http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_347154356.html Miami Terror Suspect Claims 'I Was Set Up' Brian Andrews Reporting Dec 13, 2006 7:05 pm US/Eastern
(CBS4) MIAMI The Liberty City man arrested for allegedly leading a group of men to commit terrorist attacks in the US is trying to clear the air with a letter written to CBS4's Brian Andrew, and he says holy war was never on his mind. In his 25-page handwritten letter, Narseal Batiste told Brian Andrews that him an his followers were looking for money for their Liberty City religious organization, not a holy war. The FBI tailed Batiste and his followers for months, generating hours of video surveillance as they built their case against them, saying they conspired with what they thought was a known terrorist organization to blow up federal buildings and Chicago's Sears Tower. "I want you to know that I never had any intentions of doing a terrorist act," Batiste now says in his letter. "My group and I never had reason to harm anyone." Batiste writes the FBI put drugs in food he and co-defendants Patrick Abraham were served by the FBI informant the night a surveillance tape was shot, on which Batiste talks about blowing up the Sears Tower. He wrote that he's simply telling the informant what he wanted to hear, just so he could get money from him for their church. "That's why you see me playing with tissue boxes talking about blowing up the Sears Tower. I made it up right then and there," he wrote. On the surveillance tape he is heard saying, "Now what I plan on doing is to attack here, here, here, and here...(nods and whistles) 120 floors." "If you listen to the words I was saying, it's unrealistic, such as I need horses," he wrote. Batiste says he and his group were desperate for money, and that last September, a convenience store owner from Yemen offered assistance. He says the shopkeeper, whom Batiste identifies as Abbas, teamed up with the feds to get help for his own financial and immigration problems to concoct the lies that led to Batiste and six others being arrested. "He played like he was going to help us fix our new headquarters, because he knew our intentions were to help our community," he said in the letter. "Abbas starting talking crazy like 'I want to get Bush to stop the war in Iraq and I want to blow up something.'" Batiste says he thought nothing of it because people can talk a lot of trash. "Little did I know that Abbas was setting my group up to look like terrorists," he said. "He even convinced me to play along with his conversation between him and his big brother because they said it would build a relationship tie with them and it would open the door to financial help from them." Batiste says he went along with it. "He knew we were eager for funding and that I went into great financial stress. So he suggested I meet a rich Arab friend: His uncle from Yemen." That ended up being the FBI's second informant, whom the government claims was posing as an al Qaeda operative. "As you can tell, the man doing all the talking in Mohammed Abdul," he wrote. "I was surprised he was asking the questions that he did ask." Batiste blames the whole case on the shopkeeper-turned-government-witness, who was rewarded for his efforts in both cash and immigration assistance. "The Government never had any reason to investigate us. It was Abbas who planted this lie against me for the soul fact of him needing money." "The Government, desperate though to catch a terrorist, followed him and began designing a case against us with manipulation, fear, and intimidation." Batiste agreed to an interview with Brian Andrews, but after three weeks of wrangling with the bureau of prisons, the interview request was denied. We weren't told why. Batiste's lawyer, Ana Jhones has not returned our phone calls. 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