Sears Tower turned target

The Sears Tower may be a target for terrorists, but managers say it's secure.
CHICAGO (AP) -- It's the tallest skyscraper in North America, the most recognizable building on the Chicago skyline and the destination of thousands of office workers each day.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, those qualities have made the Sears Tower a tempting target to terrorists.
The latest alleged threat came from seven men arrested Thursday in Florida and Georgia and accused of plotting to bomb the 110-story Sears Tower and a federal building in Miami.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the men wanted to work with al-Qaida but ended up dealing instead with an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative. Federal, state and local authorities stressed that the Sears Tower was never in imminent danger.
"The bottom line is none of these plans materialized," said Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline.
The Sears Tower has come up in other investigations since 2001, though some of those cases turned out to be more hoax than plot. And Sears Tower authorities stressed Friday they believe it is a model for building security in the United States.
"Federal and local authorities continue to tell us they've never found evidence of a credible terrorism threat against Sears Tower that's ever gone beyond just talk," said Barbara Carley, the building's managing director.
'Just talk'
A security guard was charged with telling a 911 dispatcher Sept. 11, 2001, that he was a hijacker aboard a jetliner that he intended to crash into the Sears Tower. He was sentenced to 21/2 years of probation for disorderly conduct.
Captured al-Qaida leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is alleged to have told interrogators that Osama bin Laden proposed several other targets for the Sept. 11 attacks, including the Sears Tower.
In another case, a man admitted last year that he falsely told federal agents his relatives were linked to bin Laden's terrorist network and were plotting to blow up the Sears Tower and other Chicago landmarks.
In Spain, a man accused of being an al-Qaida militant discussed from the stand last year his 1997 videotaping of landmarks such as the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty and the Sears Tower.
The Syrian-born Spaniard, Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, testified that he took the videos as an awestruck tourist making his first visit to the United States, and he was acquitted last September of all charges against him, which included being an accessory to murder and of being a member of a terrorist organization.
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