Miami Jihad Update from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
MIAMI– One of seven men accused of plotting terrorist attacks against Chicago’s Sears Tower and government buildings in major cities pleaded not guilty Friday despite his own admission in writing that he took an oath of loyalty to al-Qaida.
Lyglenson Lemorin, 31, entered the plea during a brief hearing in federal court after he was transferred to Miami from Atlanta, where he was arrested in June. Another hearing is set for Aug. 8 to determine if he should be released on bail.
Lemorin is accused along with six others in a four-count grand jury indictment with conspiracy and material support charges stemming from an alleged plot to blow up the Sears Tower and destroy FBI offices and other buildings in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington.
The other suspects have also pleaded not guilty and are being held without bail. Authorities have said their purported plot never moved beyond the preliminary stages and the supposed al-Qaida operative they were dealing with was actually an FBI informant with no ties to the terrorist network.
In a handwritten, signed statement to the FBI dated the day of his arrest, Lemorin admitted taking an oath of loyalty known as “bayat” to al-Qaida along with other members of a group of adherents to a Moorish Science Temple religious sect headed by Narseal Batiste.
Lemorin also said in the statement that he was present when an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative gave Batiste “a video camera to film target locations (federal buildings and Tower building) in Miami, FL, and Chicago, IL, to destroy.”