CHICAGO, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The FBI Monday "categorically denied" a broadcast report that a planned truck bomb attack on the Sears Tower, the nation's tallest building, may have been averted with the arrests of five men in Detroit and Iowa last week.
ABC News said four of the five men reportedly had fake licenses to drive trucks carrying hazardous cargo.
"The FBI categorically denies the report," said FBI spokesman Ross Rice, who confirmed the five arrests last week. "The report is completely untrue."
ABC News reported that FBI agents and members of the Joint Task Force on Terrorism recovered computer disks and drawings indicating the men may have been planning to truck bomb the Chicago landmark. However, Ross said no computer disks or drawings with information on the Sears Tower were in materials seized during a raid on a Detroit apartment two weeks ago.
"Zip," Ross said.
Asked where ABC News got its information about an alleged foiled truck bomb plot he said, "Bad sources."
There was a scare at the 110-story tower on Sept. 20 when thousands of people evacuated from the tower on their own after a rumor circulated through the building that a jetliner had been hijacked at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, 90 miles north.
There had been no hijacking.
The building's tenants have been on edge since telephone threats on the day of the East Coast terror attacks warned a bomb-laden Boeing 747 would crash into the 1,450-foot tower. A security guard at Boeing Corp. headquarters was charged with felony disorderly conduct for making 16 calls to the city's 911 emergency center on the evening of Sept. 11 claiming to be a "Middle East terrorist."
Mayor Richard Daley said the city would sue the 29-year-old man and anyone else who made bomb threats to recover the costs of increased police and fire protection.
Attorney General John Ashcroft Sunday warned of "substantial risks" for more terrorist attacks in the United States following the Sept. 11 jetliner hijackings that destroyed the World Trade Center and collapsed part of the Pentagon. He warned Americans to remain on guard at home and abroad.
The State Department issued a "worldwide caution" to U.S. citizens traveling overseas because of the threat of more terrorist attacks, particularly in Indonesia, London and Paris.
One of the suspects, Fadhil Al-Khaledy, of Detroit was arrested Thursday night after he arrived at O'Hare International Airport on a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight from Shannon, Ireland. The FBI said Al-Khaledy, 32, was one of 20 men charged in an alleged conspiracy to obtain Pennsylvania driver's licenses fraudulently and permits to haul hazardous materials.
Three other Detroit-area men were arrested by FBI agents and the terrorism task force last month in a raid on the apartment of Nabil al-Marabh, an alleged associate of Saudi terror suspect Osama bin Laden.
Al-Marabh was arrested on Sept. 20 at a liquor store in Burbank, Ill., south of Chicago, and was moved to New York for further questioning.
An FBI spokeswoman said Friday that Al-Khaledy was not linked to the World Trade Center attack and refused to speculate whether he might be part of a plot to use trucks to attack U.S. targets with explosives, chemical or biological agents.
Evidence found in the apartment with al-Marabh's name on the mailbox included a day planner with hundreds of notes written in Arabic detailing dates, times and places for a possible terrorist attack on a U.S. military base in Turkey.
A Moroccan-born man from Detroit, sought in connection with the terror attack investigation, was arrested by Secret Service agents at gunpoint Friday outside an apartment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Youssef Hmimssa, who used at least three aliases including "Jalali," was detained at the Linn County Corrections Center.
The Des Moines Register Monday said Hmimssa told the manager of the apartment complex he was a French Moroccan named Michael Saisa when he signed a rental agreement. The apartment manager contacted the FBI after seeing Hmimssa's photograph on "America's Most Wanted."
ABC News said law enforcement officials described Hmimssa as a "master counterfeiter" of credit cards, bank cards and phony IDs. He reportedly had several ID cards and several thousand dollars in cash with him.
Hmimssa had been arrested by Secret Service agents in Chicago on May 23 and briefly jailed, the report said, but he fled after posting $25,000 bond.
