U.S. Indicts 3 Men Held in Britain

13 Apr 2005 - International Herald Tribune

Three men under arrest in Britain have been indicted in the suspected terrorist plot in New York, New Jersey and Washington that led to a huge security crackdown in the Northeast U.S. last summer, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

A four-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday said that three men conducted scouting missions at the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia.

The authorities identified the three men as Dhiran Barot, 32, Nadeem Tarmohammed, 26, and Qaisar Shaffi, 25, who were among a group of men arrested in England.

Each of the three was charged with three conspiracy counts and with providing material support to terrorists.

The alleged plot was initially disclosed in August when the authorities increased the U.S. threat level in the three cities after warnings of an election year danger to the United States.

The alert led to massive security precautions in the three cities and severely restricted access to the Republican national convention in New York.

At the time of the security alert, the authorities said that most of the surveillance activity took place before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The indictment said that the men conducted surveillance at the buildings between August 2000 and April 2001, including video surveillance.

There was little information in the indictment that suggested more recent planning.

While, at the time, some people said the elevated threat levels issued by the Bush administration were politically motivated, authorities have defended the alert on the ground that Al Qaeda engaged in lengthy planning before carrying out an attack and remained fixed on particular targets for years.

The three men already face terror-related charges in Britain. Barot was charged with possessing reconnaissance plans for American institutions and notebooks with information about explosives, poisons and chemicals that authorities said would be useful to a terrorist. Tarmohammed was also charged with possessing surveillance plans. Shaffi was charged with possessing a handbook on the preparation of improvised terror weapons.

"They are indicted here and whether or not they actually ever are extradited here I guess is a matter of discussion," said the New York police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, according to The Associated Press. "But I think it's important, both substantively and symbolically important, that you come here, you do this type of surveillance, we're not going to forget."

U.S. officials say that Barot is a senior Qaeda figure who scouted prominent financial targets in the United States at the behest of Osama bin Laden, the Qaeda leader.

Intelligence officials said they believed people associated with Al Qaeda had collected detailed information on things like security measures at the four buildings, architecture, pedestrian traffic, access and nearby shops that provided cover.

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