Investigators now believe he may have been associated with a Qaeda cell that worked out of Montreal.

Ethiopian officials have said they have intelligence reports that members of the Qaeda cell were hiding near the city.

It did lead American officials to conclude that Qaeda cells were planning to go after "soft" targets "very soon," one official said.

Their work, he says, had identified the men as likely members of a Qaeda cell already in the United States.

The three men were described by the authorities as Syrian-born members of a Qaeda cell active since 1994.

Saudi officials have acknowledged that arrests have broken up at least six Qaeda cells here in the past four months.

(It's not clear if there are any Qaeda cells here.)

After training, he assigned them to Qaeda cells elsewhere in the world.

There is no doubt that we will need the active, continuing collaboration of our allies, particularly in the West, to root out Qaeda cells.

He said he could not rule out the existence of other Qaeda cells in Germany and elsewhere.