WASHINGTON -- British authorities on Tuesday charged eight alleged al-Qaida operatives with conspiracy to murder and other counts in connection with a reported plot to mount terrorist attacks against the International Monetary Fund building in Washington and other sites in New York and Newark, N.J.
One of those charged yesterday was Dhiren Barot -- known publicly until yesterday as Eisa Hindi -- who is suspected of conducting surveillance of U.S. financial buildings that was detailed in computer files seized recently in Pakistan. The discovery of the computer documents led the U.S. government on Aug. 1 to raise the terrorism alert to orange, or "high risk," for the financial sectors in Washington, New York and Newark.
U.S. officials said they are considering filing criminal charges of their own against Barot and his seven alleged al-Qaida colleagues. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement yesterday that federal prosecutors "will explore every aspect of this case and evaluate whether additional charges, including potential charges in the United States, are appropriate."
Barot, 32, who was brought up in a Hindu home and converted to Islam, has used a number of other aliases, including Issa al Britani. The commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks referred to him by that name in its final report released last month. It said that an al-Qaida leader in custody told interrogators that in early 2001 Osama bin Laden had sent "Britani" to the United States "to case potential economic and 'Jewish' targets in New York City" for possible attack.
The eight men charged yesterday -- all British citizens, according to police in London -- were among 13 detained on suspicion of terrorist activity by British authorities in raids on Aug. 3.
Under British law, terrorism suspects can be detained for two weeks, by which time they must be charged or released. British authorities had until 3 p.m. London time to file charges, and the criminal counts were formally filed at 2:55.
The eight suspects, who have been held in a Central London police station, are to appear this morning before a district judge at the high-security Belmarsh prison southeast of London.
The lawyer for seven of the men, Mudassar Arani, could not be reached yesterday. She recently told reporters that the solitary confinement of her clients during two weeks of interrogation amounted to psychological abuse.
Besides Barot, the names of most of the other seven men charged had not been disclosed publicly until yesterday.
He and the other seven -- Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 24; Abdul Aziz Jalil, 31; Omar Abdul Rehman, 20; Junade Feroze, 28; Zia Ul Haq, 25; Qaisar Shaffi, 25; and Nadeem Tarmohammed, 26 -- were charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by using "radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals and/or explosives to cause disruption." The charges said those crimes were committed between January 2000 and this month.
Barot and Tarmohammed were charged with possessing a "reconnaissance plan" for the Prudential headquarters in Newark that contained information "likely to be useful" to terrorists, between Feb. 19, 2001, and this month.
Barot was charged with possessing reconnaissance plans for the New York Stock Exchange, the Citicorp headquarters in Manhattan and Washington's IMF building at 19th and G Streets NW -- plus two notebooks with information on explosives, poisons and chemicals -- during the same 2001 to 2004 time period. Shaffi was charged with having an extract of "the Terrorist's Handbook," containing information on the preparation of chemicals and explosive recipes between the same dates. The charges did not shed light on why the specific dates -- between Feb. 19, 2001, and this month -- were cited.
