CONSPIRACY: PROSECUTORS' TOOL IN FIGHT AGAINST TERROR

Narseal Batiste often carried a long, crooked cane through his Miami
neighborhood while wearing a bathrobe and a cape.

Many wrote him off as a harmless eccentric who looked like Moses, but
federal investigators say Batiste is a terrorist, the leader of a
cell bent on toppling Chicago's soaring Sears tower.

Prosecutors used a conspiracy law to pluck Batiste and his followers
off the streets last month, long before their plans turned to action.

It was the same ap proach prosecutors used in Toledo, where three men
were indicted earlier this year on charges they conspired to kill and
maim U.S. troops in Iraq.

While the Patriot Act has gotten much press since its passage after
the 9/11 attacks, prosecutors rely on federal conspiracy laws to make
terror cases.

They've used conspiracy prosecutions for decades to bring down
mobsters, drug lords and white-collar criminals.

The plot doesn't have to unfold as intended -- or at all -- to
convict someone of conspiracy. The crime is the plot. It doesn't even
need to be viable. No weapons or explosives were found in the Toledo
and Miami cases.

"This group was more aspirational than operational," John Pistole,
the FBI's deputy director, said after the Miami group's arrest.

The Miami men, if convicted of the conspiracy charge alone, face up
to 20 years in prison. The Toledo trio could face up to life behind bars.