The coverage of the arrest of 6 guys from New Jersey who have been accused of plotting a terrorist attack against Fort Dix reminded me of the last homegrown terror plot — the arrest of seven men in Miami who were plotting to bring down the Sears Tower.

Whatever happened to them?

The alleged ring leader of the plot was Narseal Batiste. If you search Google News for him, you get zero hits. When you search NYTimes.com, you end up with two hits, both about a year old.

Coverage at the time of the arrest of the seven in Miami questioned whether or not those arrested posed a real threat. For example, the New York Times had this headline (Times Select to read the article), “Two Views of Terror Suspects: Die-Hards or Dupes.”

And with today, CNN is going in that same direction. Stephen noted this passage from CNN’s coverage:

While authorities are glad to have arrested them, the individuals are “hardly hard core terrorists,” one law enforcement source said.
Another source said that while the allegations are “troubling,” they are “not the type that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.”

If CNN and the NY Times are going to minimize the threat from groups like the Miami 7 and the Fort Dix 6, the least they can do is follow up on their reporting to see if their original thoughts were correct.