Was the Miami group of "terrorists" of any real significance?

Walter Pincus at the Washington post questions whether the so-called terrorist group in Miami was really a bunch of terrorists, or if the FBI "informant" was pumping them to make incriminating statements.

"On June 23, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales held a news conference to announce the destruction of a terrorist cell inside the United States, hailing "our commitment to preventing terrorism through energetic law enforcement efforts aimed at detecting and thwarting terrorist acts."

But court records released since then suggest that what Gonzales described as a "deadly plot" was virtually the pipe dream of a few men with almost no ability to pull it off on their own. The suspects have raised questions in court about the FBI informants' role in keeping the plan alive.

The plot featured self-proclaimed militant religious leaders who referred to themselves as kings, talked of establishing their own nation inside the United States, called their headquarters an embassy and discussed plans to train their recruits to use bows and arrows. One of their quixotic notions was to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower.

Batiste's father, a Christian preacher and former contractor who lives in Louisiana, told the news media after the indictment that his son was "not in his right mind" and needed psychiatric treatment."

Really, if this is the best the FBI under Bush can do to find terrorists in America, then we do not have a problem - or they have no clue regarding what real terrorists are.

My bet is that they simply can't find any really effective terrorists, so they have to go after crazies. But that doesn't mean there aren't any real terrorists in the U.S. It just means the Bush administration is continuing its Katrina-level competence.