Evidence of Plot to Attack Sears Tower

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 1 -- The FBI says it has no specific or credible threat against the Sears Tower in Chicago, but federal officials with access to intelligence information tell ABCNEWS the government moved late last week to re-evaluate emergency evacuation plans for the nation's tallest building.

MORE INVESTIGATIVE NEWS:

• Further Attacks Feared• U.S. Arrests Leader of 1986 Hijacking• Worldwide Probe Points to Bin Laden• Alleged Terrorists Captured in Germany• Tracking the Terrorist Money Trail

The government took the action following new evidence seen in Washington that there was a plot to target the building — an obvious concern ever since terrorists crashed hijacked passenger airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

Concern grew after the arrest of five men connected to a suspected terrorist cell involving people with licenses to drive tanker trucks carrying hazardous materials and explosives.

Three men were taken into custody in the last two weeks at an apartment in Detroit, where the cell was believed to have been centered; one man was arrested outside Chicago; and a fifth man, Yousef Hmimssa, was captured in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Witnesses say Hmimssa, who is described by law enforcement sources as a "master counterfeiter" of credit cards, bank cards and of identification documents, was chased at gunpoint by Secret Service agents then wrestled to the ground.

FBI officials in Chicago said their head of counter-terrorism went to the Sears Tower today to meet with the building's security officials, but insisted there was no evidence that directly connected the Detroit-based group to any plot to attack the 110-story skyscraper.

"We have absolutely no knowledge — absolutely no knowledge," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Kneir.

Further Attacks Feared

The disruption of the suspected cell comes as federal authorities have increasingly been warning of the possibility of future terrorist attacks in the Untied States.

"We're taking any threat seriously here at home," President Bush said today as he greeted employees at FEMA headquarters in Washington.

A day earlier, Attorney General John Ashcroft said there was a "very serious threat" of further attacks in the wake of the Sept. 11 suicide hijacking strikes in New York and Washington.

"We believe that there is the likelihood of additional terrorist activity and it is our job to do whatever we can to interrupt it, to disrupt it," the attorney general said.