Washington, Sept 25: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing several "criminal enterprises" associated with the radical Islamic group Hamas that has taken responsibility for a string of suicide bombings in Israel, a senior bureau official said. Assistant FBI director for counter-terrorism John Pistole told Congress yesterday that information collected in the course of this work had helped thwart four terrorist attacks planned in a country he refused to identify.
At the request of a foreign intelligence service, the FBI was able to trace financial transactions of people preparing a terrorist strike on four different occasions and came up with "specific and identifiable information regarding the parties involved," Pistole said. "Based on this information, the foreign intelligence agency was able to locate the members of terrorist cells and prevent them from conducting their intended terrorist attacks," he testified at a hearing in the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. No specifics were provided.
The on-going probes of suspected Hamas associates follow a 2001 crackdown against the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation described as the main fundraiser for Hamas in the United States credited with collecting 13 million dollars in 2000 alone. Bureau Report