Seven charged in alleged Sears Tower plot

A group of young men seized in a Miami warehouse have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiring with al-Qaida to commit acts of violence in the United States, including blowing up Chicago’s Sears Tower.

The seven individuals indicted by a federal grand jury were taken into custody yesterday when authorities swarmed the warehouse in the Liberty City area, removing a metal door with a blow torch.

The indictment also alleges plans to blow a federal building in Miami in conjunction with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Attorney general Alberto Gonzales and other top-level Bush administration officials scheduled a news conference for later today and a similar briefing was in Miami.

According to the indictment, a young man identified as Narseal Batiste, beginning in November 2005, recruited and trained the others “for a mission to wage war against the United States government”, including a plot to destroy the Sears Tower.

To obtain money and support for their mission, the conspirators sought help from al Qaida, pledged an oath to the terrorist organisation and supported an al-Qaida plot to destroy FBI buildings, the four-count indictment charged.