"On January 7, 1999...Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kibbani appeared before an open forum at the U.S. State Department entitled "Islamic Extremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National Security." A panel of State Department officials were present, along with a huge contingent of so-called leaders from the American Muslim community...."Sheikh Kabbani's most controversial assertions of the day were twofold: 80 percent of all mosques and Muslim charitable organizations in the United States had been taken over by "extremists" who did not represent the mainstream community; and Osama bin Laden represented an imminent threat to America, possibly through his attempted acquisition of nuclear weapons. In the audience were other Muslim leaders whom he was branding as extremists, and the meeting ended amid shouting accusations. Afterward, radicalized Muslim organizations immediately charged that he was slandering all Muslims. A consortium of nine Muslim organizations combined to issue a press release condemning his testimony. There were threats to his life. But in the end his warnings proved to be spectacularly prescient. Only after September 11, 2001, did members of the press belatedly realize that there was substance to what Sheikh Kabbani had been saying."
-- American Jihad, by Steven Emerson, The Free Press, 2002, pp. 159-161