Ridiculous Bush-Era 'Liberty City Six' Case Just Won't Die

Change may have come to Washington but the Bush era in all its absurd, truth-defying glory is alive and well in Miami's federal courthouse.This morning, the third case kicked off against six Miami men who are accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and FBI offices. When they...

By Tim Elfrink

February 18, 2009

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Change may have come to Washington but the Bush era in all its absurd, truth-defying glory is alive and well in Miami's federal courthouse.

This morning, the third case kicked off against six Miami men who are accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and FBI offices. When they were arrested in 2006, now-disgraced wingut clown and then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez proudly trumpeted a victory against terrorism and said the men were prepared to "wage a full ground war on the United States."

Not that the Bushie have a record of over-blowing threats to national security or anything, but the truth shockingly turned out to be just a little less dramatic. As New Times' own Bob Norman reported in 2007, this was a group that "couldn't wage a ground war on a jar of peppercorns." Even worse, as Norman reported, the governments' informants who turned the six dirt-poor defendants in have a long history of extortion and battery.

So why are taxpayers coughing up tens of thousands to try these guys again? Perhaps Prof. Jonathan Turley, a law prof at George Washington University, put it best in an interview with the NY Times: "These are the types of prosecutors Las Vegas is built on. They keep returning to the table with the same losing hand."

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Tim Elfrink is a former investigative reporter and managing editor for Miami New Times. He has won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Contact: Tim Elfrink

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Twitter: @timelfrinkmia