Oprah Winfrey's Chicago studios were reportedly targeted by suspected terrorists in a 2009 bomb threat, but luckily federal law enforcement officials and Illinois authorities were able to foil the plot.
JudicialWatch.org reported this week that two of the suspects — Emad Karakrah and Hector Pedroza Huerta — were arrested recently for unrelated crimes but are connected to the 2009 plot that would have bombed Harpo Studios and the Willis Tower (formerly the "Sears Tower").
The FBI has never publicly talked about the reported bomb threat or why the suspects have not been charged with a crime, the watchdog group said.
"The alleged bombers targeted Ms. Winfrey's Harpo Studios because they resented her popularity and power, while the tower was selected because of its obvious landmark status," JudicialWatch.org noted.
"The bomb plot itself, planned in 2009, was inspired by militant Islamist hatred of American military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to law enforcement and other sources interviewed by Judicial Watch."
The suspects reportedly planned to fill a U-Haul-style trailer with explosives — some of which are believed to have been swiped from Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas — but they were intercepted before making it to Chicago, JudicialWatch.org reported.
The FBI declined to comment to the New York Post this week about the 2009 plot or the suspects.
"Obviously there were no charges filed in connection with this alleged plot," Joan Hyde, a spokeswoman from the FBI's Chicago office, told the Post. "Without such a public record basis to speak, I am not at liberty to comment on any investigation we may or may not have conducted in connection with the alleged plot."
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