Counter-terrorism police from forces in London, Cardiff, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham carried out last week's raids. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters
Nine men are due to appear in court in London today charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and other terrorism offences.
They are among 12 men arrested a week ago in raids by counter-terrorism police from forces in London, Cardiff, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham. Two men from Cardiff and one from London have since been released without charge, West Midlands police said.
The remaining nine will appear at City of Westminster magistrates court this morning. They are charged with conspiring to cause an explosion or explosions in the UK "of a nature likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property" between 1 October and 20 November this year. They are also accused of engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism between 1 October and 20 December, including downloading and researching materials and methods, carrying out reconnaissance and agreeing potential targets, and igniting and testing incendiary material.
Those charged from Cardiff are Gurukanth Desai, 28, Omar Sharif Latif, 26, and Abdul Malik Miah, 24.
London residents Mohammed Moksudur Rahman Chowdhury, 20, and Shah Mohammed Lutfar Rahman, 28, are charged.
Also charged are Stoke-on-Trent residents Nazam Hussain, 25, Usman Khan, 19, Mohibur Rahman, 26, and Abul Bosher Mohammed Shahjahan, 26.
Sue Hemming, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) counter-terrorism division, said: "Lawyers from the CPS counter-terrorism division have been working with the police on this case from an early stage and were on hand to give advice while the men were interviewed.
"I have reviewed the evidence provided to me by the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit and I am satisfied there is sufficient for a realistic prospect of conviction, and it is in the public interest that these men should be charged with these offences."
Last week's raids came after several months of surveillance and monitoring by police and MI5 officers.
A search warrant revealed new details about an alleged plot to bomb Metrorail stations in the Washington area.NEW:FBI agent's affidavit attached to a search warrant was made public ThursdayNEW: Source: Ahmed's "associate" is not expected to be chargedNEW: The search warrant authorizes seizure of the suspect's car and bank accountSource says suspect has no known terrorism links
Washington (CNN) -- A search warrant revealed new details Thursday about an alleged plot by Virginia man to help others he thought were members of al Qaeda in planning multiple bombings at Metrorail stations in the Washington area.
A warrant included a sworn statement by an FBI agent that said Farooque Ahmed was accompanied by "an associate" as he visited several Metrorail stations to record video he later handed over to undercover agents he thought were al Qaeda members.
The warrant, which sought to seize Ahmed's personal bank account, his car and other evidence at his Arlington, Virginia, home, did not reveal the associate's identity. A source familiar with the case said he does not anticipate anyone else being arrested in connection with this case.
The FBI agent's affidavit attached to the search warrant application said "Ahmed and an associate were inquiring about making contact with a terrorist organization in order to participate in jihad by traveling overseas to fight coalition forces in Afghanistan and/or Pakistan."
Ahmed, 34, appeared briefly Wednesday before federal Magistrate John Anderson at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The court will appoint an attorney for Ahmed, and he was ordered to remain in custody until a detention hearing Friday, said Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria.
A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Ahmed on Tuesday, the Justice Department said in a statement.
"In announcing this arrest, officials emphasized that at no time was the public in danger during this investigation and that the FBI was aware of Ahmed's activities from before the alleged attempt began and closely monitored his activities until his arrest," the statement said. "The public should be assured that there was no threat against Metrorail or the general public in the Washington, D.C., area."
Metrorail is the name of the subway system that serves the greater Washington area, including suburbs in northern Virginia and south-central Maryland.
Ahmed is charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility and attempting to provide material support "to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties" at the Washington-area stations, authorities said. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.
An administration official said Wednesday that Ahmed has no known connections to any overseas terrorist groups or individuals. The investigation is continuing, the official said on condition of not being identified.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the arrest is "another important example" of work by the FBI, all levels of law enforcement and the national security team "to keep our country safe."
"At no point was the public in any danger," Gibbs said.
In a statement, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said, "This arrest reinforces the need for continued vigilance by Metro and its customers."
Carr said Ahmed was dressed in casual clothes and had a long beard at the court appearance, where he appeared reserved and "addressed the judge respectfully."
Ahmed was arrested at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday at a hotel in Herndon, Virginia, according to Carr.
Ahmed attempted to assist others "whom he believed to be members of al Qaeda" from April through Monday in planning multiple bombings at the stations, according to the indictment.
Federal authorities declined to provide further information on the identities of the purported al Qaeda members who allegedly were in contact with Ahmed.
On April 18, Ahmed allegedly drove to a hotel in Dulles, Virginia, and met with a courier who he thought was affiliated with a terrorist organization, the indictment said. That person "provided Ahmed with a document that provided potential locations at which future meetings could be arranged," the Justice Department said, citing the indictment.
On May 15, Ahmed allegedly agreed to "watch and photograph" a Washington hotel as well as a Metrorail station in Arlington, Virginia, "to obtain information about their security and busiest periods," the department said.
Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, "allegedly participated in surveillance and recorded video images of Metrorail stations in Arlington, Virginia, on four occasions," the statement said.
On or about July 19, in a Sterling, Virginia, hotel room, Ahmed allegedly gave a memory stick containing video images of the station to "an individual whom Ahmed believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda," according to the indictment. That same day, he allegedly agreed to assess the security of two other Metrorail stations in Arlington as possible locations of terrorist attacks, the Justice Department statement said.
And in a Herndon hotel room on September 28, Ahmed allegedly handed over a USB drive containing images of two Arlington Metrorail stations to a person he thought was affiliated with al Qaeda, authorities said. He also allegedly provided diagrams he drew of three Arlington Metrorail stations and provided suggestions as to where explosives should be placed on trains at the stations "to kill the most people" in simultaneous attacks planned for 2011, the Justice Department said.
"Today's case underscores the need for continued vigilance against terrorist threats and demonstrates how the government can neutralize such threats before they come to fruition," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security.
"Farooque Ahmed is accused of plotting with individuals he believed were terrorists to bomb our transit system, but a coordinated law enforcement and intelligence effort was able to thwart his plans."CNN's Jeanne Meserve, Dan Lothian, Carol Cratty and Devon Sayers contributed to this report,
There has been a ripple of optimism moving through the ranks of election-dreading Democrats in recent days.
Polls show some key races tightening. In some places, there are signs that Democrats have been turning out in higher numbers than Republicans to vote early. And the campaigner-in-chief has hit the trail hard to woo the party's "late engagers" — largely women, minorities and young voters the party desperately needs to avoid an Election Day bloodbath.
A headline bannered at the liberal Huffington Post website this past week posed the question: "DEMS WAKING UP?"
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A union- and Democratic-sponsored Vote Early Today rally in Miami earlier this month.
The answer is, yes — a little, experts say.
But the phenomenon is not unique to this year. Nor does it suggest that Democrats will match the high level of enthusiasm among Republican voters this year, which is pointing to strong turnout among GOP voters and a switch in Control of the House — and perhaps the Senate — from Democratic to Republican hands.
"This late action among Democrats is not unprecedented," says Carroll Doherty of the Pew Research Center for People & the Press, which in a recent survey found that significantly more Republicans than Democrats continue to say that they are likely to vote next week.
Pew researchers did detect what they characterized as a "stirring" among Democrats late in this election season. The story of this campaign, however, says Doherty, remains the historically high Republican engagement.
Says Scott Keeter, Pew's director of survey research: "The things that Democrats could do to help themselves — their get-out-the-vote efforts, their comparative advantages in some fundraising — are probably not sufficient to overcome the Republican advantage, as well as a 10 percent unemployment rate."
Stem The Losses?
But can the Democrats' and President Obama's late hustle to get out the party base mitigate expected midterm losses that could cost them control of Congress?
Heck, yes, say glass-half-full Democrats like Dean Debnam, head of Public Policy Polling. (GOP pollster Bill McInturff has said, however, that based on a recent ABC News/Wall Street Journal survey he conducted with Democratic pollster Peter Hart, Democrats face daunting "arithmetic" in the waning days of the campaign to stave off a Capitol Hill power shift.)
Democrat Debnam says he is "relatively hopeful."
"The Democrats are going to be hurt," he says, "but I'm not of the opinion now that it's going to be apocalyptic."
What is Debnam's definition of apocalyptic in this case? Something along the lines of Texas GOP Rep. Pete Sessions' prediction that there are up to 100 current Democratic House seats in play — and that his party is confident it has already locked up a gain of more than 40 on its way to a much larger haul. Republicans need to win 39 House seats currently held by Democrats and 10 seats held by Democrats in the Senate to take over control of both chambers. Republicans are expected to gain at least a half-dozen governorships now held by Democrats.
Debnam is pinning his optimism on his belief that "Republicans peaked too early." He sees opportunity in close contests where Democratic candidates are running behind by a handful of percentage points. "Ninety to 95 percent of Republican voters have already locked in, but you still have between 15 and 20 percent of 'typical' Democratic voters — African-American, Latinos and women — who haven't made up their minds," he says.
"I'd rather be 2 points down with 15 to 20 percent of likely party voters not having made up their minds," he says, "than up 2 points with 95 percent locked in."
Making The Case, But Perhaps Too Late
Obama has put in time on MTV to reach young voters. His campaign swings have targeted female voters. And the party focused on African-American voters and Latinos in states, including Nevada and California, where they could make a difference in dead-heat races.
But Democrats face enthusiasm issues with every one of those voting blocs, all hard hit by the bad economy. And all — except the overall "women" category — are historically unreliable voters in nonpresidential election years.
Here's what Democrats face among those groups:
Young voters: A recent survey of 18- to 29-year-olds by Harvard's Institute of Politics found an eye-popping decline in the percentage of those polled who said they were enthusiastic about participating in this year's election.
Nearly a year ago, 36 percent of those polled said they would be voting this November. That dropped to 27 percent this month. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said they would prefer a Congress controlled by Democrats in the coming session. However, the survey found that young independent voters, by a 48-43 percent margin, would prefer a Republican over Democratic Congress after the election.
But surveys show that Obama still holds sway with the young-voter demographic, and his party has launched a social media get-out-the-vote effort targeting them.
Latinos: Latino Decisions, a political research organization, has been analyzing the Latino vote in key states. It has found that though 64.4 percent of Latino registered voters "report Democratic partisanship," current polls show that Latinos only prefer Democratic candidates over Republican ones 59 percent to 22.3 percent, with 18.7 percent undecided.
Gary Segura of Latino Decisions reported this month that the "undecided pool and the lag between partisan sentiment and current vote intentions should remain a source of concern for Democrats, and be seen as an opportunity for Republicans."
A recent Pew Hispanic Center survey also detected a troubling sign for Democrats: They found that half of registered Latino voters told pollsters that they were unlikely to vote in November.
Segura, however, has reported that enthusiasm is growing: His group recently found that 75.1 percent of registered Latino voters say they were "almost certain" to vote, an increase of almost 10 percentage points over what Latino Decisions surveys were showing a month ago.
The Republican brand has continued to erode among Latinos, the group's research has found, particularly in the wake of the acrimonious debate over illegal immigration. A recent GOP-sponsored ad in Nevada, where incumbent Democratic Sen. Harry Reid is locked in a battle with Tea Party-backed Republican Sharron Angle, urged Latinos not to vote.
The ad advised Hispanic voters to stay home on Election Day to signal their dissatisfaction with Democrats for failing to usher through immigration reform in Washington. The Spanish-language network Univision pulled the ad, and Angle denounced it.
Democratic strategists characterize the ad campaign as a misstep that has helped their effort to persuade Latinos to vote. Obama in 2008 spent $20 million to get out the Latino vote, an investment that was a key to his wins in states including Nevada, where he got 76 percent of the Latino vote.
African-Americans: The Democratic Party, organized labor and civil rights groups are investing more money and resources than in the 2006 midterm cycle in an effort to break through widespread voter apathy and turn out blacks to the polls. Unlike in previous years, several of the tightest congressional and gubernatorial races are in states with significant black populations, giving blacks an uncommon chance to deliver winning margins.
To rouse them, some organizers are applying aggressive tactics, including unusually open racial invective in messaging that attacks the Tea Party and conservatives.
Women: Women in recent decades have typically cast more votes for Democrats than Republicans. Pew's Doherty says the center's survey shows that Democratic women are "on track with historic norms" in terms of percentages, but Republican women "are just much more likely to say they're definitely going to vote."
Obama held an event focused on women last week in Seattle with incumbent Sen. Patty Murray, who is facing a stiff challenge from Republican Dino Rossi, and women in his administration have been talking issues ranging from wage gaps and health care to small-business loans.
Endgame
"There are lots and lots of people who aren't planning to vote who would be helpful to Democrats if they vote," Keeter says. "But history is not encouraging."
In 1994, for example, there was a late-campaign surge among Democratic voters who said they were giving a lot of thought to participating in the election, and the rise in interest "cut the gap a good bit," says Keeter's colleague, Doherty.
"But on Election Day, the GOP still had a large advantage in turnout," he says. And that turnout, coming in the middle of Democratic President Bill Clinton's first term, helped Republicans win 54 seats that had been held by Democrats, and capture control of the House for the first time in 40 years.
Debnam, however, is keeping the faith as he watches Democrats pull closer in crucial Senate races in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Kentucky, and the party pins its hopes on early voting and motivating the unmotivated.
"An unenthusiastic vote," he says, "is just as good as an enthusiastic vote."
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A search warrant revealed new details about an alleged plot to bomb Metrorail stations in the Washington area.NEW: FBI agent's affidavit attached to a search warrant was made public ThursdayNEW: Source: Ahmed's "associate" is not expected to be chargedNEW: The search warrant authorizes seizure of the suspect's car and bank accountSource says suspect has no known terrorism links
Joe Raedle/Getty Images 
