Three indicted in terror plot

WASHINGTON – Three al Qaeda operatives in custody in Britain, whose arrests last summer helped trigger a terror alert in the United States, were charged by federal authorities with plotting to destroy financial targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington, the Justice Department disclosed Tuesday.

A four-count indictment, unsealed by federal authorities in New York Tuesday morning, alleged that between August 2000 and April 2001, the men conducted surveillance of such landmarks as the Citicorp Center in New York and the International Monetary Fund in Washington as part of a conspiracy to launch terrorist attacks against the United States.

The charges include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against people within the United States, and conspiracy to damage and destroy buildings used in interstate and foreign commerce. The government alleges that the conspiracy continued up until the time the men were arrested by British authorities in August.

The U.S. indictments add to charges already filed against the suspects in London, where the alleged plot was disclosed last year.

The men were implicated in a trove of computer documents and other materials seized last year in Pakistan that included descriptions of the surveillance of the U.S. financial landmarks.

The discovery of the detailed intelligence prompted U.S. authorities in August to raise the terror threat level in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. The defendants also allegedly cased the world headquarters of Prudential Financial in Newark, N.J.

The defendants include Dhiren Barot, a senior al Qaeda figure, who was reportedly dispatched by the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, to conduct the scouting operation. Barot, according to the federal indictment, used the aliases Esa al-Britain, Abu Esa al-Britani, Esa al-Hindi and Issa al-Hindi.

Also named in the indictment were Nadeem Tarmohamed and Qaisar Shaffi.

The indictment describes a plot that was launched in June 2000, when Barot applied to and was admitted to a college in New York as a cover for a series of reconnaissance missions he took with his co-defendants in New York and Washington between Aug. 17, 2000, and April 8, 2001.

The indictment alleges that in 1998, Barot served as a lead instructor in a jihad training camp in Afghanistan, where recruits were taught to use weapons and received paramilitary training.