Meanwhile, welcome to THE BIG STORY on this 28th of June.

We all know al Qaeda was active in the U.S. before 9/11, but new reports reveal the terror network may still be alive and kicking here in our homeland.

Published reports on the Web say, when dirty bomb suspect Jose Padilla was arrested in Chicago, he was trying to hook up with other bad guys who would help him plan more attacks. Padilla allegedly contacted a Florida man from overseas before leaving on his mission. He is Adham Hassoun, a Palestinian who's been arrested, and he's being held on immigration charges.

The feds have monitored the communication between Padilla and Hassoun and believe there is a network of al Qaeda fund raisers taking place, possibly at mosques, all over the country.

As I just said, Hassoun lives in Florida -- Sunrise, Florida, to be exact -- and he's not the only suspected terrorist to make his home in the Sunshine State. His alleged pal, Jose Padilla, worked at a Florida Taco Bell, and, also, as you know, several of the 9/11 hijackers roamed the state's libraries, bars, beachfront motels. So what is it about Florida that attracts these guys?

Joining us in Tampa, former federal prosecutor John Loftus. So were you surprised about the revealed arrest of Mr. Hassoun?

JOHN LOFTUS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I wasn't a bit surprised. There's a very simple reason. Hassoun has been under investigation for a long time.

Several months ago, I warned the FBI and other government agencies that there was a major network of extremist Muslim radical organizations that were under the guise of charities.

We found out that Mr. Padilla's good friend and buddy, Adham Hassoun, was one of the incorporators and registered agents of such a charity in Florida that's called the Benevolent International Organization, and it has the same post office box and number as the same Adham Hassoun who was arrested with Mr. Padilla.

Benevolent International in Sunrise is the same kind of group as Benevolent International in Chicago, the terrorist group that was shut down several months ago. Its funds were frozen as a terrorist front.

So it's not just the Florida link. We have links to groups in Chicago and to other parts of the country. These organizations like the corporate structure of the Mafia, if you will. They were set in place years ago.

All the different terrorist groups had set up charities within the United States to launder money overseas and then gradually...

GIBSON: Well, what it is about -- what is it about Florida, though, that, seemed to attract -- it's not just Hassoun and Padilla on his way to meet him but Atta and some of his pals. Why has Florida been a particularly hospitable place?

LOFTUS: A couple of reasons. First of all, Florida and Southern California, which was the other training area -- all have warm climates very similar to the Middle East, and it's a very easygoing state.

You can set up shells and corporations, charities, and no one pays you any attention. Florida has been notorious for its lax supervision of charities in this state for a long time.

So, if you have a religious charity, it's the perfect cover for a terrorist organization because, up until a few weeks ago, religious charities and mosques were immune from FBI surveillance. So it's not surprising.

GIBSON: What about -- what about the story you have talked about for some time and that is the connection with certain identified terrorists who were associated with the University of South Florida?

Is there -- was there in place a network that was providing the infrastructure for these guys so they -- so they headed for Florida because the welcome mat was out.

LOFTUS: Yeah. The Israeli intelligence services have released a portion of their files this week in Tampa -- there will be more being released nationally -- showing that a man named Professor Sami Al-Arian was one of the world leaders of a terrorist group that was set up here back in 1986 through '88, and they spread out from Tampa, Florida, all across Florida.

There were direct links between some of Mr. Al-Arian's shells and the Benevolent International Association. So we have a ready-made, full- service, logistics and communications center in Florida to support terrorism, and they've been giving minor but important help to al Qaeda.

GIBSON: Is there any way, John, that you can look at this, at what Padilla was up to and Hassoun arrested and Sami Al-Arian and make some sort of accurate estimate of what Padilla was up to?

LOFTUS: Well, I think it's fairly clear that al Qaeda had requested a lookout for non-Arab-Americans with American passports who would convert to Muslim and could be recruited as radical agents. A lot of this was done through another charity, the World Association of Muslim Youth, and, amazingly, Usama bin Laden's brothers ran that charity. They were -- had headquarters in Virginia.

So the World Association of Muslim Youth and other organizations were being misused as talent scouts, and they would steer people that met the al Qaeda criteria into one of the known mosques where there was a lot of radical support and into areas like Sunrise, where we had the Benevolent International Association, where there was a known shell for the support of terrorism.

So these guys are coming to Florida because they know the welcome mat is out.

GIBSON: Former federal prosecutor...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBSON: Former federal prosecutor John Loftus in Tampa.

John, thanks very much.

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