England charges terrorist suspects

LONDON – Eight terrorist suspects were charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit murder and possession of documents said to be plans for terrorist attacks in the United States, Scotland Yard announced.

A ninth was charged with possessing an illegal weapon.

The nine men were among 13 arrested Aug. 3 in raids in northern and southern England.

The charges followed arrests in Pakistan, which were cited by U.S. officials as one reason for issuing terrorism alerts for the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Inc. offices in New York; the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington; and the Prudential Financial Inc. building in New Jersey.

The alert status in the United States was raised Aug. 1 after Pakistan arrested several suspected al Qaeda militants, including Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a computer technician and communications coordinator. Plans of what officials said were potential U.S. targets were found in his computer materials.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft praised the British charges, saying officials would decide whether to bring U.S. charges as well. “Working with our allies, we will continue to take every measure to protect the people of the United States and safeguard their liberties, in this time of heightened terrorist threat,” Ashcroft said.

Of the 13 men arrested in Britain, two were released and two were questioned on nonterrorism-related accusations. One of those four was held on immigration charges. The remaining nine were remanded to London’s high-security Paddington Green police station and then taken to Belmarsh Prison.

Authorities identified the men charged under the Terrorism Act of 2000 and the Criminal Law act as: Dhiren Barot, 32, Nadeem Tarmohamed, 26, and Qaisar Shaffi, 25, all of Willesden, north London; Zia ul Haq, 25, of Paddington, London; Omar Abdul Rehman, 20, of Bushey, northwest of London; Abul Aziz Jalil, 31, of Luton, northwest of London; Junade Feroze, 28, of Blackburn, in northern England; and Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 24.

Under the Criminal Law act, the men were charged with conspiracy “together with other persons unknown to murder other persons” and to “commit public nuisance by the use of radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury.”

Under the Terrorism Act of 2000, they were charged with possession of documents or records of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Barot, who used several aliases, including Abu Eisa al Hindi, has been called a senior al Qaeda operative in numerous published reports. He and Tarmohamed are alleged to have had reconnaissance plans for the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J.

Barot was also said to have had two notebooks with information on explosives, poisons, chemicals and “related matters containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism,” according to the charges.