Posted on 06/22/2006 6:13:02 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand
Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., a federal law enforcement official said.
The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations. He spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt news conferences planned for Friday in Washington and Miami.
Miami U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a statement that the investigation was an ongoing operation and that more details would be released Friday. Local media reported that agents were raiding a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City section.
"There is no imminent threat to Miami or any other area because of these operations," said Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington. He declined further comment.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was scheduled to hold a news conference Friday to discuss the raid. A simultaneous news conference was to be held in Miami.
Cedric Thomas, an owner of Thomas Produce Market, told The Miami Herald the area around his store was teeming with federal agents.
"There is a ton of guys in uniforms moving around, blocking the streets," Thomas said.
Several terrorism investigations have had south Florida links. Several of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived and trained in the area, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, and several plots by Cuban-Americans against Fidel Castro's government have been based in Miami.
Jose Padilla, a former resident once accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb in the U.S., is charged in Miami with being part of a North American terror cell.
___
Associated Press Writer Mark Sherman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
As there are few details in this report, I am declining further comment.
Nothing to see, move along...
I'm sure Murtha will be sweating it, whether we put undies on any of their heads.
No mention of the Florida anthrax attack that preceded the DC attack.
There is, however, this thread, which is related.
So is AP saying that anti-Communist Cubans could be behind this threat? Are they really that much in similarity in the nature of their plots?
How many Mohammeds did they pick up this time?
I'll take five in the pool...
Sears Tower, thy sin is just being the tallest building in U.S.
I can't confirm it, but one of the news shows said they were American black muslims.
Tsk Tsk. Your 'profiling'.
Holy crap and Calypso Louie, Batman!
Place your bets on 1. Religion 2. Ethnicity.
Could be the Lubavitch Ladies. There's always a chance.
ML/NJ
From AP 9:24 EDT
"The residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men had lived in the area about a year.
The men slept in the warehouse, said Tashawn Rose, 29. "They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard."
She talked to one of the men about a month ago: "They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah."
They are, much to the chagrin of the AP, the liberal media, and so far even, (astonishingly enough) FOX which only will say that they are "Americans".
"Place your bets on 1. Religion 2. Ethnicity."
Maybe both:
"...She talked to one of the men about a month ago:
'They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah.' "
If we were to listen to the whinng elected offical in washington about listening to random phone calls perhaps they would have blown one or more of the sites up. But then again it would also have been our ELECTED PRESIDENT'S fault.
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