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Breaking news - Feds: Terror suspects targeted Sears Tower
By Michael Tackett - Tribune senior correspondent Published June 22, 2006, 8:50 PM CDT
WASHINGTON -- Federal agents in Miami, in an effort to crack down on an alleged terrorist ring, arrested seven men Thursday who had "aspirations" but "no means" to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago, a senior federal law enforcement source said.
The men had been plotting for an undetermined amount of time but their scheme was thwarted well before there was any threat that could be carried out.
"There was no threat at all," the senior law enforcement source said, referring to the Sears Tower.
FBI agents, along with state and local law enforcement officials, cordoned off an area of Liberty City, a Miami neighborhood, Thursday evening in raids that officials described as a significant terror-related investigation.
FBI Director Robert Mueller, speaking on CNN, said, "I can tell you that we do have an ongoing operation in Miami. We are conducting a number of arrests and searches and we'll have more about that when the operation is concluded, probably tomorrow morning."
Mueller added that "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."
The agents were conducting an operation at the Scott Housing projects in the area of 15th Avenue and Northwest 62nd Street. Several streets were cordoned off. A Miami police department SWAT team assisted federal agents in the search.
Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales and top FBI officials are to discuss the case in more detail at a news conference Friday in Washington, D.C.
"They had aspirations...a lot of talking," said the senior federal law enforcement source. "But they had no means."
A Chicago Police official said authorities had been notified by federal officials of the plot.
Official: 7 Arrested In Connection With Terrorism Plot
FBI Conducts Terrorism-Related Investigation In Florida
POSTED: 8:55 pm EDT June 22, 2006
UPDATED: 9:32 pm EDT June 22, 2006
LIBERTY CITY, Fla. -- 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 United States, 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.
FBI agents investigating terrorism-related activities were conducting a number of raids Thursday, federal officials said.
Miami U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a statement that it 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.
Several streets were cordoned off during the search.
A Miami Police Department SWAT team assisted federal agents in the search. Armed agents could be seen in the area.
Several warrants were served at a housing complex, a reporter at affiliate station WTVJ said.
South Florida has been linked to several terrorism investigations in the past. Several of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, lived and trained in the area.
Jose Padilla, a former resident once accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb in the country, is charged in Miami with being part of a North American terror support cell to al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist organizations. He has been in federal custody since 2002 and is scheduled for trial in September.
Padilla was originally designated an "enemy combatant" and held for 3½ years without charge by the Bush administration shortly after his May 2002 arrest at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Several plots by Cuban-Americans against the government of Fidel Castro have also been based in Miami.
http://www.local10.com/news/9414235/detail.html
No means, eh?
Any one of the +/- 500 WMD shells would have done just fine.