQ "oath"


can anyone quantify this?

The theme of this operation seems to be "hiding in plain sight". This is a phrase you will read and hear often in the next few days. They are conditioning the population away from thinking that Arabs are terrorists, to thinking that anyone can be a terrorist, and anyone can be treated like one. I'll be interested to see if these guys are given due process or declared enemy combatants.

There have been quite a number of alarming reports up here. The first I really payed attention to was that one of the documents found among the possesions of the Toronto suspects was a printout of the AQ online manual, which made clear that cells are all over, planning and such. The only constraint to their actions seems to be financial, in fact.

The second was an inflamatory imam's visit from...some place that isn't canada, I forget where. But the head of the Canadian Muslim Federation actually objected to the government to him coming, out of fear that he was going to try and convert the youth. I believe he's in-country at the moment, guest of a mosque.

Not particularly good news, all around.

DE

Internal terrorism is a serious matter but Im also concerned about this. They seem to have been 'lead' thru this process the FBI had set up. Im interested to know what they have been charged with and I dont feel good about the idea of the prosecuting power interacting with the observed target. I want to know also whether they had the capabilities to do anything of significance or whether there just stupid.

Yes, there's a scary terrorist living amongst you (yes, another one). Please give up all your rights so we may defend you against the threat.