Back in July, I stated that something stunk about the case against seven Miami, Florida men the government claimed was plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. The issue that I saw was that these men had neither the talent or the means to carry out this plot. In fact, their so-called weapons training involved going paintball shooting. They had so little money that the FBI agent who “infiltrated” them had to buy them boots. The agent says that the swore allegience to al Quaeda but the only “contact” they had with anyone in al Quaeda was the agent himself, who claimed to be tied to al Quaeda.

So, today, the Bush administration got egg on its face. They and a lot of right-wing talking heads spoke about breaking up this plot justified all the Bush administrations actions in its so-called war on terror. Today, a jury acquitted one of the men involved and had a hung jury on the other six:

The mistrial means prosecutors will have to decide whether to retry the six men.

The outcome was a setback for the Bush administration, which had seized on the case to illustrate the dangers of homegrown terrorism and trumpet the government’s post-Sept. 11 success in infiltrating and smashing terror plots in their earliest stages.

Lyglenson Lemorin, who was not the alleged ringleader, was acquitted.

The jury gave up on the other defendants after nine days of deliberations on four terrorism-related conspiracy charges that carry a combined maximum of 70 years in prison. The jury of six men and six women twice sent notes to the presiding judge indicating they could not reach verdicts but were told to keep trying. The mistrial came after their third note.

To this, I quote what I wrote in July:

“…hyping up cases like this makes me question if we are serious about battling terrorism or if it’s more like our war on drugs — just occasionally bust a few people to make it seem like something is really being done and keep your political office for another term.”

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