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| More on the terror trio |
| 2005-04-13 |
| Three men have been indicted in the suspected terrorist plot at financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington that led to the security crackdown last summer in the Northeast, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. A four-count federal indictment unsealed Tuesday said the men conducted scouting missions from the summer of 2000 through April 2001 at the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington. The authorities provided few new details about the suspected plot but said they were convinced that there were plans under way to attack the financial centers until last August, when the United States raised its terror alert level and Britain arrested a group of eight suspects in connection with the case. "This conspiracy was alive and kicking up until August of 2004," James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, said in announcing the indictment. The three men charged in the indictment were among the eight suspects jailed and charged in Britain last August in connection with the plot against the financial centers. The authorities identified the three men as Dhiren Barot, 32; Nadeem Tarmohammed, 26; and Qaisar Shaffi, 25. They are awaiting trial in Britain on terrorism-related charges for possessing plans, notebooks and other material that could be used in an attack. In the American case, each of the three was charged with conspiracy to use unconventional weapons in the United States and providing material support to terrorists. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. American officials said that they would seek to have the suspects extradited from Britain at some point but acknowledged that the timing was uncertain. A British official said Tuesday that the government would not even consider extraditing the men until their trial was over. Mr. Comey said, "The conspiracy laid out in the indictment was designed to kill as many Americans as possible, and the alleged surveillance of these buildings makes these allegations all the more serious." The prosecution "highlights the nature of the enemy we face," he added. "And that's an enemy that is patient, that is spread throughout the world, and that is bent on killing Americans in a spectacular way." It was unclear why American prosecutors decided to bring charges now, about eight months after the plot was disclosed, and the indictment provided few new details about the nature of the plot. In fact, last summer's best-selling final report from the Sept. 11 commission went into greater detail in some areas than did the indictment. The commission report said that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, sent Mr. Barot to Malaysia to receive terrorist training and, at the direction of Osama bin Laden, then sent him to the United States in early 2001 "to case potential economic and 'Jewish' targets in New York City." A footnote indicated that the information came from a 2003 interrogation of Mr. Mohammed, who remains in custody at an undisclosed location. The plot was initially disclosed last August when the authorities ratcheted up the country's threat level in the three cities after warnings of an election-year attack on the United States. The alert led to sweeping security precautions in the three cities and severely restricted access to the Republican National Convention in New York. It also led to charges and speculation from some Democrats that the timing of the announcement, three months before the November election, was meant to bolster President Bush's standing as a president tough on terrorism. Mr. Comey denied any political calculations either in raising the threat level last summer or announcing the new charges on Tuesday. "This is driven by the facts and the law," he said. Authorities have defended raising the alert, which they acknowledged was based on largely dated information, on the grounds that Al Qaeda is known to engage in lengthy planning before carrying out an attack and to remain fixed on particular targets for years. The indictment said that in 1998, Mr. Barot was an instructor at one of Mr. bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan where recruits received training in weapons and paramilitary tactics. In 2000, Mr. Barot applied to an unidentified college in New York where he was admitted for the 2000 and 2001 school years, although he never enrolled at the school or attended any classes. Mr. Barot and Mr. Tarmohammed arrived at Kennedy International Airport on Aug. 17, 2000, on the same flight from Britain, the indictment said. In late August, they traveled to Washington and returned to Britain on separate flights. In March 2001, Mr. Barot and Mr. Shaffi made a similar trip to the United States. At the time of the security alert last summer, the authorities said that most of the surveillance activity took place before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The indictment said the men conducted surveillance at the buildings between August 2000 and April 2001, including video surveillance in 2001. The travel, planning and resources committed to the surveillance operation form the basis for the charges in the indictment that the men provided "material support" to terrorists, officials said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 funny that they scared everyone with this just before the election --what 3 years later |
| Posted by: jurisesq 2005-04-13 7:10:01 PM |