Miami jury finds five guilty in Sears Tower plot

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. jury found five men guilty on Tuesday of plotting with al Qaeda to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and government buildings after two previous attempts to convict the group ended in mistrials.

The jury acquitted a sixth man in a case that was touted nearly three years ago as a major blow against terrorism and a victory in the government's efforts to dismantle domestic "sleeper cells."

The guilty verdicts in a trial that lasted nearly three months came after prosecutors tried and failed twice in the last two years to persuade juries that the men conspired with the Islamic militant group to wage holy war against the United States.

Federal agents arrested the men, who became known as the Liberty City Six after the poor Miami neighborhood where they met, in June 2006.

At the time, authorities said the plot was "aspirational rather than operational," and that the men posed no real threat because they had neither al Qaeda contacts nor the means of carrying out attacks.

But during the trial, prosecutors accused them of pledging allegiance to Osama bin Laden's militants.

Basing the case on thousands of hours of wiretaps, the prosecutors said ringleader Narseal Batiste had recruited soldiers who wore uniforms, marched together and engaged in military training to wage war on the United States.

They said the men took photos of possible targets, scouting Miami's FBI headquarters and a courthouse, surveying entry ramps, surveillance cameras and guardhouses.

According to the prosecution, Batiste suggested an attack on the Sears Tower, America's tallest skyscraper.