Evidence of Plot to Attack Sears Tower
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 1, 2001 -- 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.
"We believe that there are others [who] may be in the country who would have plans … to do things … And we think that there is a very serious threat of additional problems now."
The State Department has issued a "worldwide caution" to U.S. citizens traveling abroad amid growing fears that American tourists and businesspeople in Europe could be targeted by terrorists for assassination or kidnapping.
Of particular concern to intelligence officials are the possibility of future attacks in Western capitals such as London and Paris or cities such as Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, where Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network is believed to still be strong.
Bush said more than 400 people have so far been arrested or detained in this country and authorities in over 25 other countries have taken "about 150 terrorists and their supporters" into custody.
U.S. Arrests Leader of 1986 Hijacking
The Bush administration announced today that U.S. authorities have arrested the terrorist responsible for the deaths of two U.S. citizens in a hijacking 15 years ago. Zayd Hassan Safarini was convicted in Pakistan of leading the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73, in which 22 passengers — including two Americans — were killed and 100 others wounded.
Safarini was apprehended by American officials in Pakistan on Friday after authorities there released him from custody. Administration officials said Safarini was being held in Alaska and would be transported to Washington to face murder charges.
Bush said the arrest of Safarini, who is not believed to be affiliated with bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, was "an example of the wider war on terrorism and what we intend to do."
Financial records from a flying school in Punta Gorda, Fla., that were recently seized by the FBI indicate that tuition for at least a dozen foreign students were paid with wire transfers from overseas.
In addition to money wired from Germany, Pakistan and Afghanistan, investigators found links between the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and banks in Britain, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, underscoring the elaborate and international nature of the operation.
Bush said today that some 50 ban accounts tied directly to bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network — 20 in the United States and 30 overseas — have so far been frozen.
"I made it clear that part of winning the war against terror would be to cut off these evil people's money, would be to trace their assets and freeze them, cut off their cash flows," the president said, adding that U.S. authorities had frozen a total of $6 million in bank accounts tied to terrorist activity.