U.S. Indicts 3 Suspected Terrorist Scouts

Three British nationals whose alleged surveillance of U.S. financial landmarks triggered an increase in the terrorist threat level last summer were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they were planning a catastrophic attack with “weapons of mass destruction,” the Justice Department disclosed Tuesday.

The federal indictment, unsealed in New York, alleges that the three men, including a reputed top Al Qaeda operative, conducted secret surveillance of the New York Stock Exchange, the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington and other sites in 2000 and 2001 as part of a plot to destroy the buildings and kill Americans, Justice Department officials said.

Without providing details, the officials said the conspiracy continued until the men were arrested by British authorities in August after the suspects were linked to the planned attacks by computer files retrieved as part of a separate investigation in Pakistan. The men also face charges in London, where they remain in custody.

The computer files included descriptions of the surveillance activities, whose details prompted U.S. authorities to raise the alert level from yellow, or elevated risk of attack, to orange, or high risk, in the financial districts of New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia on Aug. 1.

Although the indictment says the men plotted to use weapons of mass destruction, it identifies the weapons only as improvised explosive devices, or bombs. The phrasing is normally used to refer to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

“We have not alleged that,” Deputy Atty. Gen. James Comey said at a news conference. “But ... a weapon of mass destruction in our world goes beyond that and includes improvised explosive devices.”

The decision to raise the threat level was controversial because it was based largely on information that was more than 3 years old.

Coming in the middle of a presidential election year, it fueled criticism that the Bush administration was manipulating the terrorism threat scale for political gain. The alert level was lowered after the election.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Comey defended the alert and said the plot, which extended over six years, represented a real and immediate threat to the country.

“This conspiracy was alive and kicking up until August of 2004. That date is in there for a reason,” Comey said, alluding to the indictment.

The case “highlights the nature of the enemy we face,” he added. “That is an enemy that is patient, that is spread through the world and is bent on killing Americans in a spectacular way.”

The indictment suggests that the conspiracy was active even as the Sept. 11 hijackers were plotting their attacks on New York and Washington. The indictment does not make a connection between the two. Comey noted that the indictment makes no “express” allegation that the defendants are linked with Al Qaeda.

But an alias used by one of the defendants -- Dhiren Barot, 33 -- was identified in the final report of the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks as a senior Al Qaeda leader whom Osama bin Laden dispatched to scout for financial and other targets in the U.S.

Barot, according to the federal indictment, used the aliases Esa al-Britain, Abu Esa al-Britani, Esa al-Hindi and Issa al-Hindi.

His alleged co-conspirators are two other British citizens, identified as Nadeem Tarmohamed, 26, and Qaisar Shaffi, 25. The three were arrested in August during a raid on a house in a London suburb.

The federal indictment, which Comey said was handed up March 23, describes a plot that began in 1998, when Barot was a lead instructor in a jihad training camp in Afghanistan. Recruits were allegedly taught to use weapons and received other paramilitary training.

According to the indictment, in June 2000 Barot applied to and was admitted to a college in New York as cover for a series of reconnaissance missions he undertook with his co-defendants in New York and Washington between Aug. 17, 2000, and April 8, 2001.

The documents charge that the men conducted surveillance on buildings and surrounding neighborhoods in the United States, including the headquarters of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington, the headquarters of Prudential Financial Inc. in Newark, N.J., and the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Center in New York.

The U.S. charges include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against persons within the United States and conspiracy to damage and destroy buildings used in interstate and foreign commerce. The defendants face sentences up to life in prison if they are convicted.

Comey said the United States would seek the extradition of the men from Britain once proceedings there were complete.