The bureau, based in Cambridge, Mass., repeated that statement on June 4 and June 18.
The first national attention appears to have come from CBS News, on March 8, after the network's southeast bureau, based in Atlanta, was tipped off.
For the last 10 years, the bureau, based in New York, has met in Las Vegas in conjunction with the annual conference of the National Association of Broadcasters.
In most places, the bureau based its address lists for the 2000 census on the United States Postal Service's lists of delivery points.
But he was recruited by the Arab Bureau, based in Cairo, as an intelligence officer – he spoke fluent, though accented, Arabic – and became a kind of spy.
The bureau based its estimate on its survey of 314,000 households nationwide, done after the 2000 census to determine who was missed and where.
The deputy chairman of Hamas's political bureau, based in Cairo, said the group did not operate in Egypt, and that Egypt's intelligence services had foreknowledge of any Hamas members' movements inside the country.
"When you're in the middle of a move, you're usually dealing with a job change or buying a new house," said Rita Plate, executive director of the Better Business Bureau's mid-Hudson bureau, based in White Plains.
"Excellent," said Bernie Swain, chief executive of the Washington Speakers Bureau, based in Alexandria, Va., whose roster of 140 speakers includes Mr. Fleischer, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and former Secretaries of State Madeleine K. Albright and James A. Baker III.
