In 2003, after U.S. soldiers in Iraq found a notebook at a militant camp containing the name of an Albany imam, Yassin Aref, the FBI sent an informant to upstate New York. (It appears as though the NSA also started monitoring the imam's phone calls.)

The informant, facing jail time and deportation in an unrelated case, courted a friend of the imam's, pizza parlor owner Mohammed Hossain (pictured above). Spinning a long tale that involved buying a Chinese missile to attack a Pakistani diplomat living in New York City, he offered to give Hossain $50,000 in cash if Hossain would give him back $45,000 in checks. Hossain told the informant he opposed "violent jihad," but he was tempted by the $5,000 transaction fee. Aref was drawn in to be a witness to the loan, as required by Islamic law. A jury acquitted Aref of most other charges against him, but one stuck: conspiring to provide material support. The men are now serving 15 years each. "You can't put a percentage on how likely these guys would have been to commit an act of terrorism," said the lead prosecuting U.S. attorney, "but if a terrorist came to Albany, my opinion is that these guys would have assisted 100 percent."