FBI arrests 7 in plot to attack Sears Tower

FBI agents stand by their vehicle in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. FBI agents arrested at least seven people in Miami who reportedly plotted to attack the Chicago Sears Tower skyscraper. The arrests by the Federal Bureau of Investigation together with federal, state and local authorities were "part of an ongoing investigation into a terrorist-related matter," the US attorney's office in Miami said in a statement.(AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

I don't know what to make of this story, regarding the FBI raid on a Miami warehouse which arrested seven men in a plot to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago. I'm going to start with the New York Times article:

MIAMI (AP) -- Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., including the FBI office here, a federal law enforcement official said.

As part of the raids related to the arrests, FBI agents swarmed a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City area, using a blowtorch to take off a metal door. One neighbor said the suspects had been sleeping in the warehouse while running what seemed to be a ''military boot camp.''

The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations. He spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt news conferences planned for Friday in Washington and Miami.

Photographer John Riley, center, and newsman Steve Harrigan, take a closer look at the door where agents swarmed a warehouse using a blowtorch Thursday, June 22, 2006, in the Liberty City area of Miami. (AP Photos/Mitchell Zachs)

So these seven men who were arrested are Americans who have no ties to al-Qaida or any foreign terrorist organization. They are not al-Qaida terrorists. Now let's continue further into this Times story:

Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Muslims and had tried to recruit young people to join their apparently militaristic group.

The residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men, who appeared to be in their teens or 20s, had lived in the area about a year.

The men slept in the warehouse, said Tashawn Rose, 29. ''They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard.''

She talked to one of the men about a month ago: ''They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah.''

Rose said the men tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew for a karate class. ''It was weird,'' she said.

Benjamin Williams, 17, said the group had young children with them sometimes. Sometimes, he added, the men ''would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbans.''

Xavier Smith, who attends the nearby United Christian Outreach, said the men would often come by the church and ask for water.

''They were very private,'' said Smith, 33. ''The spoke with like an accent, sort of a Jamaican accent.''

Now we get into these details that these are Muslim Americans? They spoke with a Jamaican accent? They wore turbans? They tried to recruit children for a karate class? There is even some hearsay details that is being passed off as story details--Tashawn Rose claims that these men tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew to the class. Was she there to actually witness when these men tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew?

Then there is the FBI. The Times story claims that the "FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information." There is nothing wrong with using old-fashioned detective work in seeking information regarding these suspects. But that is all there is regarding the FBI side of this story--the FBI agents went out and talked with the neighbors. The Times does not say if any weapons or explosives have been seized in the raid. In fact, the Washington Post's story on this raid claims that no weapons or explosives were seized in the raid. What bugs me here is that there is no evidence being presented that these individuals were involved in a terror plot. Neither the Times, the WaPost, or even CNN.Com report that FBI agents even seized documentation regarding this suspected plot--no FBI agents taking out boxes of papers or computers from the warehouse. CNN.com does have this interesting little detail:

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.

This arrest scares me. It scares me because the only evidence that the FBI has on these suspects are conversations with a government informant. And now documents relating to this investigation have been sealed. Will the government start labeling these Americans as "enemy combatants" and deny them their own legal rights? I'm not saying that these Americans are innocent--they actually may have been plotting this attack. But I want these suspects to go through the criminal justice system with their full legal rights--right to a counsel, right to cross-examine witnesses, right to a jury. I do not want the FBI or the Justice Department to refuse to hand over evidence to the defendants on the grounds of "national security interests," or "compromising intelligence-gathering assets." Something tells me that the only "evidence" they have is through the conversations with this government informant, and the FBI is going to try to keep this informant's identity a secret.

And these seven American suspects are going to disappear within the prison system--courtesy of their "enemy combatant" stasis.