Narseal Batiste was the leader of the Liberty City Seven, a group of Miami men who conspired to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI office in Miami. Elie Assaad, an informant posing as an Al Qaeda operative, recorded Batiste making controversial statements about starting a “full ground war” and launching an attack as “good or greater than 9/11.” Batiste pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in front of the informant and went along with the plot for an expected $50,000 payout.