‘Tip of the Iceberg’ in U.S. Plot Case
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LONDON – Eight men accused of plotting to commit murder and cause mayhem with radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals, or explosives appeared in court yesterday in a case linked to an American terror alert this month.
The defendants included an alleged senior Al Qaeda operative also charged with scouting prominent financial targets for terror attacks in America – including the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
Prosecution lawyer Sue Hemming said the eight suspects were motivated by “a strong and deeply held ideology” and were willing to carry out extreme acts. She said police have about 100 computers and thousands of files to examine as part of what promises to be a long and complex investigation.
“We’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg as far as a lot of this evidence goes,” she told the high security Belmarsh Court in south London.
None of the eight entered a plea and all were ordered held in custody until a court appearance next week.
The charges – filed Tuesday after two weeks of interrogation – for the first time officially linked recent arrests across Britain and Pakistan to the August 1 terrorism alerts surrounding the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Inc. headquarters, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank buildings in Washington, and the Prudential Financial Inc. building in Newark, N.J.
One defendant, Dhiren Barot, 32, was charged with possessing reconnaissance plans for the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund, the Citigroup building, and the Prudential building; and with possession of notebooks containing information on explosives, poisons, chemicals, and related matters.
An American official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Barot is the suspected Al Qaeda figure previously identified as Abu Eisa al-Hindi or Abu Musa al-Hindi.
After the August 1 terror alert involving those buildings and the World Bank in Washington, the American government acknowledged it had no evidence of plans for imminent attacks. The charges specified that Mr. Barot had the plans as early as February 19, 2001.
Attorney General Ashcroft said Tuesday that federal authorities were considering whether to press charges in America against the men and to seek their extradition.
