Bin Laden: See You in Court?

It's a long way from Afghanistan to Detroit, Jersey City and Brooklyn. But that's the route a federal grand jury says Osama bin Laden's money took when the exiled Saudi millionaire started funding Islamic extremists in the United States. According to counterterrorism officials, the New York jurors handed down a sealed indictment for Bin Laden as long ago as June -- two months before he became the prime suspect in the African embassy bombings.

In another PR salvo against Bin Laden, intelligence sources have told Newsday that the terror boss was responsible for two plots to kill President Clinton. The sources said FBI agents had learned from captured suspects that a plot to kill the President during a visit to the Philippines was abandoned because of tight security, while a second assassination plot was to have been attempted during Clinton's canceled Pakistan visit. If the reports are true, Washington would do well to beef up security for next week's Moscow trip -- after all, Bin Laden is also alleged to have trained a number of Chechen terrorists.