3 Indicted on Terror Charges in US 

Associated Press, Arab News

WASHINGTON, 13 April 2005 — Three men have been indicted on charges they plotted to attack financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington.

A four-count indictment unsealed yesterday accuses Dhiran Barot, Nadeem Tarmohammed and Qaisar Shaffi of scouting the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia.

The three men, already in custody in England, were charged with three conspiracy counts and providing material support to terrorists.

US officials claim that Barot is a senior Al-Qaeda figure, known variously as Abu Eisa Al-Hindi, Abu Musa Al-Hindi and Issa Al-Britani, who scouted prominent financial targets in the United States at the behest of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Prosecutors say the men conducted surveillance on the buildings between August 2000 and April 2001, including video surveillance in Manhattan around April 2001.

The men face related charges in England. Barot, 32, was charged there with possessing reconnaissance plans for the US institutions and notebooks containing information on explosives, poisons, chemicals.

Tarmohammed, 26, was charged there, along with Barot, with possessing plans of the Prudential building. Shaffi, 25, also was charged in Britain with possessing an extract from the “Terrorist’s Handbook” on the preparation of explosives.