Families of Terror Suspects React to Arrests
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And glad to have all you out there with us tonight. Appreciate your dropping by on a Friday night. Here's what's happening at this moment. U.S. intelligence experts are now analyzing the videotape just out today from al Qaeda's number-two man, Ayman al-Zawahri. The tape shows him grieving in front of a picture of terrorist Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, who was killed earlier this month in an American airstrike. Al-Zawahri is calling him a hero and a martyr, and promised revenge for his so-called murder. Concern about Korean missile tests move the U.S. and Japan -- agree to cooperate on stronger missile defense systems. The U.S. has also just completed the largest war exercises in the Pacific since Vietnam. In Sedona, Arizona, wildfires burning there since Sunday have now consumed some 4,000 acres. People there are now bracing for strong winds that could put even more homes and resorts in danger. Moving on now to the "Security Watch" tonight -- the very latest on a plot the government claims was the beginning of a terrorist attack potentially even more devastating than 9/11. We first alerted you to the stunning details as they were breaking late last night at this time during our hour, allegations of a spectacular plan by a group of extremists to blow up buildings in Miami and the country's tallest skyscraper, the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago -- a particularly chilling note: Most of the suspects are American citizens. Now, some see this as an ominous new trend in the war on terror. Others have big doubts about the case tonight. Susan Candiotti is in Miami. She has been working on this story ever since it broke, and she has just filed her report.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They had no money, weapons or supplies, yet, the government claims this seemingly inept group of seven planned to pull off a full-scale terror ground war against the U.S. -- their alleged base of operations, this windowless warehouse in a rundown section of Miami.</s>ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: What we have is a situation where individuals here in America made plans to hurt Americans.</s>CANDIOTTI: Hurt them by blowing up the Sears Tower and government offices.</s>R. ALEXANDER ACOSTA, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR MIAMI: They sought supplies, including weapons and vehicles. They took reconnaissance photographs.</s>CANDIOTTI: The government cites these photographs of Miami's FBI headquarters, the Miami Police Department, and a nearby federal courthouse and detention center. The government showed off what it said were secretly shot photographs of each participant in meetings that allegedly plotted attacks. The indictment charges, the group's leader, Narseal Batiste, claimed soldiers would -- quote -- "Kill all the devils we can" in a mission -- quote -- "as good or greater than 9/11." Whether the accused could have pulled it off as the question. According to the indictment, a government informant who pretended to be a member of al Qaeda infiltrated the group over several months. The group's leader is charged with pledging his allegiance to al Qaeda. He wanted boots for his half-dozen soldiers, a rental car to shoot surveillance photos of possible targets, bulletproof vests, machine guns, and $50,000 in cash to blow up the Sears Tower. But the indictment alleges the group's leader said his plans were delayed because he was having trouble with his organization. What kind of trouble was not described.</s>ACOSTA: They certainly had the will. They were searching for the way, which is the bottom line.</s>CANDIOTTI: In a Miami federal courtroom, five of the seven, all handcuffed, appeared briefly before a judge. Each testified he owned no property. Two said they had jobs. All got court-appointed attorneys, and will be arraigned next week. Relatives said the suspects don't like President Bush and hate the war in Iraq, but never talked terror.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son, he don't have a heart to kill people.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He ain't got no heart to kill nobody.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He ain't go no heart to kill nobody.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't have heart to kill people.</s>CANDIOTTI: Authorities said they made the arrests now because they made their case.</s>GONZALES: Well, we took action when we did, because we believe we have an obligation to prevent America from another attack here.</s>CANDIOTTI (on camera): Al Qaeda wanna-bes or not, the FBI insists this obscure group of religious zealots had to be stopped. Yet, given their lack of money, guns, bombs or training, it's not clear whether they were all talk and no action. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.</s>ZAHN: So, what's it like to find out you may have a homegrown terror group right in your own backyard? I'm going to ask Miami Police Chief John Timoney that question in a few minutes. But, first, the men who committed the atrocities of 9/11 all came from outside the U.S. to attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers, symbols of America known all over the world. But with the Miami arrests, some experts see a frightening new trend, homegrown terrorists preparing to strike from within. Here's homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Sears Tower, a landmark, a symbol, on the list of potential terrorist targets since 9/11. But the threat against it, once believed to come from abroad, came, in this instance, from within.</s>ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: They were persons who, for whatever reason, came to view their home country as the enemy.</s>MESERVE: It is a product of the war on terror, officials say, unexpected and unwelcome. With al Qaeda disrupted, the seeds of jihadist ideology have dispersed, germinated, and grown into small, local terror cells.</s>MUELLER: These extremists are self-recruited, self-trained and self-executing. They may not have any connection at all to al Qaeda or to other terrorist groups. They share ideas and information in the shadows of the Internet.</s>MESERVE: The bombers who attacked the London transit system a year ago are said to have had no direct al Qaeda link, likewise, the alleged Toronto terrorists arrested earlier this month, who are said to have wanted to blow up the Canadian parliament and behead the prime minister. And now there are the purported plotters in Florida, who were caught because someone who knew them grew suspicious.</s>JOHN PISTOLE, FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Let's just say that they were doing things that came to our attention through people who were alert in the community.</s>MESERVE: Members of local cells plot and plan where they live and work. They belong there. They do not stand out. They are, in short, hard to find. A homegrown cell that originated in this California prison was only stopped after some members were caught robbing gas stations and investigators stumbled on to evidence of terrorism. The absence of a larger organizational hierarchy decreases the likelihood of communications intercepts or unusual travel that might raise alarm bells. The key, say experts, is old-fashioned police work.</s>GEORGE BAURIES, FORMER FBI AGENT: You have to have a constant surveillance of what's going on within the community. And that means that agents have to be out there working with their informants.</s>MESERVE: Officials make it clear finding and stopping these homegrown cells must be a priority.</s>GONZALES: And, left unchecked, these homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al Qaeda.</s>MESERVE (on camera): No one has a real handle on the number of homegrown terrorists in the United States, but officials are worried that their number could be multiplying, and their danger growing. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.</s>ZAHN: And joining me now, Steven Emerson, the author of "American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among us." Always good to see you, Steven. Welcome.</s>STEVE EMERSON, TERRORISM ANALYST: Hi.</s>ZAHN: So, we have established the men charged had no weapons, no training, no materials, no money. Were they competent enough to ever get past the planning stages of this plot?</s>EMERSON: Well, Paula, they -- they didn't have money or -- or training or -- or weapons at that particular time that they were arrested. But let's take the corollary. Let's say there wasn't a U.S. operative who had infiltrated the group. Let's say they had made contact with a real al Qaeda bankroller or arms dealer, and then they acquired the weapons. I have no doubt that, if they had the money and the weapons and the training, they would have carried out these attacks. So, I think we have to be understanding of why the FBI tried to, early on, stop the operation by arresting them.</s>ZAHN: Why are you so convinced they could have pulled this off?</s>EMERSON: Look, there's no guarantee that they could have pulled it off. But the fact remains that they definitely had a motivation to kill as many as they could. They wanted to actually exceed the number of dead occurring during 9/11. They hated Americans. They swore allegiance to bin Laden. And, so, if they had the material and the explosives, the possibility is that they could have pulled it off. And I would rather not take that chance.</s>ZAHN: I don't think anybody out there would ever want to play with that chance. What can you tell us about the Seas of David group that they are seemingly thinly associated with?</s>EMERSON: I'm not really familiar with it. You know, what -- what -- what I have seen happen, particularly among black Muslims, are these different types of sects that emerge, such as the one in California that was interrupted last year plotting to blow up synagogues and National Guard facilities that came out of a prison. They are very small and contained. They spread a jihadist ideology among them that is easily obtained from the Internet. It's the virtual jihad. Any time you have an Internet connection, you can bring it into your living room. And all they need is a charismatic leader who is going to motivate them to carry out an attack.</s>ZAHN: Steven, what is so -- seems so strange about this group of men -- we have just heard Jeanne Meserve talking how these folks who are usually in homegrown terror cells blend in rather elusively with their community. But these guys are described by neighbors as always wearing black, always stating publicly that they were going to give their lives to God. Isn't that a little bit unusual?</s>EMERSON: It certainly is a little bit unusual, because you expect them to be much more circumspect about how they go about their training. On the other hand, they were true believers. And, in the Virginia jihad case, they used to train every weekend in paintball exercises, under the cover that it was just paintball. But they were really preparing for jihad. So, I think that these are telltale signs that sometimes indicate what their true motives are.</s>ZAHN: And we will be discussing more of that throughout the broadcast tonight. Steven Emerson, always good to see you. Thanks for your time.</s>EMERSON: Sure.</s>ZAHN: We are going to move now to our nightly countdown of the top-10 most popular stories on CNN.com, 17 million of you going to our Web site today. AT number 10 -- the murder of a journalist in Somalia. Cameraman Martin Adler was covering a rally for Britain's Channel 4 News this morning, when he was shot and killed. Adler recently covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Number nine -- in Ohio, two days of severe storms causing major flooding near Cleveland. One firefighter was killed while rescuing two people stranded in a jeep. Thousands of homes lost power. And a flood watch is still in effect for the area tonight. Numbers eight and seven next -- plus, a deeper look at the Miami terror suspects and the strange motivation that drives domestic terror.</s>ZAHN (voice-over): Just who are the seven Miami suspects, soldiers with a passionate cause accused of plotting a violent jihad. What would drive people to allegedly declare war on their own country? And "Vital Signs" -- Morgellons disease, sounds like science fiction, more and more people tormented by mysterious threads growing deep under their skin. Is it all in their heads or has medicine encountered a startling new disease? All that and more just ahead.