Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

HOLLAND TUNNEL BOMB PLOT • 259ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Hoffmann notonly left 20 of his members in PLO camps but also struck a lucrativedeal to ship used trucks and heavy equipment to the PLO. Hoffmannwas again arrested on charges of money laundering and possession ofillegal weapons and explosives on 16 June 1981 in Frankfurt as he waspreparing to fly to Beirut. His followers who had undergone trainingin PLO camps were arrested on their return to Germany. Hoffman wasconvicted and sentenced in 1984 to nine and one-half years in prisonbut was released on good behavior in 1989. Hoffman engaged in realestate development in Nurnburg, Umgebung, and later in his hometownof Kahla, located inside the former German Democratic Republic. Oneof Hoffman’s restaurants was used as a meeting place for former SportsGroup members, and he also renewed contacts with former SportsGroup members Bernd Grett and Anton Pfahler, who were allegedly involvedin the creation of a neo-Nazi training camp in Ingolstadt, wheremines, automatic weapons, and artillery shells were uncovered byauthorities. Hoffmann developed close business dealings with an architect,William Tell, who was also a leader of the right-wing RepublicanParty, itself viewed as a far-right party with neo-Nazi leanings. A poorbusiness climate forced Hoffmann to sell off his properties in Kahla in2000, though in 2004 he began to develop properties in West Saxony,also located in the former German Democratic Republic.While the Sports Group has ceased to function as an organization,many of its members have continued to work in the neo-Nazi movement,which has continued to grow both in Germany and elsewhere,where a number of other neo-Nazi groups allow them the opportunityto continue quasi-legal or terrorist activities.HOLLAND TUNNEL BOMB PLOT. Following the World TradeCenter bombing of 1993, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, the spiritualleader of the four principal conspirators in the attack, was implicatedin that conspiracy and in a broader conspiracy to bomb other publicplaces in New York, including the Holland and Lincoln tunnels andthe United Nations building, as well as a plot to murder U.S. SenatorAlfonse d’Amato (Republican, N.Y.) and United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. On 24 June 1993, eight of AbdulRahman’s followers were arrested in connection with this plot. Governmenttranscripts of conversations between Abdul Rahman and hisfollowers secretly taped by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)