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Uhuru group defends 7 in terror case

A cousin of one of the men accused of plotting an attack says they are deeply religious and not terrorists. Uhurus call it a frameup.

By SHADI RAHIMI
Published July 2, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - A cousin of one of the seven men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower said Saturday their prosecution is a direct attack on blacks in America.

The seven black men were deeply religious, but were not terrorists, said Sylvain Plantin, 30, of Miami.

"I thought America was a free country," he said. "But after this, I see they'd rather just round us up."

Plantin said he is a cousin of Lyglenson Lemorin's and is a childhood friend of Stanley Grant Phanor's.

The men are two of the seven arrested in an undercover FBI sting June 22. Authorities say the men were in the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower, the FBI office in Miami and other buildings.

Authorities said the men never had explosives or contact with al-Qaida, but had wanted to join the terrorist network and were starting planning for an Islamic jihad.

Plantin spoke Saturday at the 13th annual convention of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, at a theater in Midtown.

He said Lemorin and Phanor, both 31, were construction workers like himself. The three grew up together in the Little Haiti area of Miami, Plantin said.

The seven men charged with plotting terrorism were of Haitian and Dominican descent. Some had minor criminal records or brushes with the law. So does Plantin, who was arrested on a burglary charge in 1995.

Plantin said his cousin and his friend were deeply religious members of the Moorish Science Temple of America Inc., a religion that blends aspects of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and emphasizes self-discipline through martial arts.

They were active in their community, creating food programs and teaching martial arts, he said.

"When I first saw them on TV, I thought it was a joke," he said. "I knew deep down something was wrong; they didn't do anything."

Other family members said the accused men would study their religion by candlelight in the warehouse in Miami's Liberty City that was raided by federal agents.

The temple was founded in 1913 in Newark, N.J., and helped form the foundation of early Black Muslim ideology. Leaders in the religion said in statements last week that none of the seven men was a member.

Federal officials have declined to comment.

Plantin, said Saturday that the prosecution of his cousin and his friend is an example of yet another "injustice to black people in America."

"Nobody is safe," he said.

Leaders of the Uhuru Movement took up his call Saturday, saying also that the men should be released. "This is a frameup," said Uhuru president Dwight "Chimurenga" Waller.

Also at the Uhuru gathering Saturday, Waller and about 40 others gave a standing ovation to eight young men who had signed a statement Friday promising to end neighborhood violence.

Several young black men have been killed in shootings in recent months.

Local Uhuru leader Omavi Bailey said the group of young men who signed the treaty are now collecting signatures from others.

"It's not a St. Pete thing, it's an international problem," Bailey said, referring to black-on-black violence.

He showed a video that included bloody gunbattles in Liberia during its second civil war, which ended in 2003. It also showed men in the two sides coming together for a truce.

The audience cheered as two men touched their arms together.

"Same skin," one of the young men said. "We are brothers."

Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 2, 2006, 08:13:14]