Al Qaeda

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports since 9/11 thousands of al Qaeda terrorists have been arrested and a considerable number of the top leaders killed or captured. Osama bin Laden had not been captured as of late spring 2004. Although severely disrupted by U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and worldwide efforts against al Qaeda by many governments, al Qaeda persists.

Groups of al Qaeda terrorists, called cells, are located worldwide. The global efforts to eliminate them have caused the cells to diversify and regroup into smaller cells. The cells, knowing their terrorist training manual directives well, operate independently to carry out strikes. While much of the funding that moved through financial institutions has been cut off, cells rely on informal person-to-person money transfers called "hawalas" that leave no electronic or paper trail and are untraceable. The threat of al Qaeda to U.S. interests abroad and to the U.S. homeland continued to be of major concern in mid-2004.