Top 10 Inept Terrorist Plots

A group of Miami men who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower face federal sentencing on Sept. 7, 2009, despite an admission from federal authorities that the men were so incompetent that the plan had little chance of ever reaching fruition. Here is TIME's list of the top 10 terrorism-plot failures

Liberty City Seven

By Dan Fletcher Tuesday, Sept. 08, 2009

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Brooks Kraft / Corbis for TIME

They're terrorists so committed to their cause that when they took a pledge to al-Qaeda, "none of them had the hearts in it" — at least, that's according to one acquitted member of the Miami-based cell dubbed the Liberty City Seven. The group of homegrown terrorists plotted to blow up Florida federal buildings and the Willis (then Sears) Tower in Chicago. An FBI informant infiltrated the group by posing as an al-Qaeda representative and overheard the group talking about the idea. But even the FBI doubted the plan would ever come to fruition, dubbing the plot "aspirational rather than operational." Two juries couldn't decide whether to convict the men, and a third jury eventually agreed on charges for only five of the seven. The plot's ringleader, Narseal Batista, was found guilty of conspiracy charges, while four other men were convicted of lesser charges. They are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 8, 2009.

Read a TIME story about one of the mistrials in the Liberty City case.

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