Chicago, Miami Terror Plot Foiled

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced on Friday that seven young men arrested in Miami were part of a group of "homegrown terrorist" who sought to work with al-Qaeda but ended up consorting instead with a law enforcement informant. "They were persons who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy," Gonzales said at a news conference at the Justice Department. The informant is described as a "individual cooperating with law enforcement, who posed as a member of al-Qaeda."

The seven men arrested in Miami are said to be in the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower, the FBI office in Miami and "other buildings" in the United States, according to federal law enforcement officials. The would-be terrorist has "aspirations" but "no means" to attack these buildings, a senior federal law-enforcement source told the Chicago Tribune.

The men, all Muslims, talked about wanting to raise an Islamic army inside the United States. But they "didn't have the means to do this," reports the Tribune. "There was no threat at all." (Read the AP Summary) (Read the Chicago Tribune's Coverage)