"There is no moral distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance terrorist attacks," Mr. Ashcroft said.

From January 1955 he was given 1 million Lebanese pounds to finance attacks on Israel from Lebanon.

Although many pirates would have had their careers ended by such an injury, le Clerc refused to retire and instead expanded the scope of his piracy by financing the voyages and attacks of other pirates as well.

The announcement said the fourth brother, Ayman, had helped to finance attacks in central Iraq carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, the paramilitary organization formerly led by Mr. Hussein's son Uday.

After releasing Yasir Arafat before dawn from a monthlong siege, the Israeli government declared late tonight that other Palestinian leaders under Israeli interrogation had implicated him in financing terrorist attacks.

But it said the interrogations supported its previous assertions that Mr. Arafat had approved money for operatives "with the knowledge that it would be used to finance terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians."

They said they were concerned that money left in Syrian banks might instead be used to finance attacks on American forces inside Iraq, some of which are being sponsored or carried out by people loyal to Mr. Hussein.

He and Mr. Raske control a rich political action fund that can be used to finance attacks against politicians, but they have not yet threatened to go that route.

Mr. Elbarasse is being held as a material witness in a federal case in Chicago that accuses three other men of having illegally raised money for Hamas to finance terrorist attacks against Israel beginning in the early 1990's.

The risk is that these funds could be used for financing new terrorist attacks.