Investigators follow trail overseas

Investigators of the Sept. 11 terrorist plot continued to focus Sunday outside the United States, following a paper trail that apparently leads through Europe and the Middle East. The FBI sent more agents to Germany in the search for the masterminds of the plot, which The Washington Post reported was financed with a $500,000 bankroll. THE NEW YORK TIMES reported Saturday that within hours of the attacks, German intelligence agents intercepted a celebratory phone call between followers of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The callers referred to “the 30 people traveling for the operation,” the Times reported. This prompted the FBI to search frantically for two more teams of potential hijackers, the newspaper said. The intricate efforts were not cheap: The attacks cost about $500,000 to finance, according to a report in The Washington Post. The Post said investigators had traced the money flowing into U.S. bank accounts used by suspect Mohamed Atta. The FBI documented numerous large cash withdrawals and a long trail of hotels, rental cars and airplane trips, according to the report. Time magazine reports in its issue on newsstands Monday that Atta, a leader of the hijackers, received wire transfers of cash Sept. 8 and 9 via a money service in Florida. It said FBI records showed that the sender was Mustafah Ahmed, a suspected bin Laden financial operative in the Middle East. The hijacking plot appears to have been planned in England, Germany and the Middle East, with some suspects in the attacks traveling into and out of the United Arab Emirates.