Dina Temple-Raston

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This month's hostage taking at a natural gas plant in Algeria shows how international terrorism is evolving. Groups such as al-Qaida have long been motivated by radical ideology. What's happening now in North Africa is a little different. For groups there, there's also a financial motive.

NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports on the dangerous intersection of terrorism and syndicated crime.

The man who says he masterminded last week's attack on a BP-operated gas facility in Algeria claimed responsibility in a video.

"We are behind the blessed daring operation in Algeria," says Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former member of al-Qaida's arm in North Africa. "Forty men from Muslim and Western countries took part in the operation," he continues. "We did it for al-Qaida."

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France has intervened in the conflict in the West African nation of Mali, but why does that conflict affect the United States? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has offered the most basic take on America's interest in Maili: al-Qida is there.

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Jury selection began today in the terrorism trial of a young Somali-American. He's accused of trying to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon two years ago. But the case is drawing attention for another reason: There was no bomb. The defendant was the target of an FBI sting operation.

And as NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports, his lawyers are expected to argue their client was entrapped.