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The Justice Department won't say whether provisions of the Patriot Act were used to investigate and charge Colleen LaRose. But the FBI and U.S. prosecutors who charged the 46-year-old woman from Pennsburg, Pa., on Tuesday with conspiring with terrorists and pledging to commit murder in the name of jihad could well have used the Patriot Act's fast access to her cell-phone records, hotel bills and rental-car contracts as they tracked her movements and contacts last year. But even if the law's provisions weren't directly used against her, the arrest of the woman who allegedly used the moniker "Jihad Jane" is a boost for the Patriot Act, Administration officials and Capitol Hill Democrats say. That's because revelations of her alleged plot may give credibility to calls for even greater investigative powers for the FBI and law enforcement, including Republican proposals to expand certain surveillance techniques that are currently limited to targeting foreigners.

Despite having repeatedly called for greater restrictions on the Patriot Act since its inception, Democrats punted late last month when presented with their best opportunity to roll back the law. After spending months working up a revised bill that would have moderately limited the broad powers created by the existing one, Democrats opted instead to extend the act as is for one year. President Obama signed the extension days before the expiration of the law's most controversial provisions.

Not that the President had much choice. As the deadline to move the bill approached, Republicans were scoring political points by attacking the Administration on national-security issues, targeting its plans for closing Guantánamo Bay and criticizing its handling of the Christmas Day airline-bombing attempt. In that political climate, Democrats feared that they might lack the votes to pass the new restrictions on surveillance that were proposed by the party's left wing, and worried that Republicans might even succeed in expanding the bill's provisions, Hill Democrats tell TIME. 

LaRose, if guilty, fits the profile of what terrorism experts have come to call the "lone wolf" — an individual acting largely out of his or her own motivation without long-standing or direct connections to terrorist organizations or networks. LaRose allegedly tried to recruit militants online, plotted an attack and was in contact with suspects who were plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had portrayed the Prophet Mohammad as a dog. The Justice Department says she thought her blond hair and blue eyes would allow her to operate undetected in Europe, where she traveled in August, allegedly to carry out the attack.  

Under the current legal framework, law enforcement can spy on a foreign suspect in the U.S. by going to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has less stringent rules than traditional courts do for granting a warrant. But the police and FBI cannot use the same route to spy on an American citizen who is a lone-wolf terrorism suspect.

In fact, Justice Department terrorism experts are privately unimpressed by LaRose. Hers was not a particularly threatening plot, they say, and she was not using any of the more challenging counter-surveillance measures that more experienced jihadis, let alone foreign intelligence agents, use.

But there is a mounting concern that homegrown extremists, even amateurs, are increasing in number. Over the past seven to eight months there have been multiple arrests: Michael Finton was arrested in September and charged with trying to blow up a federal building in Springfield, Ill.; Najibullah Zazi was also arrested in September and pled guilty to plotting to bomb the New York City subway system; and the Justice Department in December arrested David Headley for allegedly helping plot the 2008 killing spree by Pakistan-based militants in Mumbai.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, already in retreat on national-security issues, say they fear opponents will use the mounting incidence of domestic terrorism to expand investigative powers, including the lone-wolf provisions, against U.S. citizens. Announcing LaRose's indictment, Janice K. Fedarcyk, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia division of the FBI, said, "We must use all available technologies and techniques to root out potential threats and stop those who intend to harm us." Unfortunately for critics of the Patriot Act, that cadre of extremists looking to harm Americans may include a growing number of U.S. citizens.

Her moniker on the Internet was Jihad Jane. Her real name is Colleen LaRose. And the petite, 46-year-old blonde from the suburbs of Philadelphia represents one of law enforcement's worst nightmares as the potential new face of terrorism.

Prosecutors unsealed an indictment this week that says LaRose converted to Islam and then trolled the Internet to recruit others who might take part in possible terrorist attacks. She allegedly looked for people like herself — women with American or European passports who could, as she put it, "blend in." Officials say LaRose is just the latest in a growing number of Americans who are signing on with terrorists, and it is a worrisome trend.

Anyone who has been tracking terrorism cases over the past year would find these names familiar: Najibullah Zazi, Kamel Derwish, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Sahim Alwan, Nidal Hasan, Yahya Goba, Anwar al-Awlaki, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. But what might not be as well known is that more than half of them are Americans.

"It is the same problem we see in Europe," says Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University professor and frequent consultant to the government on terrorism. "There really is no longer any one profile of the terrorist. We want to believe that there is, but there isn't. More and more — whether it's local high school students who have reputations of being good students and good boys, or whether it's the next-door neighbor's housewife — what we see is that there is just an incredible diversity of the people being attracted to these movements, and that it's no longer possible to say who a terrorist is or even to say that it's someone so dramatically different from ourselves."

Just consider LaRose's biography. She dropped out of high school. She'd been married several times. Back in Texas, where she had lived before Pennsylvania, she had been arrested for writing bad checks and for drunken driving. Neighbors said she was quiet and kept to herself. In other words, she is precisely the kind of person who could fly under law enforcement's radar.

A petite blonde American woman, before now, didn't fit the terrorist profile. Hoffman says LaRose poses a problem for counterintelligence efforts because agents now must consider any profile.

"The problem is given how diverse these people are, it just raises the challenges for both law enforcement and intelligence to run these threats to ground," he says.

Recruitment Getting 'Easier'

Perhaps the most famous American to have joined the ranks of the enemy is Adam Gadahn, who grew up on a goat farm in Southern California. Gadahn has been a prominent spokesman for al-Qaida for years. He stars in English-language propaganda videos for the group. Reports this week said Pakistani authorities had captured him. As it turns out, that was a mistake; they hadn't.

Gadahn is not the only American who has become the public face of a terrorist group. Last year, al-Shabab, a Somali militia thought to have links to al-Qaida, produced a jihadi recruitment video that featured a young man named Omar Hammami.

The video starts with a jihadi rap song about the glories of battle in Somalia and then cuts to Hammami himself, counseling young militia men. "The only reason we are staying here," he says on the videotape, "away from our family, away from the cities, away from ice and candy bars and other things is because we are waiting to meet with the enemy."

It is no accident that Hamammi speaks English with an American accent. He was born in the U.S. and grew up in Alabama. His father is a Syrian immigrant; his mother is an American.

Law enforcement officials say the video — which has gone viral on the Internet — is aimed at recruiting Americans for al-Shabab. Experts say slick videos like that coupled with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made a terrorist recruiter's job easier, particularly here in the U.S., where traditionally it has been harder.

"It really is this culmination of these eight years of being involved in these two wars that is starting to supercharge the environment among these diaspora communities," says Reid Sawyer, the head of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. "It certainly doesn't mean there is going to be a wave of these individuals coming forward; it just means the numbers are increasing."

The increased numbers don't come as a complete surprise. Intelligence officials have been tracking American recruiters for years now. They say there are special jihadi training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are actually reserved for Westerners. Increasing calls for recruits on the Internet aren't just made in Arabic; they are in English or with English subtitles. So there is no mistaking the intended audience.

This time last year, Bryant Neal Vinas, a young Hispanic man, stood before a judge in a Brooklyn courtroom and pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. He said he had spent 14 months in Pakistan training with al-Qaida before he was arrested and then extradited to the U.S. He told officials he had been permitted into al-Qaida's inner circle. The group had big plans for him because he had an American passport and a clean record and is Hispanic. He made clear that what al-Qaida is looking for is people like him — or like Jihad Jane — people who don't fit the stereotypical profile of a terrorist.

Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born spokesman for al-Qaeda, in an operation in the southern city of Karachi, two officers and a government official said Sunday.

The arrest of Gadahn is a major victory in the U.S.-led battle against al-Qaeda and will be taken as a sign that Pakistan is cooperating more fully with Washington. It follows the recent detentions of several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi.

Gadahn was arrested in the sprawling southern metropolis in recent days, two officers who took part in the operation said. A senior government official also confirmed the arrest.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Gadahn, who is also known by various aliases, including Yahya Majadin Adams and Azzam al-Amriki, grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, California, and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.

Gadahn moved to Pakistan in 1998, according to the FBI, and is said to have attended an al-Qaeda training camp six years later, serving as a translator and consultant for the group. He has been wanted by the FBI since 2004, and there is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

He has posted videos and messages calling for the destruction of the West and for strikes against targets in the United States. The most recent was posted Sunday, praising the U.S. Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas.

A U.S. court charged Gadahn with treason in 2006, making him the first American to face such a charge in more than 50 years. He could face the death penalty if convicted. He was also charged with two counts of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

In the 25-minute video posted on militant websites Sunday, Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should be a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries.

"Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes," he said.

Gadahn was dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban as he called for attacks on what he described as high-value targets.

"You shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage," he said, an assault rifle leaning up against a wall next to him.

Hasan has been charged in the Nov. 5 shooting that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist remains paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by two civilian members of Fort Hood's police force.

In the latest video, Gadahn said those planning attacks did not need to use only firearms. "As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon."

This combination image shows 11 of 26 suspects wanted by Dubai police in connection with the killing of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in his Dubai hotel room last month. (From left to right, top row): Evan Dennings of Irish nationality, Gail Folliard of Irish nationality, James Leonard Clarke of British nationality, Jonathan Louis Graham of British nationality; (from left to right, middle row) Michael Bodenheimer of German nationality, Paul John Keeley of British nationality, Michael Lawrence Barney of British nationality; (from left to right, bottom row) Peter Elvinger of French nationality, Kevin Daveron of Irish nationality, Melvyn Adam Mildiner of British nationality, Stephen Daniel Hodes of British nationality.

The murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai last month has had serious diplomatic repercussions for Israel. Dubai's police chief says 26 people, carrying forged European and Australian passports, were involved in the plot, and he says he is "99 percent" certain Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad, was responsible for the killing.

Israel's government has maintained an official silence on the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Some Israeli analysts are calling it a botched operation because the assassins left behind too many clues.

But many ordinary Israelis say they are proud of the assassins for eliminating an enemy believed responsible for the killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989.

The identities of a number of binational Israelis have been linked to the assassination, apparently because the forged passports used by suspects in the case carried the names of innocent people.

Israeli Daniel Bruce was caught unaware when Israel's Channel 2 News informed him by phone that he had been named as a suspected assassin of Mabhouh after Dubai police found a fake Australian passport.

Bruce's first response was to laugh.

"Great for me, I guess," he said. Then, the presenter asked if he was scared.

"Actually, no. I guess I should have been scared, but they've managed to take out another terrorist, so it's better," he said.

Israeli officials have refused to confirm or deny involvement in Mabhouh's death. But across the Jewish state, news of the assassination has been met with a wink, a nod and newfound pride in the Mossad.

Uri Ochayon, a bakery owner in Jerusalem, has been greeting his customers with jokes over the Mabhouh assassination.

"Listen, we're fulfilling the fantasies of many countries all over the world who want to do this but don't have the means. We have the means. It's a great thing, so we'll laugh at this and just move on," Ochayon says.

He shrugs off international anger over the killing and the growing number of accusatory fingers pointed at Israel.

On Wednesday, Dubai police released additional information about suspects involved in Mabhouh's death. Ten of the 26 suspected assassins share names with Israelis — a coincidence Dubai police say is simply too great to be ignored.

Israel is a small country where everyone knows everyone, Ochayon says, so the operation could have been carried out by your neighbor, friend or customer.

Or Kashti, the education correspondent for Israel's left-wing daily Haaretz, proudly wrote about being mistaken for one of the Dubai assassins. Kashti said he even received phone calls from friends asking why he hadn't bought them cigarettes from the duty-free shops in Dubai.

In a small health food store in Jerusalem, a number of customers have mistaken 37-year-old Guy Chen for one of the alleged assassins, to which he bears an uncanny resemblance.

He's not one of them, he says, but he's still proud of the work they did.

"Every terrorist that is eliminated, we are happy about, we give our blessings. Who took him out? We don't know. But of course we have an interest in this man no longer being alive," Chen says.

While some Israelis have criticized the Mossad for its alleged involvement in the killing, most have taken issue only with the supposed trail of evidence the assassins left in their wake.

Dubai's advanced surveillance cameras caught what officials say were the killers in various parts of the city, and airport immigration officials matched names and passport numbers to the images.

Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and Australia are investigating claims that the killers used false passports from their countries to enter Dubai. And at least some of the Israelis whose names appear on the suspect list are not happy about it.

Speaking on Israeli TV Wednesday night, Adam Korman said he could not have been more surprised to see his name on the list of alleged assassins.

"They took our passport numbers without asking. It's a shock. We have no idea what kind of problems this will create," he said.

Still, most Israelis found time to joke as they pored over the photos of the 26 suspects, 14 of whom wore glasses with thick frames.

According to Israeli radio, that style is now being requested across the country. They're calling it "the assassin look."

The Colombian military's daring operation aimed to rescue three American contractors who were being held by the fearsome guerrillas of FARC

On Feb. 13, 2003, a plane carrying three U.S. military contractors crash-landed in rebel territory in southern Colombia. The survivors — Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes — were taken hostage by fierce Marxist guerrillas the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, better known by the Spanish acronym FARC. The initial rescue operation fell apart. Instead of finding the contractors, two companies of Colombian soldiers stumbled upon a buried rebel cache of $20 million, then deserted and splurged their newfound fortune on booze, sex and flat-screen televisions. The forgotten hostages spent the next five years in captivity. But with the help of billions of dollars in U.S. aid, the Colombian Army improved to the point that, on July 2, 2008, commandos were able to launch a daring, Mission: Impossible-style sting operation in a bid to save the hostages. That operation is detailed in a new book by veteran Latin America journalist John Otis, Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages and Buried Treasure. An excerpt follows:

The FARC had taken the bait. Through an ingenious electronic hoax, Colombian Army agents, mimicking rebel radio operators, had convinced the guerrillas to allow "international aid workers" to check the health of the 15 hostages then transfer them to another FARC camp on helicopters. But to pull it off, the army would have to put together a convincing mise-en-scène.

In a Defense Ministry war room, intelligence officers drew up the cast of characters. For foreign flavor, the fake mission chief was given an Italian accent and the exotic name of Russi. His phony deputy would be an Arabic speaker from the Middle East while a third team member, who had lived in Australia, would pretend to hail from Brisbane. Other impersonators included a doctor, three nurses and a reporting team from Venezuela's left-wing Telesur station.

The agent playing Russi wanted professionals to help the agents overcome stage fright and fully embody their roles. He convinced his bosses to pay for acting classes. The players would have to keep cool, improvise and play their parts with Shakespearian heft if there happened to be a radical turn of events on the ground.

They showed up at one of Bogotá's top theater academies and presented themselves as teachers who would be putting on a play at their high school. For $2,000, the instructor gave them a crash course in Method acting. The amateur players passed their first test. Though he wondered about his students' high-tech radios, the theater professor never caught on that he was teaching a pack of army agents.  

General Mario Montoya, the Colombian Army commander, wasn't satisfied. Many of the agents looked like they were fresh out of spy school. Montoya wanted more potbellies and wrinkles. Several members of the team let their beards grow and had gray streaks added to their hair. They replaced their underwear, which was stamped with the logo of the army, sent their costumes through washing machines for a lived-in look, and filled their wallets with fake driver's licenses and foreign currency.

Phony business cards said they worked for the International Humanitarian Mission. The army mounted a Web site and set up a front office in Bogota with operators standing by just in case any FARC collaborators called to verify the authenticity of the group.

The day before the mission, Montoya pulled the team together for a pep talk. "Go forward in peace," the general said, "because God is on the side of the good guys."

Killing time at a rustic farm house the night before the operation, the army agents were suddenly attacked by mosquitoes. The guerrillas believed the helicopters were flying directly from Bogota to the pickup point. If the agents showed up with their faces pocked with insect bites, their entire story might unravel. So they spent a sleepless night chain-smoking cigarettes and shooing away the bugs.

Shortly after 1 p.m. the next day, the hostages heard the roar of the two Russian helicopters. One stayed in the air. The other landed next to a field of coca bushes. Guerrillas in crisp camouflage uniforms stood at attention while two rebels pointed M60 machine guns at the aircraft.

The first off the helicopter was the fake Arab. He smiled at the guerrillas and wandered around as if awestruck by the natural beauty of the landscape. Next came the agents impersonating the Venezuelan news team, then Russi. In the cockpit, the pilots kept the rotor blades turning. The commotion would create a sense of urgency, making it less likely that the guerrillas would closely examine the delegates' credentials. The running engines would also allow for a faster getaway. The pilots could follow the action through a microphone hidden inside the TV camera, and if the rebels discovered the deception, Russi would tip off the pilots so they could at least save themselves. 

Russi approached FARC commander Cesar and his cruel deputy, known as Enrique Gafas. Cesar smiled and extended his hand. The fake news team shot video of the rebels and pestered Cesar for an interview. The TV crew's role was to distract the guerrillas and prevent them from concentrating on the events playing out before them.

The hostages looked on in disgust. The agents were joking with the rebels and two of them wore Che Guevara T-shirts. They seemed like FARC-loving lefties.

The final indignity came when the strange visitors insisted on securing the wrists of the hostages with plastic tie-wraps. It was a calculated effort to convince Cesar and Gafas that they wouldn't be attacked by the hostages once on board the helicopter. But the outraged hostages refused to cooperate. The army agents were taken aback. In their rush to placate the guerrillas, the agents had provoked a full-blown mutiny among the very people they were trying to save.

Russi began scolding the hostages. If they didn't want to cooperate, they could stay on the ground for all he cared. The problem was that most of the prisoners seemed prepared to do just that. As the argument grew louder, the fake Australian delegate noticed Keith, Marc, and Tom off to one side. Maybe the gringos would listen to reason. He pleaded with the Americans to collaborate.

"Do you want to go home?" he said. "Do you want to see your family? Please, please trust me. I'm going to get you home."

"I can only see good with a helicopter," Tom said later. "We hadn't been in a helicopter in five and a half years. We'd been in the bottom of boats, on mules, on foot. It all looked good to me."

The logjam was broken. Following the Americans' lead the rest of the hostages agreed to be handcuffed then boarded the helicopter. Cesar and Gafas were directed to sit between the disguised army agents. Then, with the doorway ladder still hanging down, the MI-17 lifted into the air. The army agents had been on the ground for exactly 22 minutes.

Now, it was time for Act Three.

On cue, one of the fake nurses in the aisle pretended to be knocked off balance. She landed in Cesar's lap. "Like a gentleman," she said, "he caught me and then said, 'You can ride with me.'" The phony medic then leaned into the guerrilla, asking him if he had ever flown on a helicopter. With Cesar deep in conversation, the nurse extracted herself from his lap. Then, another agent, a former boxer, moved in for the knockout. He punched the guerrilla in the throat and bashed his head against the wall of the helicopter three times. At the other end of the aircraft, the fake Arab and the cameraman wrestled Gafas to the floor.

At first, the hostages were baffled. But when they saw Cesar and Gafas incapacitated, Keith, who had worked his hands free from his tie-wraps, couldn't resist. He and several other hostages pounced on Cesar, and Keith slugged him in the eye.

The helicopter was heading for home. Fifteen lives had been saved. With their mission accomplished, Russi turned to the now former hostages, smiled, and in nine curt words announced their deliverance.

"We are the Colombian Army, and you are free!"

The 11 suspected members of the hit squad which killed Mahmud al-Mabhuh  

Authorities in Dubai have said the 11 European passport holders - made up of six with British documents, three with Irish passports, including a woman, and a German and French passport-holder - assassinated Mahmud al-Mabhuh in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana hotel.

A French man, named as Peter Elvinger, is suspected of being the leader of the hit squad, organising the logistics including booking the team into a room down the hall from their target.

Dubai's police chief Dhafi Khalfan has issued arrest warrants for all 11 suspects.  He had said earlier that Mr Mabhuh had apparently been suffocated in his room.  "It seems (he) opened the door'' of his room, letting his killers in.   He added that "strangulation is possible".

Further investigations are continuing into the official cause of death, however.  London's Times newspaper has reported the hit squad injected Mr Mabhuh with a drug that induced a heart attack, photographed all the documents in his briefcase, and left a "do not disturb" sign on the door.

"We have no doubts that it was 11 people holding these passports, and we regret that they used the travel documents of friendly countries," Mr Khalfan told a press conference at which he released photos of the suspects.

While not ruling out "the involvement of (Israel's spy agency) Mossad or other parties in the assassination," he  said the names on the passports had been passed on to Interpol to request arrest warrants.  He did not rule out the possibility that the hit squad was made up of intelligence officers from allied nations.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has accused Israel of killing Mr Mabhuh, 50, and vowed revenge.

Hamas has acknowledged that Mr Mabhuh, who was based in Damascus, was on a visit to Dubai to buy weapons for the militant group's armed wing.  But the group has denied reports that he was on his way to Iran.

In a video aired two weeks after his death, he confessed to his involvement in the 1989 killings of two captured Israeli soldiers.

Amid official silence in Israel, newspapers have hailed the killing.  The rightwing Jerusalem Post has called it "another blow to the 'axis of evil'."

Since Attorney General Eric Holder decided to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in civilian court, Republicans have argued that a military trial would be a better solution. Administration officials respond by saying hundreds of terrorists have been convicted in federal court. But there is widespread disagreement on the specific number of terrorism convictions since the attacks.

In an interview Sunday on CBS, President Obama said the Bush administration "prosecuted 190 folks in these Article 3 courts and got convictions."

His number matches a report that the group Human Rights First issued in July. "We specifically looked at self-described Islamic or jihadist terrorists," says Human Rights First Senior Associate Daphne Eviatar. "So these are people who are generally linked in some way to al-Qaida or the Taliban."

The federal government's list of terrorist groups includes some organizations with no Islamic ties, such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka and the FARC in Colombia. When one includes those cases, the tally of terrorism convictions goes up.

Whose Numbers Are They, Anyway?

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in November, Holder said, "There are more than 300 convicted international and domestic terrorists currently in Bureau of Prisons custody."

Republicans have attacked that number as inaccurate. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the 300 figure "unsubstantiated." President Bush's former press secretary, Dana Perino, said the statistic is as "false as false gets." But the number actually comes from a Bush administration document. In 2008, the Justice Department submitted a budget request citing "319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001."

The NYU Center on Law and Security conducted its own comprehensive study and came up with yet a higher number.

"If you had every single terrorism-related prosecution since 9/11 and you wanted to know the convictions, there would be 523," says the center's director, Karen Greenberg.

Her database includes everything from the smallest terrorism-related passport violation to the case against Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui. "The point," Greenberg says, "is to have a database that has everything in it so that you can crunch for all of the different things, and that's what we do."

Many tallies of terrorism convictions include cases the government labeled as "terrorism related" at the time of arrest, where the connection to terrorism was tenuous at best.

"Right after 9/11, the government was classifying people who in no way were terrorists," says David Burnham, co-director of Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. "A woman was on an airline, and she kept hitting her call button. She surely terrorized the flight attendants, but she was not a terrorist. And she got arrested and was classified as a terrorist."

Those sorts of cases have become less common in recent years, according to NYU's study. The report says that as the government has refined its approach to terrorism, prosecutors have brought fewer cases. The crimes have tended to be more serious, and conviction rates have gone up.

Still, says Burnham, any study of terrorism convictions inevitably relies on subjective decisions about which cases to include and which to omit. "Depending on how you count," he says, "you get different answers.

The director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, shocked Washington last week when he told a congressional committee that U.S. spy agencies have the authority to assassinate American citizens abroad who are believed to be involved in terrorism. But he suggested that intel officials would have to follow special rules to do so: "If … we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that," he told the House intelligence committee.

Blair's testimony left behind a pile of questions: By whose authority can intel agencies kill Americans? And who in the government has the power to grant or deny the "specific permission" to carry out such operations? In interviews with NEWSWEEK, current and former U.S. national-security officials—who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive information—filled in some of the blanks.

These officials say that, a few days after 9/11, George W. Bush signed a classified "intelligence finding" authorizing the assassination of suspected terrorists. By this order, which continues under Barack Obama, officials within the CIA and Pentagon can launch lethal strikes on suspected foreign terrorists without seeking permission from higher-ups. But, say the officials, strikes specifically targeting Americans must first be approved by a secret committee made up of senior intel officials and members of the president's cabinet (it's not known which ones). The president himself does not have to sign off on kill orders.

The sources say that committee approval is required only if the specific target of the assassination is an American—not if an American happens to be in the vicinity of a foreign target at the time of the strike. At least once, U.S. forces have killed an American this way. In November 2002 a missile attack targeting a Yemeni terrorist also killed Kamal Derwish, an American citizen associated with an alleged terrorist cell in Lackawanna, N.Y. U.S. forces almost did it again last Christmas Eve, with an airstrike against another Yemeni terrorist; he was believed to be hiding with Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born radical cleric who advised both the suspected Fort Hood shooter and the alleged Christmas Day bomber. Al-Awlaki is believed to have escaped.

Civil libertarians are already questioning the wisdom, and legality, of the U.S. government targeting its own citizens. Roger Cressey, a former National Security Council official, takes a different view, saying, "If you are stupid enough to be associated with known Al Qaeda operatives in a known Al Qaeda safe haven, you're putting your life at risk." Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, says, "The agency's counterterrorism operations are lawful, aggressive, precise, and effective." White House and Pentagon spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment.