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`Plot' to blow up Sears Tower

Seven held; Al-Qaeda link seen

MIAMI: United States authorities have arrested at least seven men over an alleged plot to blow up the Sears Tower skyscraper in Chicago and officials said on Friday more arrests were likely.

The seven were detained in Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raids in Miami, officials said.

Media reports citing unnamed officials said five U.S. citizens and two foreigners, including a Haitian, had organised a plot to attack the 110-storey, 442-metre Sears Tower, the world's third tallest building, and other buildings in Miami.

Another person was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, as well, according to media reports.

ABC television said the group had been infiltrated by an FBI agent posing as an Islamist radical. FBI Director Robert Mueller told CNN television that operations were still under way.

He said that search and arrest warrants had been given by a judge before the raids.

The arrests took place in Liberty City, a poor neighbourhood in northern Miami.

Residents said that the men who were arrested appeared to be part of a cult of at least a dozen persons, sleeping in a warehouse, dressing in military-like clothing and doing exercises. CNN interviewed a member of the organisation in Liberty City.

Brother Cory, as the black man with dreadlocks called himself, said he belonged to ``Seas of David,'' repeatedly denying it was a terrorist group or that it had any ties to Al-Qaeda.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a leading Muslim group in the United States, expressed concern about the plot and urged special protection for mosques in the United States in case of reprisal attacks.

Mr. Ahmed urged police to step up patrols near mosques ``to help prevent any possible backlash'' from the arrests.

Suspects charged

The group of young men seized in a Miami warehouse have been charged in a Federal indictment for conspiring with Al-Qaeda to ``levy war against the United States'' by committing acts of violence including blowing up Sears Tower.

The indictment also alleges plans to blow up a Federal building in Miami in conjunction with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

One of the members of group, Batiste, met several times in December 2005 with a person purporting to be an Al-Qaeda member and asked for uniforms, machine guns, radios, vehicles and $50,000 in cash to help him build an ``Islamic Army" to wage "jihad,'' the indictment said. It said that Batiste said he would use his ``soldiers'' to destroy the Sears Tower.

In February 2006, Batiste told the ``Al-Qaeda representative'' that he and his five soldiers wanted to attend Al-Qaeda training and planned a ``full ground war'' against the U.S. in order to ``kill all the devils we can.'' His mission would ``be just as good or greater than 9/11,'' the indictment accused Batiste of boasting. — AP

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