International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, September 15, 2002

Members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network who fled Afghanistan have blended into the volatile Middle East, regrouping in such places as Palestinian refugee camps, Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

Highly placed Arab intelligence sources told the LA Times that two key leaders are among those who have fled to Iran, and many other Al Qaeda members have gone to Syria and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, according to the sources.

Al Qaeda has also refined its use of the Internet to communicate, simplified its means of sending cash to operatives and continued to aggressively plot major terrorist strikes, said the sources, who spoke on condition that neither they nor their country be identified.

Intelligence officials are more concerned about Al Qaeda members turning up in Palestinian camps in Lebanon than in Iran. In Lebanon, the source said, "Al Qaeda will be able to operate under a false flag."

In addition, the Arab intelligence reports say Syria, which control's Lebanon's political life, has allowed dozens of Al Qaeda operatives to take up residence in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ein el Hilwa, near the southern city of Sidon. Lebanon has denied that any Al Qaeda members reside there, but the camp is controlled by Palestinians of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, not the Lebanese government.