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Man Pleads Guilty To Sears Tower Bomb Hoax

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Jul 12, 2007 2:18 pm US/Central

Man Pleads Guilty To Sears Tower Bomb Hoax

Police: Adam Hart Claimed Muslim Student On Facebook Planned Terror Attack

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BOSTON (CBS) ―

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A man who misled federal authorities into thinking that a Muslim student he met on a social networking Web site planned a terrorist attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago pleaded guilty to the hoax.

Adam Hart, 22, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston on Wednesday to one count of maliciously conveying false information. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16, and could be ordered to serve up to 10 years in prison.

Hart was a student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in April 2006 when he sent an e-mail to the National Security Agency claiming that a Chicago student he met on Facebook Inc.'s popular online site was planning to detonate a bomb at the landmark skyscraper.

Hart wrote: "I feel it is my duty as an American to inform you that Osamah Abdallah of Loyola Chicago was talking to me online about strapping a bomb to his chest and walking into the Sears Tower. I hope you take action against him."

The hoax prompted increased security at the building and an investigation of the person Hart identified.

But federal authorities later said said Hart made it all up and charged him with maliciously conveying false information. In a affidavit investigators say Hart wrote a letter admitting to being drunk while searching the Web site facebook.com for the name Osamah. When he found Abdallah, Hart e-mailed him alleged ethnic slurs. An e-mail exchange ensued, ending with Hart's message to the NSA.

"It's a relief that it's over right now, but it's going to continue to happen. I had an uncle that got shot in Indiana, and so basically this is because of racism and racial profiling. And this is going to continue to happen unless we do something about it," Abdallah said after Hart was charged last November.