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(Cromwell-AP, Aug. 11, 2004 1:25 PM) _ A Cromwell man says he's being targeted in a federal terrorism probe because he's a Muslim. Forty-one-year-old Syed Maswood is denying allegations he offered support to a militant Islamic Web site. Maswood confirms that he's he unnamed Connecticut resident mentioned last week in a federal affidavit charging a British national with supporting terrorism. Maswood says that on March 17th, federal agents raided his home, seizing computer equipment and financial records. According to the affidavit, investigators discovered Maswood's e-mail address among files used to maintain a Web site that funneled money and equipment to...

An Al Qaeda terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list for years crossed back and forth into the United States from Mexico to meet fellow militant Islamists in Texas and piloted an aircraft into the Cielo Dorado airfield in Anthony, New Mexico, law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch. The same Al Qaeda operative helped plan the 2009 bombing of talk-show superstar Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago studios and the iconic Sears Tower (renamed Willis Tower), a story that Judicial Watch broke just last week. His name is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (also known as “Javier Robles”) and over the weekend he was...

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

.........John Rukavina, 74, a Local 1 ironworker — who claims to have put up “every antenna and tower in Chicago since Marina Towers in 1974” — affixed a Romney banner as well as an American flag on the ABC antenna on Willis Tower minutes after it was completed Sept. 30. “The flag is a symbol — an old ironworker’s custom — which is hung if the job went well,” said Rukavina, who said he worked on the Sears Tower antenna in 1978. He’s also worked on the John Hancock Center and New York’s World Trade Center. “I promised my sister,...

I thought cops stuck together, like brothers. In Chicago, not so much. Look at this pathetic cop from Obamatown (Chicago) selling out his brothers to ..... the Hamas-CAIR enemy. Either McCarthy is a weak tool, or he figures the jihadists aren't targeting a second-calls city like Chicago anyway. New York, on the other hand, is a jewel, the capital of the world. McCarthy probably doesn't trust the notorious hater Ahmed Rehab as far as he can throw him. But even so, he shouldn't give this subversive the imprimatur of legitimacy. Shame on Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Way to blast...

A judge on Wednesday handed a six-year jail sentence to a man accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and allegedly swearing allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit. The computer files contained details about security arrangements and movements of the San Diego-based Constellation carrier battle group, which included the destroyer Benfold, on which...

Goodbye, Sears Tower. Today is the first day that the Chicago skyscraper totes its official new name. The turning point for the tallest building in the U.S. was marked this morning with a public ceremony. The 110-story building is owned by American Landmark Properties of Skokie, Ill., but London-based insurance-brokerage firm Willis Group Holdings “secured the naming rights as part an agreement to lease 140,000 square feet (13,000 sq. meters) of space, and has said it plans to bring hundreds of jobs to the city,” according to the Associated Press.

CHICAGO – The Sears Tower, one of the world's iconic skyscrapers and the tallest building in the U.S., was renamed the Willis Tower on Thursday in a downtown ceremony, marking a new chapter in the history of the giant edifice that has dominated the Chicago skyline for nearly four decades. Mayor Richard Daley unveiled the tower's new name on a large black sign in the lobby with the help of Joseph Plumeri, the Chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings, the London-based insurance broker that secured the naming rights as part of its agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of...

CHICAGO: The tallest building in the United States and a prominent feature in Chicago's skyline, the 110-storey Sears Tower will from today be called by a new name — Willis Tower. The official renaming of Sears Tower to Willis Tower and the unveiling of the building's new signage would be presided over by insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Chairman and CEO Joseph Plumeri here. Earlier this year, the London-based insurance broker had won the naming rights for the tower after it negotiated a deal with Sears' management to lease 140,000 square feet of office space at 14.50 dollars a square...

HICAGO – Visitors to the Sears Tower's new glass balconies all seem to agree: The first step is the hardest. "It's like walking on ice," said Margaret Kemp, of Bishop, California, who said her heart was still pounding even after stepping away from the balcony. "That first step you take — 'am I going down?'"

CHICAGO -- Chanti (SHAN'-tee) Lawrence says visiting the Sears Tower's new glass balconies has helped cure her fear of heights - almost. The Atlanta woman says - at the very least - she took the first step toward conquering her fear by walking out onto the glass more than 1,300 feet in the air. The balconies, nicknamed "The Ledge," open to the public Thursday. Several visitors got a preview Wednesday. Lawrence described the experience as "very cool but very scary."

FIVE MUSLIMS ARE CONVICTED OF A PLOT TO BLOW UP THE SEARS TOWER The headline from the Associated Press reads "5 Miami men convicted of Sears Tower attack plot". Read the story here ... then click back. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090512/ap_on_re_us/us_terrorism_investigation There ... did you notice anything. Though at the end of the story you'll see some references to al Qaeda .. nowhere in the story are these men identified as Muslims; and yes .. they were all Muslims. Another story identified them as "members of an apparent militaristic religious sect", but not Muslims. Radical Muslims can rant all week long about their...

May 12, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Leader of Liberty City Six Convicted on All Counts, Four Others Convicted on Multiple Counts, and One Defendant Acquitted on Charges of Conspiring to Support Al Qaeda, Attack Targets in the United States After a three-month trial, a Miami jury convicted five men of multiple charges that include conspiring to provide material support to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. by discussing and planning attacks on targets in the U.S., including the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building and other federal...

MIAMI - A federal jury convicted five men Tuesday of trying to join forces with al-Qaida in a plot to topple Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices. A sixth man was acquitted. The verdict allows government prosecutors to claim overall victory in a case that dragged on for years and cost millions of dollars, resulting in two hung juries and the acquittal of a seventh man originally charged in the case.

MIAMI, (AP) -- Five men were convicted Tuesday of plotting to join forces with al-Qaida to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices in hopes of igniting an anti-government insurrection. The jury in Miami acquitted another member of the so-called "Liberty City Six" in the sixth day of deliberations. Two previous trials ended in mistrials when jurors could not agree on the men's guilt or innocence. They were arrested in June 2006 on charges of plotting terrorism with an undercover FBI informant they believed was from al-Qaida. Defense attorneys said terrorist talk recorded on dozens of FBI audio and...

MIAMI (AP) -- An uncooperative juror has been replaced on the panel in Miami deliberating the case of six men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and attack FBI offices. . . . U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard said Tuesday the juror had violated her duty by refusing to deliberate and casting doubt on the law.

The head official at the Sears Tower's Skydeck says the Chicago tourist site is preparing to allow visitors a rare view from a new enclosure called the "Ledge." Skydeck General Manager Randy Stancik said the Ledge, tentatively scheduled to open to the public in June, is a glassed-in enclosure that extends 4.3 feet out from the tower's observation deck, the Chicago Sun-Times said Friday.

The tallest building in America is getting a new name. Chicago's Sears Tower will be renamed Willis Tower after London-based Willis Group Holdings. The insurance broker announced the name change and other details of its agreement with the building's owners Thursday. Willis is moving five offices and nearly 500 employees into the 110-story building. The move is expected to be completed by late summer. Willis will occupy more than 140,000 square feet at $14.50 a square foot.

MIAMI — A judge ordered jurors to keep deliberating Tuesday after they announced a second time they were deadlocked in the retrial of six men accused of scheming to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard refused a defense request for mistrial, instead urging them to reach verdicts if at all possible. "If you fail to reach a verdict, this case will be left open and may have to be retried again," Lenard told jurors in a set of instructions known as an Allen charge. The ethnically diverse panel of seven men and...