SEVEN people have been
arrested in connection with a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower
and other buildings in the US, a federal law enforcement official
said.
The alleged plotters arrested in Miami yesterday were mainly
Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaeda or other terrorist
organisations.
The Sears Tower is the tallest skyscraper in the US, standing
435m high.
About 20 FBI agents backed up by state and local police officers
made the arrests.
Miami US Attorney Alexander Acosta said the investigation was
ongoing. Local media reported agents also raided a warehouse in
Miami's Liberty City section.
Bush
Administration officials said the Liberty City operation was led by
federal officers from the joint terrorism task force.
"There is no imminent threat to Miami or any other area because
of these operations," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.
Although he declined to comment further, it is understood five of
those arrested were US residents, one is a resident alien and one is
an illegal alien.
A source said the group talked about an attack on the Sears Tower
in Chicago and the FBI building in Miami – but they had no
"explosives or other things".
The group thought they "were doing (the attacks) in conjunction
with al-Qaeda" but were really dealing with undercover law
enforcement, the source said.
It was "pretty much talk, we were on top of them," he added.
A man who lives across the street from the warehouse where the
search warrant was served described the suspects as an unusual group
of men, almost cultist, who wore military-style clothes and kept to
themselves.
"They reminded me a lot of the followers of Yahweh Ben Yahweh,"
he said, referring to a Muslim cult that flourished in Miami's
Liberty City in the 1980.
That group was led by a man known as Brother Love who ordered
followers to murder opponents and spawned a reign of terror in the
neighbourhood.
The witness said the group of 12 to 15 men in their 20s and 30s
appeared to be from Haiti and the Bahamas.
"They would be gone all day and come back at night to the
warehouse to sleep. They sold shampoo and hair grease on the street,
just like the Ben Yahweh people. They were not threatening but
nobody messed with them," he said.
Cedric Thomas, 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," Mr Thomas said.
Several terror investigations have had Florida links – a number
of the September 11 hijackers lived and trained in the area.
