LONDON — Eight suspected terrorists were charged Tuesday with conspiracy to commit murder and possession of documents said to be plans for attacks on prominent financial institutions in the United States, Scotland Yard announced.
A ninth was charged with possessing an illegal weapon.
The nine men were among 13 arrested Aug. 3 in raids in northern and southern England.
The charges followed arrests in Pakistan, which were cited by U.S. officials as one reason for issuing terrorism alerts for the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup Inc. offices in New York, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington and the Prudential Financial Inc. building in New Jersey.
The alert status in the U.S. was raised Aug. 1 after Pakistan arrested several suspected Al Qaeda militants, including Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a computer technician and communications coordinator.
Plans of what officials said were potential targets in the United States were found in his computer materials.
U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft praised the British charges, saying officials would decide whether to bring U.S. charges as well.
"Working with our allies, we will continue to take every measure to protect the people of the United States and safeguard their liberties, in this time of heightened terrorist threat," Ashcroft said in a statement.
Of the 13 men arrested in Britain, two were released and two were questioned on non-terrorism-related accusations.
One of those four was held on immigration charges. The remaining nine were remanded to London's high-security Paddington Green police station and then taken to Belmarsh Prison.
Authorities identified the men charged under the Terrorism Act of 2000 and the Criminal Law act as Dhiren Barot, 32, Nadeem Tarmohamed, 26, and Qaisar Shaffi, 25, all of Willesden, north London; Zia ul Haq, 25, of Paddington, London; Omar Abdul Rehman, 20, of Bushey, northwest of London; Abul Aziz Jalil, 31, of Luton, northwest of London; Junade Feroze, 28, of Blackburn, in northern England; and Mohammed Naveed Bhatti, 24.
Under the Criminal Law act, the men were charged with conspiracy "together with other persons unknown to murder other persons" and to "commit public nuisance by the use of radioactive materials, toxic gases, chemicals and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury."
