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MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — A federal indictment against seven men revealed Friday details of what the government said was a terrorists’ plan to “kill all the devils we can,” including blowing up Chicago’s Sears Tower.

But the federal grand jury indictment also painted a picture of a group that had no weapons or other supplies for their alleged “jihad,” that was intended to be “as good or greater than 9/11.”

Narseal Batiste, considered the recruiter of the group, according to the document, tried to reach out to al Qaeda by contacting someone who was an FBI operative posing as a member of the terrorist network. ( Watch for views of the windowless warehouse where the suspects lived — 1:48)

Batiste allegedly told the informant that he was organizing an Islamic army to wage a jihad in the United States.

The indictment says Batiste gave the informant a list of equipment he needed, including “boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios and vehicles” as well as bullet-proof vests and $50,000 in cash. (Read the full indictment — PDF)

Mothers of two of the indicted men denied reports that their sons were followers of Islam. The mothers told CNN that their sons are devout Christians who closely follow the teachings of the Bible and their group was nothing more than a religious study group.

At a Justice Department news conference Friday in Washington, Deputy FBI Director John Pistole described their plan as “more aspirational than operational.”

Batiste allegedly provided the informant “with a list of shoe sizes for the purchase of military boots for his ‘soldiers,'” Pistole said.

Also at the conference, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales described the men as examples of “homegrown terrorists” who “may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al Qaeda” and who have come “to view their home country as the enemy.”

Gonzales said there never was an immediate threat.

“We felt that the combination of the planning and the overt acts taken were sufficient to support this prosecution and that’s why we took this action,” Gonzales said. “There is no immediate threat … part of the reason for that is because they didn’t have the materials they requested, they didn’t receive the weapons, at least we don’t know of.”

FBI Director Robert Mueller warned about homegrown terrorists Friday during a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, that was scheduled before Thursday’s arrests of the six suspects in Miami and another earlier in Atlanta, Georgia.

Five of the six Miami suspects made their first appearance in federal court Friday in a brief hearing. A seventh suspect is expected to appear in court in Atlanta.

Attorneys were assigned to the suspects in Miami and an arraignment was set for next Friday.

Batiste “recruited and supervised individuals in order to organize and train for a mission to wage war against the United States government, which included a plot to destroy by explosives the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois,” the nation’s tallest building, the document said. (Watch why the FBI director says he’s scared — 2:24)

“… the conspirators pledged an oath to al Qaeda and supported a purported mission of al Qaeda to destroy FBI buildings within the United States,” it said.

The document said that Batiste wanted to “attend al Qaeda training, along with five of his soldiers, during the second week of April and further detailed his mission to wage a ‘full ground war’ against the United States in order to ‘kill all the devils we can’ … beginning with the destruction of the Sears Tower.”

The indictment accuses the seven men of swearing an oath of loyalty to al Qaeda, Besides Batiste, the indictment names Patrick Abraham, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin and Rotschild Augustine.

The document also alleges that the suspects may have been targeting other buildings.

Batiste and Augustin gave the undercover agent photos of Miami’s FBI building; photos and video of the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building, federal courthouse buildings, the Federal Detention Center and the Miami Police Department; all in Miami-Dade County, according to the indictment.

Law enforcement sources said Thursday that the seven suspects are radical Muslims. (Watch how probe involved an undercover informant — 2:53)

However, senior federal sources told CNN, “These people were not related to al Qaeda.” When asked whether they were al Qaeda wannabes, he replied, “possibly.”

Federal sources said five of the seven suspects were Americans, one was an illegal immigrant from Haiti whose visa had expired and one man was a resident alien.

No weapons or bomb-making materials were found in the raids, conducted Thursday in the Miami area. One targeted a warehouse in a Liberty City housing project, law enforcement officials said.