Sears Tower

[apple pie]

I just heard this on CNN, apperently a bunch of men were planning on doing aterriost attack on the Sears Tower, which is now the tallest building in North America.

[MAthiAS]

Better raise the terror alert level.

[LittlePound]

so, i guess they were caught if CNN knew about it...right? More info on the topic....

[Against Miik!]

Better raise the terror alert level.

I never understood the terror alert. So the terror alert is raised to orange. What does that mean? Wear a sweater?

/rep to who can tell me where thats from

I'm sure its possible, but they CIA and the likes pick up hundreds of threats a day i'm sure. Basically none of them turn out to be true.

[apple pie]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/22/miami.raids/index.html


MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Seven people are in custody after a sweep by law enforcement authorities in connection with an alleged plot against targets that may have included the Sears Tower, officials told CNN on Thursday.

Officials said no weapons or bomb-making materials had been found in the searches in the Miami area by FBI and state and local law enforcement officials. The city is under no imminent threat, according to the FBI.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the arrests disrupted what may have been the early stages of a domestic terrorist plot to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, the FBI building in Miami, and possibly other targets. (Watch details of the raids -- 2:53)

The 110-story Sears Tower is the world's third-tallest building and the tallest in North America.

Barbara Carley, managing director of the Sears Tower, said in a statement that "it would be inappropriate for us to confirm or deny details of news reports about federal law enforcement action before an official statement from the Justice Department.

"However, Sears Tower security officials regularly speak with the FBI and local law enforcement authorities who track and investigate terrorism threats. Today was no exception," she said. "Despite new information, 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."

Law enforcement sources told CNN that some of the suspects are members of a radical African-American Muslim group and that at least one had taken "an al Qaeda oath." They had carried out surveillance on the Sears Tower and FBI building in Miami, the sources said.

Sources told CNN that the arrests culminated a monthslong undercover operation. The suspects believed they were dealing with an al Qaeda operative, but the person was actually a government informant, the sources said.

Documents related to the investigation have been sealed.

One of the arrests was made before Thursday, officials said, and one of Thursday's arrests took place in Atlanta, Georgia.

A spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said the mayor was notified of the raid earlier in the day, and a spokesman for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the governor had been notified Thursday morning.

Both Alvarez and Bush said they had no plans to tighten security.

"If anything, this is a plot foiled," Alvarez spokeswoman Vicki Mallette said.

Plans for a massive rally Friday in the city for the Miami Heat, the new National Basketball Association champions, are unchanged, she said, adding that 200,000 people were expected to attend.

The FBI said one search warrant was executed in a warehouse near a housing project in Liberty City, a predominantly black and low-income area of Miami.

Cedric Thomas, a co-owner of Thomas Produce Market, told the Miami Herald that 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,'' Thomas told the newspaper.

Residents living near the warehouse told The Associated Press that the men taken into custody called themselves Muslims and had tried to recruit young people.

The men slept in the warehouse, Tashawn Rose, 29, told the AP.

"They would come out late at night and exercise," she said. "It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard."

The residents told the AP that FBI agents spent several hours seeking information from people in the neighborhood. They said the suspects, who appeared to be in their teens or 20s, had lived in the area for about a year, the AP reported.

"We are conducting a number of arrests and searches, and we'll have more about that when the operation is completed, probably tomorrow morning," FBI Director Robert Mueller told CNN's Larry King in an interview broadcast Thursday night.

"Because it's an ongoing operation, we really can't get into details," Mueller said. "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. ...."

In a statement, the U.S. attorney's office in Miami said federal, state and local agencies made the arrests in connection with a domestic "terrorist-related matter."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will hold a news conference Friday regarding the raids.

[Scuba_Steve]

isn't the CN tower taller than it?

EDIT: NVM, the cn tower is technically a "tower" not a "building".

[Against Miik!]

isn't the CN tower taller than it?

Actually its the tallest in the world.

I think.

edit: oo good call. But the CN is the tallest TOWER in the world.

[AA-12]

I never understood the terror alert. So the terror alert is raised to orange. What does that mean? Wear a sweater?

/rep to who can tell me where thats from

I'm sure its possible, but they CIA and the likes pick up hundreds of threats a day i'm sure. Basically none of them turn out to be true.
Ron White \m/

[Letto]

Better raise the terror alert level.

LOL. I'm convinced the level will never go below elevated until somebody abolishes the whole system. It's useless and just tries to keep people in fear.

[Brewer14]

LOL. I'm convinced the level will never go below elevated until somebody abolishes the whole system. It's useless and just tries to keep people in fear.

I never understood the whole system either.

Are we supposed to stay out home when the terror level raises? Wouldn't that be changing our lives because of a fear of terrorist attacks? Isn't that what they want?

[Against Miik!]

Ron White \m/

Lewis Black. sry

[Jharaski]

Lewis Black

edit - aw I was gonna try to see if I can sneak that in and just say aww, I didnt get it in in time but 5 minutes is too big of a gap

[Against Miik!]

Lewis Black

edit - aw I was gonna try to see if I can sneak that in and just say aww, I didnt get it in in time but 5 minutes is too big of a gap

meh i trust you. rep anyways

[Seafroggys]

the Sears Tower....*now* the tallest building in USA?

Its always been the tallest office building in the USA. The WTC towers in NYC were #2, and Empire State #3.

This is office buildings in the US ONLY, mind you.

[Ghostfire3]

Yeah, I heard about this. Bad news about how they were planning to do that considering I live near Chicago.

[pixiesfanyo]

I've got an idea. Let's stop building giant buildings.

Then they won't have anything to target.

[MAthiAS]

I've got an idea. Let's stop building giant buildings.

Then they won't have anything to target.
Nope, nothing.

[Uberman]

yeah just water supplies and stuff

[griftadan]

seriously, why don't they? thats a much better target than tall buildings.

[LittlePound]

yeah, but wouldn't it be much easier to recover from that, i mean, we have so many water supplies and etc. i mean, we could just get it from another city/state/lake/etc. Where, when you attack something like the world trade center, it sends a meaning, and there is only one (or in this case 2) of them.

[griftadan]

lol it'd be one case where bottled water would actually hold real value.

[Uberman]

because there would be no meaning to millions of poisoned people

[Iskandar]

I've got an idea. Let's stop building giant buildings.

Then they won't have anything to target.
That, my friend, is the essence of Tao.

*gong sounds*
*wood flute*

[apple pie]

if they built smaller buildings then the attacks would be more damaging because they would be able to take out more buildings at once

[Smokey D]

Probably not. It only takes a little bit more planning to attack a big building than it does to attack a small building. Attacking lots of small buildings would require a much more significant investment of resources.