Jason Wheeler CBS 4
2006-06-30

(CBS4 News) MIAMI Several grass-roots and black community groups in Liberty City expressed concern over a double standard applied in the arrests of seven Liberty City men suspected of plotting terrorist attacks last week.

Cop Watch, led by community leader Max Rameau, the Miami-Dade NAACP and the Haiti Solidarity Committee were among the groups present at the warehouse in Liberty City where the men were arrested last Thursday for a news conference. The groups are concerned about the timing of the arrests and the race of the men involved. All are black and/or Haitian nationals living in the United States.

"If a Black organization confessed to blowing up a plane and buying weapons to attack another country, they would be jailed immediately," wrote event organizer Max Rameau of Cop Watch in a press release. "However, because these South Florida terrorists are white Hispanic, the media does not demonize them or demand their arrests, and the police, local or federal, are content to let them continue their actions."

The group makes reference to Dr. Orlando Bosch, the Cuban anti-Castro activist and ex-CIA operative who has admitted to playing a role in the October 6, 1976 bombing of a Cuban airlines filled with citizens. Bosch has not been prosecuted and neither has Luis Antonia Llama, who admitted to planning attacks on Castro’s regime in Cuba.

Prosecutors have admitted that the men arrested last week did not have any explosives nor the financial backing to carry out any of their alleged terror attacks such as the blowing up of the Sears Tower in Chicago – the tallest building in the United States. The investigation also revealed the men were planning on blowing up FBI and other Federal buildings.

However, these activists are concerned if the men wouldn’t have been black or the attacks would’ve been of another nature, the suspects involved would not have been prosecuted to this extent - especially with the lack of resources the seven suspects faced carry out any attack.

Thursday, a hearing was held in Miami Federal Court where a judge decided Lyglenson Lemorin will be extradited to Miami and will remain behind bars as he awaits trial. Lemorin, though allegedly tied to the Miami group, was arrested in Atlanta. He signed a statement admitting to the FBI that he signed an oath to al Qaeda. Investigators say the group held meetings that Lemorin participated in as a member of the “Moorish Science Temple”, a group led by co-defendant Narseal Batiste.

A federal indictment says that Batiste, 32, Patrick Abraham, 26, Burson Augustin, 21, Rothschild Augustine, 22, Naudimar Herrera, 22, Lyglenson Lemorin, 31, and Stanley Grant Phanor, 31, were determined to wage war against the United States.

Immigration officials have a hold on Lemorin, so that even if he is granted bond he will remain in detention. ICE considers him a flight risk because, as a Haitian national, he could face deportation back to Haiti if found guilty.

Phanor is also a Haitian national.

Daniel Lastra, CBS4.COM