Official: 7 arrested in Sears Tower plot

This moved a little while ago


By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer

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., 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.

 

Yeah, let's talk about Jose Padilla...


Judge agrees Padilla terror case ‘light on facts’
Prosecutors ordered to back up claims defendants conspired to injure, kill
The Associated Press

Updated: 12:26 a.m. MT June 21, 2006

MIAMI - A federal judge ordered prosecutors to turn over more evidence to back up allegations that Jose Padilla and two co-defendants conspired to kill, injure or kidnap people overseas as part of a global Islamic terrorist network.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said Tuesday she agreed with claims made by defense attorneys that the indictment against Padilla and the others is “very light on facts” that would link the defendants to specific acts of terrorism or victims.

“We are so shooting in the dark,” said Jeanne Baker, one of the attorneys representing defendant Adham Amin Hassoun. “The government has to tell us, what are these acts they conspired to commit?”

Hassoun, Padilla, Kifah Wael Jayyousi and two others who are in custody overseas are charged with being part of a North American terror support cell that provided money, recruits and supplies to al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist organizations. All have pleaded not guilty, with trial scheduled for this fall.

Cooke ordered the government to flesh out its charges by providing defense lawyers with names of unindicted co-conspirators, broad descriptions of intended victims of alleged acts of violence and specifics about false statements Hassoun allegedly made about the meaning of phone calls intercepted by the government.

Evidence already provided?
Prosecutors argued that most of the specifics were being turned over already, mainly in the form of more than 225 key phone intercepts. And there were 80 specific illegal acts alleged in the indictment, said Brian Frazier, an assistant U.S. attorney.

“What is terrorism but a random act of violence? It means anyone could be a victim at any time,” Frazier said.

Earlier Tuesday, another federal judge heard arguments from Hassoun’s lawyers seeking to suppress evidence seized by the FBI from his Broward County home in 2002, saying the FBI “frightened and intimidated” his wife before seizing a handgun and other key evidence such as documents in Arabic and videotapes.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Brown did not indicate when he would rule the motion.

Jailed for 3½ years without charge
Padilla was designated an “enemy combatant” and held for 3½ years without charge by the Bush administration shortly after his May 2002 arrest. He was accused then of plotting to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in a major U.S. city.

Padilla was added as a defendant in the Miami terror support cell case last year amid a legal struggle over President Bush’s authority to hold him indefinitely. The Miami indictment does not mention the “dirty bomb” allegations.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13462968/
© 2006 MSNBC.com

 

This is NOT legal. Padilla, btw, is a native of ... Brooklyn. Moved to Chicago when he was young. American citizen, no due process. NOT legal.

If you got evidence, charge his ass, try his ass and be done with it. But holding an American citizen for 3½ years without prosecuting him is NOT legal. Never has been, hopefully never will be.

 

Yeah, but I love how his name keeps popping up in any kind of domestic terror story. And they say the media is leftist.

 

We're going to see a few more of these before the first Tuesday in November.
Talk to me when there's an actual trial on any of these guys.

UPDATE: From The DOJ release:

"On or about December 16, 2005, Narseal Batiste provided the 'al Qaeda representative' (actually the FBI informant) with a list of materials and equipment needed in order to wage jihad, which list included boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios and vehicles," the indictment also said.


Uniforms?