U.S. Department of Defense investigators fear there may be terrorist cells operating in the American military. In October, 2000, a 48 year old Egyptian (Ali Mohamed) who had served three years in the U.S. Army (1986-89), was convicted of involvement with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. While in the army, Mohamed was in the Special Forces, where he taught U.S. soldiers about Arab society and culture. At first, it was thought that Mohamed was a solitary case. But as the backgrounds of other present and former foreign members of the U.S. military was investigated, this attitude changed. Moreover, Mohamed provided much information about the bin Laden organization . A lot of that information checked out (Mohamed helped move bin Laden from Pakistan to Sudan in 1996 and trained his bodyguards and other high-ranking soldiers of the terrorist organization al Qaeda). Other leads indicated that Mohamed was not the only al Qaeda agent joining the American military.