The Plot Comes Into Focus

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Top investigators also believe that at least some of those involved in logistical support for the terrorists didn't know the full scope of the plot or were unwitting facilitators. Among the latter, investigators say, is Egyptian-born travel agent Ahmed Badawi of Orlando, Fla., who may have provided the Florida-based hijackers with airline tickets, flight information and hawala services. He was taken into custody Sept. 15 as a material witness but has been released.

Another facilitator for the hijackers may have been Luis Martinez Flores. Last week Flores' name appeared on the list that the U.S. government sent to banks inquiring about 21 "suspects." Two addresses for Flores on the bank alert match addresses on the driver's licenses for four of the hijackers, although they likely never lived there.

Untangling this mess is mind numbing, and that's the idea. "When you look at the people and networks involved, you quickly realize that the apparent lack of structure and seemingly random intersection of operatives is very much intentional," says French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard. "They don't want police to be able to follow one person to another and follow the trail back up to someone calling the shots. In reality, it's a hell of a lot more amorphous than that."

Who Was the Mastermind?
At the top, bin Laden remains the biggest suspect. His organization's operations manual recommends that terrorists adopt the dress and manner of their host country, as most of the 19 hijackers did. And his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, is said to have the operational experience to plot something of the scale of Sept. 11. Al-Zawahri leads the Egyptian al-Jihad, the group responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981; a federal court in New York indicted al-Zawahri in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

For day-to-day decisions, however, someone closer to the ground was running the show. "Maybe one or two people--Atta maybe--might have known more, might have had more communication with the other cells," says an investigator. If Atta was in charge, it will mark the first time the FBI has encountered a plot thought to be sponsored by bin Laden in which the leader was killed. Last week several newspapers reported that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague several months ago. Israeli intelligence tells TIME that it sees no evidence of a bin Laden-Iraq link. Then again, little has been confirmed at this stage, except this: infinite justice could take an eternity.