Alleged Tunisian-Bosnian terrorist arrested in southern Italy, reports say

BARI, Italy - Police arrested a Tunisian man Saturday who had been sought by Italian and French authorities for alleged links to Islamic terrorism, news reports said.

Bazaaoui Mondher Ben Mohsen, 35, was taken into custody by Italy's DIGOS anti-terrorism police in the southern city of Bari, the AGI news agency reported.

He was to be held in Bologna, where he was charged in 1998 with "criminal association" for allegedly supporting Islamic fighters in Bosnia, the agency said.

The suspect had been arrested several times in France, and a Paris court sentenced him in absentia in 2001 to six years imprisonment for "criminal association with the aim of preparing a terrorist act," the ANSA news agency reported.

Italian authorities have arrested 35 people with alleged links to Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites)'s al-Qaida terrorist network. Also, 15 alleged Pakistani terrorists were arrested earlier this month on a ship off Sicily.

Seven Tunisians were convicted earlier this year in a Milan court of helping al-Qaida recruits get fake documents — the first al-Qaida-related guilty verdict since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ( news - web sites).

Among those convicted was Essid Sami Ben Khemais, the alleged head of bin Laden's terrorist operations in Europe.

He was to be held in Bologna, where he was charged in 1998 with "criminal association" for allegedly supporting Islamic fighters in Bosnia, the agency said.

1998? That is around the same time the Atta cell entered into the USA. Ask yourselves what Clinton foreign policy was active in Europe, what was happening via Spain and Bosnia that would somehow have made the overlooking of Islamic "fighters" entering the West possible?

If you understand that you will understand how 9/11 was able to happen.

According to a number of sources, Abu Zubaydah was coordinating Islamic extremist activities in Bosnia when Yugoslavia went to the crapper. The KLA, according to FAS and other sources, had quite a multi-national composition, which is almost a dead ringer for an organization being an al-Qaeda affiliate. Oh yeah, and a solid chunk of the KLA was on the Iranian payroll.

After Operation Allied Force, a lot of Islamic revolutionary groups (here again linked with al-Qaeda) came out of nowhere and started destabilizing Macedonia (using the UN protectorate of Kosovo as a safe haven), which supported the West during its air war on Serbia in good faith. And look what it got them.

So yeah, Macedonia basically got the shaft.

WIPE THE SMILE OFF OF THIS MAN'S FACE.

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The big difference is that while their were some moderate Muslims in the Bosnian militias, the KLA, and their Macedonian wannabes, the folks interested in religious tolerance and equal rights for everybody weren't the ones receiving money, training, troops, and supplies from Iran and al-Qaeda.

One of the big al-Qaeda strategies is to "hijack" legitimate political struggles (like that of the Uighurs in China, who are fighting one of the worst regimes on the planet) and radicalize them with their dream of an Islamic World Order. Based on what I've read about the Balkans, that's basically what happened there.

I'm not trying to whitewash the Serbs by any means, just saying that sometimes the cure can be every bit as bad as the disease. Kosovo is being used by Macedonian Muslims as a safe haven while they sow chaos in the neighboring state. I'm also given to understand there are training camps every bit as nasty as those in Afghanistan at Ljabinot, Tropoja, Kuks, and Bajram Curi in Albania. And post-9/11, I'd be real anxious to know who was attended them.

Just wanted to highlight this excellent point...

Thanks. Basically, it strikes me that in a number of cases (Bosnia, Kosovo, Kashmir, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, et al.) the local al-Qaeda affiliates are fighting what I would consider pretty legitimate struggles. Uzbekistan's "president," for example, Islam Karimov, is a perfect example of a petty post-Soviet despot (there seem to be a lot of those) and his nation is essentially one in which the inmates have taken control of the assylum.

However, I doubt this in any way justifies the brutal actions of the Uzbek al-Qaeda (the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan), any more than Mubarak's thuggish authoritarianism justifies the Egyptian Islamic Jihad shooting tourists. In the end, there's a big difference between legitimate armed resistance and the gangster-esque methods favored by Islamic terrorists.

My take on what happened in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia (and this hopelessly simplified) is basically that the local Muslims were trapped in a pretty hopeless fight against vastly superior forces. Then al-Qaeda and Iran showed up on the scene offering them money, troops, training equipment, ect. Under those circumstances, what would you do?

Not that this changes or in any way justifies the fact that the people who are currently trying to Islamicize Macedonia are the same people (or at least work for the same people) who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11. It's simply a recognition of how the cancer spreads. A lot of Albanians made a Faustian deal with al-Qaeda to get themselves the autonomy they wanted in Kosovo and as a result the place has become a haven for terrorists. The Pakistanis have found themselves stuck in a similar tight spot with al-Qaeda over Kashmir.

That's just my take on it. I really wouldn't care if the East Turkestan Islamic Movement wanted to raze Bejing in flames if not for the fact that their leadership also sees Washington (along with presumably Tel Aviv) as the next on their hit list. I imagine the same applies for the Kosovo and Macedonian fundamentalists.

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