Bomb threat on Sears Tower a hoax; student arrested

BOSTON --A college student was arrested Wednesday on charges he made a false threat claiming that a Muslim man would conduct a suicide-bomb attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago, authorities said.

Adam Hart, 21, of Georgetown, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to a one-count indictment charging him with maliciously conveying false information. He was released on $10,000 bond, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Hart was a student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on April 22, when he allegedly sent an e-mail to the National Security Agency. The e-mail named a college student in Chicago whom Hart believed planned to detonate a bomb at the Sears Tower, prosecutors said.

Based on Hart's message, authorities in Chicago began securing the Sears Tower and investigated the person Hart identified.

The investigation revealed Hart's message to be false, and that Hart allegedly sent "ethnically derogatory" e-mail messages to the man in the days before contacting the NSA.

Hart allegedly e-mailed the student in Chicago after contacting the NSA and said he "ratted him out," according to U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan.

"Hoax bomb threats prey on the public's worst fears and divert the time, attention and precious resources of law enforcement from its true mission," Sullivan said in a prepared statement.

Hart has since transferred to UMass-Amherst. He has no phone listing in the Amherst area. He did not immediately return a call after a message was left at his parents' home in Georgetown.

He is due back in court Jan. 16.