MIAMI, Florida — Since Monday, December 3, the lives of seven young Africans have hung in the balance, their immediate fate hinged on the decision of a jury.
The Liberty City Seven (LC7) — as these deeply impoverished young Africans have come to be known — were kidnapped and imprisoned in June 2006, called terrorists and charged with sedition (conspiracy to overthrow the government). The government’s case against them was created after the FBI apparently decided that these seven Africans were ideal victims to use in giving so-called “terrorism” a black face.
The LC7 were literally too poor to pay their utility bills and sometimes rent. African people in their community shared these conditions. In fact, Liberty City is one of the poorest communities in Miami and perhaps the United States.
These young family men had created a struggling construction company that was still unable to pay its employees. They would sleep on the floor of the building that they were renovating into a church. It was these conditions that the Liberty City Seven were facing when the FBI placed two agent provocateurs into their midst to manufacture a terrorism case against them.
The government pays thousands to lure LC7 into trap
These agent provocateurs offered the LC7 $50,000 to entrap them. The U.S. government gave the seven men $1,000 on one occasion, and on another occasion it gave them $3,500 more in order to lure them into the government’s trap.
They even gave them a building. Then they told these seven Africans, trapped in poverty, that this money was mere pocket change if they’d cooperate.
On one occasion, the FBI agent provocateurs tried for a month to persuade the young Africans to take some pictures of an FBI building in downtown Miami. They bought the men boots and continued to tell them that the money they were giving them was just pocket change if the LC7 would do what they told them to.
When the LC7 finally decided to go ahead and take the pictures, the FBI had to buy the camera because the men were flat broke. A few days after taking the pictures, Narseal Batiste, the group’s leader, pawned the camera so that he could feed his four children.
The FBI’s case is clearly a farce
These pictures of a building taken with an FBI-purchased camera is the primary evidence being used by the government against these seven young Africans.
This case is ridiculous. The U.S. government clearly orchestrated this case from the start for the purpose of locking these seven Africans up and giving “terrorism” a black face. They thought it would be easy to isolate these seven Africans partly because they were associated with the Moorish Science Temple, a religious organization whose ideology borrows from Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The FBI used and paid two agent provocateurs who had previously been discredited. One had failed a lie detector test when questioned about a previous case he helped the FBI create, and the other had been exposed for having extorted money from a man who raped his former girlfriend and then in turn beat his girlfriend up himself.
Of course, the judge in the LC7 case would not allow the jury to hear of these contradictions with the FBI’s provocateurs in a move to hide the ridiculously fabricated nature of the government’s case.
Even with that information withheld, the jury seems to be finding it difficult to believe these young Africans could have been attempting to commit any kind of terrorism. The jury has been deadlocked since Thursday, December 6, and there may be a mistrial, notwithstanding the judge’s demand that they come to a verdict.
LC7 case evidence of imperialist crisis
Imperialism is in crisis as a result of the growing resistance of colonized peoples around the world to the parasitic relationship that brings all of the world’s resources to the U.S. and Europe. Recognizing that the African workers are the most consistently revolutionary sector in the United States, the U.S. government decided it was necessary to give “terrorism” a black face.
The U.S. built itself off of stealing the wealth of Africans and other peoples and maintains its grip on this wealth through terrorism. While African people are being called terrorists and thugs, the U.S. State brutalizes and murders African people to keep whole communities in fear and contained through the police.
Kobina Bantushango, Membership Coordinator for the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) has stated, “We understand that the U.S. government is the real terrorist. This attack is not just against these seven Africans in Liberty City. It is an attack on African people all over the world.”
He continued, “We must free the Liberty City Seven and demand reparations to their families.”
The verdict for the Liberty City Seven may be on its way any day now. A victory in this case will be a victory for the struggle to defend the national democratic rights of African people and colonized people in general.
However, regardless of what the verdict is, the struggle for the freedom of these seven young African men and the freedom of African people everywhere is far from over.
