| Seven people have been arrested in the United States suspected of planning to blow up the 110-story Chicago skyscraper Sears Tower and attack government offices in Miami. The conspirators are men between the ages of 22 and 32, including five U.S. citizens and two Haitian immigrants, one of whom entered the country illegally. Now they face up to 20 years in prison. Deputy head of the FBI John Pistole noted that their conspiracy was more of a “thought than an operational plan,” because those arrested had neither the money nor the technical equipment to implement it. According to US Justice Secretary Alberto Gonzalez, these people were trying to establish contacts with the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. They were captured with the help of a “decoy” - an FBI agent of Arab origin acted as an al-Qaeda emissary. The head of the cell, named Narcil Baptiste, asked him for uniforms, machine guns, radios, cars and $50,000 in cash to create “ Islamic army." After a year of surveillance, they were arrested last week during a gathering at a warehouse in Liberty City, a district of Miami, Florida. Relatives of the arrested are convinced of their innocence and talk about the beginning of a "witch hunt" in the United States. Katerina LABETSKAYA
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