Trial of accused terrorist set to begin

MIAMI, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Jury selection was to begin Tuesday in Florida in the trial of seven men accused of plotting to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and FBI headquarters in Florida.

The seven, who are from from Miami's low-income Liberty City area, are charged in an 11-page indictment with conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, destroy buildings and wage war against the U.S. government, The South Florida Sentinel reported Monday.

Federal officials admitted that at the time of their arrest, the men had no bomb-making materials or blueprints of their intended targets, the newspaper said.

"They certainly had the will.," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta told the Sentinel. "They were searching for the way."

Critics charge the government's case is thin on evidence while defense lawyers plan to argue that their clients played along with a government informant because they needed money, the Sentinel reported.