Three Charged In U.S. Terror Plot

Three men have been indicted on charges they targeted for attack financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington, federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

CBS News Correspondent Howard Arenstein reports federal law enforcement officials say the three men have been in custody in England since last year.

The three men, Dhiren Barot, known variously as Abu Eisa al-Hindi, Abu Musa al-Hindi and Issa al-Britani, Nadeem Tarmohamed amd Qaisar Shaffi were each charged in a four-count indictment, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists, providing and concealing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to damage and destroy buildings used in interstate and foreign commerce.

A Justice Department official tells CBS News Producer Kathy Mountcastle the U.S. intends to seek extradition of the three men after they are tried in Britain.

The three men had been picked up by British authorities in a separate investigation that yielded evidence they scouted the New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp Building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J., and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, said two officials who discussed the case at this sensitive juncture only on grounds they not be publicly identified. The indictments are under court seal, they noted.

An announcement was expected later Tuesday, at the time the indictments are to be unsealed.

Last August the government raised the risk of a terrorist attack to "high" for those specific financial institutions. The color-coded threat level for the rest of the nation remained at yellow, or elevated, the middle of a five-point scale.

Federal authorities, who acknowledged the threat was based mainly on years-old intelligence, said the decision to raise the threat level was based on an abundance of caution and because of the lengthy planning and plotting record of the terrorist network known as al Qaeda.

The threat level was lowered to yellow for the buildings in November.

British authorities last year arrested eight men who were accused of planning attacks in England. In the course of that investigation, authorities said they found evidence that three suspects also had taken part in planning for attacks in the United States.

Barot, 32, was charged there with possessing reconnaissance plans for the U.S. institutions and notebooks containing information on explosives, poisons, chemicals and related matters "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

U.S. officials claim that Barot is a senior al Qaeda figure who scouted prominent financial targets in the United States at the behest of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Tarmohammed, 26, was charged at that time, along with Barot, with possessing plans of the Prudential building. Shaffi, 25, also was charged at the time with possessing an extract from the "Terrorist's Handbook" on the preparation of chemicals, explosive recipes and other information.