In the 1990s, the Black Standard became the banner of many of the groups within the Islamist jihad movement.

The group did not directly associate itself with jihad movements.

The jihad movement also took root in Europe.

The content of the e-mail correspondence "was sympathetic to the jihad movement," according to the immigration and customs statement.

That document makes only passing mention of the impact the Iraq war has had on the global jihad movement.

That assessment, based entirely on unclassified documents, details a growing jihad movement and says, "Al Qaeda leaders wait patiently for the right opportunity to attack."

"We have fought three wars with India and have not won even one of them," said an expert on the country's jihad movements.

But over the last decade, members of the jihad movement say, hundreds have gone for training or fighting in Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan.

Having rebuilt his fund-raising network, Bin Ladin had again become the rich man of the jihad movement.

Some government officials acknowledge privately that Washington has been slow to consider the possibility that the international jihad movement is without any central organization.