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Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/levitt200403261126.asp
Moderately Deadly
(National Review) Matthew Levitt - Though frequently called the group's "moderate" leader, Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has been directly implicated in authorizing, directing, funding, and providing foot soldiers for Hamas terrorist operations. In August 2003 concrete evidence of such activity led the U.S. to list Yassin and five other Hamas leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). In so doing, the U.S. froze their assets and banned U.S. nationals from engaging in transactions with them. Long before the invention of the name Hamas, Yassin's organization was plotting terrorist attacks. As Khaled Mishal recounts: "In 1983, we carried out our first military experience under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin; the 1983 organization that sought to gather weapons to prepare groups for military training and launch the jihad project." Mishal concedes that even back then Iran was funding Yassin's activities.