FBI Links Brooklyn Bombers to Hamas

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JERUSALEM: The FBI has linked two suspects in a Brooklyn suicide-bombing plot to the militant Mideast group Hamas, in part by tracing calls they made from Brooklyn to Hamas members. TIME's Jamil Hamad reports there are plenty of indications that Hamas may indeed be branching out. "Hamas has traditionally kept its battle at home and aimed only at Israelis," says Hamad. "In the last year, though, Hamas activists have begun to talk about hitting American targets as well." The reason: U.S. financial support of Yasser Arafat. Hamas sees him as a corrupt traitor who is selling out Palestinian interests to the Israelis. Hamas continues to deny any link to the apparent Brooklyn plot. But Palestinian security officials think the two suspects could be members of a new group, financed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, which takes its orders from Hamas or another Islamist group. With Hamas' popularity at home slipping, American targets may now be topping the new group's list.