Two men charged in terrorism plot

Chicago: Federal prosecutors on Tuesday unsealed criminal charges against two men in an alleged terrorism plot that took them from Chicago to Denmark, in the latest example of US citizens accused of seeking to travel overseas to carry out violent extremist attacks.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, using e-mail messages, recorded conversations and surveillance, traced the movements of David C. Headley from his apartment in Chicago to Pakistan, where he met at least once with a top Al Qaida figure to plan foreign operations, according to court papers.

No imminent danger

Headley has been in custody since he tried to leave Chicago's O'Hare International Airport three weeks ago, but authorities said they had delayed public notice of the conspiracy charges against him so they could conduct "further investigative activity". Chicago US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald assured the public that there was no "imminent danger" to the community.

The arrests followed a series of unrelated terrorism charges against American citizens in Boston, New York, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas and central Illinois.

Headley, 49, legally changed his name from Daood Gilani three years ago to avoid suspicion when he travelled, FBI special agent Lorenzo Benedict wrote in a sworn statement.

In the past nine months alone, Headley journeyed twice to Denmark, where he posed as a businessman interested in placing adverts in a newspaper that in 2005 published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), the statement said. Authorities believe that Headley was taking steps to carry out terrorist strikes as part of a plan called "the Mickey Mouse Project," the court documents say.

The affidavit described contacts between Headley and two unnamed operatives of Lashkar-ei-Taiba, a Pakistani group with ties to Al Qaida, and with Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of another Pakistani militant organisation.