This was a shadowy network of folks that were willing to sell state secrets to the highest bidder.
They all knew that he was tuned into a shadowy scientific network that passed on scuttlebutt about the Russian space program.
But he had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network.
Sorting through the identities and past actions of suspected participants in a shadowy global terrorist network, military officials said, has proved far more complex.
They usually rely on a vast, shadowy network of minions, often with an extremely hierarchical structure.
Others feel that a shadowy network of former military officers now engaged in organized crime would continue to enjoy impunity if he were to ascend to power.
Sometimes Chechen families pay money in the shadowy network that trades on rumors and sells information on where bodies might be found.
This is a guy who has had connections with these shadowy terrorist networks.
But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained.
On the other is a shadowy network of conspirators who may lack modern weapons but have no qualms about killing thousands of victims.