Prosecutor: Terror suspects planned to attack FBI buildings in addition to Sears Tower

<p>A U.S. Magistrate ordered Thursday that Lyglenson Lemorin be held without bond on charges that he and seven other men planned to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and other buildings.</p><p>Magistrate Linda Walker also ordered Lemorin and transferred to Miami to stand trial.</p><p>A federal prosecutor said Thursday that Lemorin admitted being part of a group that swore allegiance to al-Qaida, promised to help bomb five FBI buildings in addition to the Sears Tower in Chicago, and attended military training in Miami and other parts of Florida to carry out this mission.</p><p>Lemorin, a Haitian national, is one of seven men suspected in the terror plot centered in Miami who were arrested last week.</p><p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Getchell said the alleged ringleader, Narseal Batiste, said that with al-Qaida's support he could get his plans going in less than a year.</p><p>At repeated meetings with an FBI informant, whom Batiste thought was an al-Qaida member, Batiste said he admired Osama bin Laden, was honored and excited that al-Qaida would align itself with his group and said he had members _ or as he called them soldiers _ in Chicago as well as Louisiana, Getchell said.</p><p>Getchell made the allegations during a hearing for Lemorin before a U.S. magistrate in Atlanta.</p><p>Authorities have said the seven men accused of trying to blow up the Sears Tower with help from al-Qaida never actually made contact with the terrorist network and were instead caught in an FBI sting involving an informant who posed as an al-Qaida operative.</p><p>According to Getchell, Batiste was planning to take down the Sears Tower with dynamite. Batiste allegedly said he had worked in Chicago for a delivery firm and could count on former employees there to help plan the attack through the underground tunnel system in Chicago.</p><p>The prosecutor also read words from the pledge that he said Lemorin as well as the other defendants took.</p><p>They pledged to represent Osama bin Laden, and were committed to be Islamic soldiers engaged in jihad and that whey would keep to the path of holy war until God's word was exalted.</p><p>According to the prosecution, between October and April, Batiste and others took videotape footage and photographs of several buildings in Miami which they offered to the informant whom they thought was part of al-Qaida.</p><p>Around mid-April, Getchell said,another member was brought in from Chicago to discuss further plans to attack the towers, and he got into a dispute with Batiste. At that point the group split, with Lemorin leaving Miami and coming to Atlanta.</p><p>The prosecution asked that Lemorin be granted no bond.</p><p>Getchell said that even if bond were granted, Lemorin would be taken into custody by immigration authorities. Although he's a lawful permanent resident he can be deported based on his admitted alignment with a foreign terrorist organization al-Qaida.</p>