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Case Studies and Lessons Learned 271
For example, in the mid-1990s, a group with ties to
the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), dubbed the Rou-
baix Gang, targeted supermarkets, banks, and ar-
mored cars. In March 1996, members of the gang
attempted to bomb the G-7 meeting in Lille, France;
fortuitously, the car bomb was defused before it
could detonate. Further, in March 2004, Moroccan
Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) operatives in
Paris worked with Hassan Baouchi to steal more
than $1.2 million. Baouchi, who restocked ATMs
for a security company, claimed that masked rob-
bers had forced him to open six different ATMs and
then vanished. French authorities eventually saw
through Baouchi’s deception and arrested him for
theft. A terrorist arrested in Algeria possessed
$40,000 of the money Baouchi stole.
According to press reports, terrorist involvement
in criminal activity has been greatly facilitated by
increased cooperation with organized criminal net-
works. As Robert Charles, formerly the State De-
partment’s Assistant Secretary of State for Interna -
tional Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)
under Secretaries Colin Powell and Condoleezza
Rice, assessed, “transnational crime is converging
with the terrorist world.” The head of the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria
Costa, has echoed Charles’ analysis, noting, “The
world is seeing the birth of a new hybrid of orga-
nized-crime-terrorist organizations.” In the years to
come, the crime-terror nexus will likely be further
strengthened due to the spread of radical Islam in
prison.
Although criminality is outlawed under Islamic
law, the al Qaeda manual advises that “necessity
permits the forbidden.” Reflecting this theory, when
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives questioned whe-
ther hacking into foreigners’ bank accounts was
acceptable in Islam, JI leader Abu Bakr Bashir re -
portedly responded, “[if] you can take their blood;
then why not take their property?”
Other Plots Targeting Military Facilities in
the United States . Since 9/11, other indicted ter-
rorists have considered launching attacks against
military facilities in the United States. Most notably,
in May 2007, authorities indicted six men who were
allegedly plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army base
in New Jersey. A court filing states that one of the
suspects “explained that they could utilize six or
seven jihadists to attack and kill at least one hun-
dred soldiers by using rocket-propelled grenades
(‘RPGs’) or other weapons.” In a separate conver-
sation, the same suspect declared, “My intent is to
hit a heavy concentration of soldiers.” The men
considered Fort Dix an appealing target because
one of the suspects, Serdar Tatar, had delivered piz-
zas there and thus knew “it like the palm of his
hand.”
Court filings allege that the group also conduct-
ed surveillance of Fort Monmouth (NJ), Lakehurst
Naval Station (NJ), Dover Air Force Base (DE), and
the U.S. Coast Guard Building in Philadelphia. The