Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo Studios and the city’s iconic Sears Tower were targeted in a 2009 truck bomb attack plotted by anti-U.S. terrorists, according to a new report.
But the plot was foiled by federal and Illinois police before a bomb-laden U-Haul got to Chicago, and the apparent FBI mismanagement of the case prompted the agency to keep the whole affair secret, according to Judicial Watch, the taxpayer watchdog group.
In its latest investigation, Judicial Watch said that the terrorists targeted Oprah’s power base “because they resented her popularity and power, while the tower was selected because of its obvious landmark status.”
Quoting law enforcement sources, Judicial Watch added that the “plot itself, planned in 2009, was inspired by militant Islamist hatred of American military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Judicial Watch identified the alleged bombers as friends from El Paso, one an illegal immigrant. The other is being held in Cook County, Ill., jail, on charges of making a false car bomb threat after leading police on a high-speed chase through Chicago with an ISIS flag waving from his car on August 28, 2014.
From Judicial Watch:
The watchdog group noted that federal authorities did reveal plots at the time against Wrigley Field but said the FBI didn’t provide a reason for not making the attacks public against Harpo or the tower, renamed “Willis Tower” in 2009.
Their full report is here.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
