The group included Islamic radicals from Palestine, Sudan and Egypt as well as U.S. converts. The same group had planned to bomb other New York City landmarks. In Saudi Arabia, the FBI is still trying to unravel the possible alliance of Iran, Shiite Hezbollah, militant Sunni radicals and the world's leading financier of terror, Osama bin Laden, in two bombings that killed 24 U.S. soldiers and two Indians. U.S.-based Hamas activists arrested in Israel told their interrogators they had shadowed prominent Jews in the Chicago area. To stage attacks in the United States and elsewhere, Islamic extremists are making full use of U.S. banks, telecommunications and freedom of assembly.
Most experts believe that is only a drop in the bucket.
Israel accuses Virginia businessman Mousa Abu Marzook, whom U.S. authorities expelled to Jordan this month, of financing Hamas terrorist cells. An FBI agent testified that millions of dollars passed through Marzook's accounts. A network of U.S.-based Islamic foundations is under investigation by the U.S. Customs Service to determine if they passed money to Middle East terrorists. Ramadan Shallah, a USF Middle East studies instructor who served as administrative director of WISE, slipped out of the country last year to assume leadership of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A top FBI official says a San Diego-based Internet Web site called the Islam Report provided a clearinghouse for terrorist communiques, including those of militants in Algeria, where 60,000 people have died in terror strikes and military responses.