FBI raid nets alleged terrorist sympathizers in Florida (Barf Alert)

Seven men, some of whom lived in a Liberty City, Fla., warehouse, have been arrested as potential homegrown terrorist sympathizers who discussed blowing up Chicago's Sears Tower and FBI headquarters in Miami-Dade County, multiple sources told The Miami Herald on Thursday.

They posed no immediate danger to the community, federal officials said Thursday. Details will be revealed Friday morning at a press conference in Washington.

Agents must now figure out if the men were actually capable of mounting attacks. Several sources described them as homegrown wannabes with no known connection to foreign terrorists. No explosives or guns were found, sources said.

Officials didn't release the names of the men Thursday. Law enforcement sources said some of the men's discussions have been heard on wiretaps.

Five of those arrested are U.S. citizens, one is a resident alien and one is an illegal immigrant, a law enforcement source told The Miami Herald on condition of anonymity.

Citing an investigation before Thursday's raid, the source said the group talked about an attack on the Sears Tower and the FBI headquarters located in North Miami Beach - but that they had no ``overt explosives or other things.''

The group thought that they ``were doing the attacks in conjunction with al-Qaida" but were really dealing with undercover law enforcement, the official said.

Family identified one of the men arrested as Stanley Phanor, 31, who called the warehouse the group's place of worship.

``It's really nothing. It's a church thing they're in,'' said his disbelieving sister, Marlene Phanor.

Neighbors near the warehouse described the men as dressing in fatigues and talking about giving their lives to God.

``They said it was a karate school,'' Benjamin Williams, 17, said of the warehouse. ``They used to be out around 11 at night, practicing like they were in the military or something . . . push-ups, jumping jacks and jumping over chairs.''

News of the raid immediately reverberated around the nation. FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared on CNN but offered few details.

``But whenever we undertake an operation like this, we would not do it without the approval of a judge. We've got search warrants and arrest warrants and the like,'' Mueller told host Larry King.

Federal agents, assisted by Miami police's SWAT team, swarmed in Thursday afternoon, cordoning off several blocks around the building, in an area known by locals as the Pork-n-Beans Projects.

Cedric Thomas, a co-owner of Thomas Produce Market, said the area around his store was teeming with federal agents.

``There is a ton of guys in uniforms moving around, blocking the streets. I'm not sure what they are doing,'' said Thomas, whose store, a Liberty City institution, near the area cordoned off by police.

The agents found the entrance to the warehouse sealed up by a roll-down hurricane protection metal door, one neighbor said. They cut through the metal door with a torch, he said.

A company called Greenlands Realty Inc., run by George Mobassaleh, owns the building.

Mobassaleh told his attorney he didn't want to speak to the media about the raid.

``He did tell me that as far as he knows, these were just tenants,'' attorney Louis Terminello said. ``He doesn't know them, doesn't know anything about them.''

Phanor was arrested earlier this week for driving without a license. He has an outstanding probation violation for carrying a concealed firearm.

His sister described him as a devoted man who discovered Islam through friends and tried to help the community.

The son of Haitian parents, he was born in Miami, attended Edison Senior High and finished high school in Tallahassee.

Phanor and all his friends worked for a construction company. They called each other ``brother,'' Marlene Phanor said. She identified the company as Azteca-Acme Organizations, Inc.

Phanor and his friends had been living in the warehouse for about eight months, and they often fed homeless people and helped them find jobs, his sister said.

South Florida has been at the center of several key terrorism cases, starting with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. As many as 14 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, lived in Broward County in the weeks before the four planes were hijacked.

Jose Padilla, who was arrested in Chicago in 2002 amid accusations that he had planned to detonate a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' on American soil, attended a mosque in Broward County in the early 1990s.

The American-born Padilla, who traveled from Broward to the Middle East allegedly for al-Qaida training, was added to a federal indictment in Miami that claims he and four others conspired to murder, kidnap and maim persons in an Islamic holy war overseas. The indictment makes no mention of the initial dirty-bomb accusation.

Adnan El Shukrijumah, a former Broward Community College student of Saudi descent, is still the subject of a global manhunt due to his alleged ties to al Qaeda.

The AP Yahoo story describes them as wanna be Muslims...The writer must have slipped when he put that in there. He will be stoned....

MIAMI - 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., including the FBI office here, a federal law enforcement official said.

As part of the raids tied to the arrests, FBI agents swarmed a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City area, using a blowtorch to take off a metal door. One neighbor said the suspects had been sleeping in the warehouse while running what seemed to be a "military boot camp."

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.

"There is no imminent threat to Miami or any other area because of these operations," said Richard Kolko, spokesman for FBI headquarters in Washington. He declined further comment.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, questioned about the case during an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," said he couldn't offer many details because "it's an ongoing operation."

"We are conducting a number of arrests and searches" in Miami, Mueller said, which were expected to be wrapped up Friday morning.

Managers of the Sears Tower, the nation's tallest building, said in a statement that they speak regularly with the FBI and local law enforcement about terror threats and that Thursday "was no exception."

"Law enforcement continues to tell us that they have never found evidence of a credible terrorism threat against Sears Tower that has gone beyond criminal discussions," the statement said.

Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Muslims and had tried to recruit young people to join their apparently militaristic group.

The residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men, who appeared to be in their teens or 20s, 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." Rose said the men tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew for a karate class. "It was weird," she said.

Benjamin Williams, 17, said the group had young children with them sometimes. Sometimes, he added, the men "would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbans."

Xavier Smith, who attends the nearby United Christian Outreach, said the men would often come by the church and ask for water.

"They were very private," said Smith, 33. "The spoke with like an accent, sort of a Jamaican accent."

The warehouse owner declined comment. "I heard the news just like you guys," George F. Mobassaleh told the AP. "I can't talk to you."

Gov. Jeb Bush was briefed on the situation Thursday, according to his spokeswoman, Alia Faraj.

"We have great confidence in the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who are committed to keeping our country safe," Faraj said.

She added that there has been greater communication between state and federal agencies since the 2001 terror attacks.

Security at the 110-floor Sears Tower, a Chicago landmark, was ramped up after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 103rd-floor skydeck was closed for about a month and a half.

A spokesman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Illinois officials had been in contact with the FBI about the arrests. He would not comment further, referring additional questions to the FBI.

The FBI's headquarters in Miami sits near a residential neighborhood just east of Interstate 95.

A huge crowd — up to 250,000 people — was expected downtown Friday for a parade to honor the NBA champion Miami Heat. Security measures consistent with such an event were in place, city officials said, and the raids were not expected to affect it.

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 support cell for Islamic extremists. Padilla's trial is set for this fall.

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