When was this story run in the overseas press?
I'm doing some digging now. I've found fairly complete stories dated Dec 23. I've yet to find a story that recites the use of wiretap; let alone warrantless wiretap (which is permitted by law in parts of the world).
Dec 23 looks like the date ... this story refers to wiretaps.
Three terror warrants served against Algerian suspectsBourhama appears to have been the target of the wiretap.
23-12-2005Naples, (ANSA): Three Algerians were served with arrest warrants in Italy on Friday on suspicion of links to international terrorism .
Two were arrested in Salerno and a town near Catanzaro in Calabria, while the third warrant was served in jail on the alleged ringleader of their suspected cell .
The two men arrested Friday were dentified as Achour Rabah and Tartag Sami .
The man already in jail has been named as Yamine Bouhrama. He has been in custody in Naples since November 15. Police said the three were suspected of ties with the fundamentalist Algerian militant group known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat .
The Salafist Group - known by its French initials GSPC - is fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in Algeria and has declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network .
Italian police collaborated with other police forces in the operation, Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said. The "brilliant" operation, he said, confirmed that Italian police and intelligence services were making "assiduous" efforts to foil terror threats against Italy and Europe .
At the time of Bourhama's arrest in mid-November, investigators said he was a terrorist operative ready to carry out an attack .
Police wiretaps picked up a conversation following July terrorist bombings in London in which Bouhrama and an unidentified person talked about "finding a ship like the Titanic", packing it with explosives and killing 10,000 people in Italy .
In a separate conversation after July terrorist attack in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Bouhrama was recorded as saying that "soon there'll be an even bigger celebration" .
Police searched Bouhrama's home, turning up material containing Islamic extremist propaganda but no weapons or explosives .
Bouhrama was said to have contacts in Norway, where he had apparently lived under false ID thanks to documents obtained in France .
Rabah and Sami, the two Algerians arrested on Friday, are believed to have been Bourhama's chief aides in plotting attacks and mantaining links between cells in southern and northern Italy .
Although Sami had moved to Calabria for work, both were officially domiciled at Capaccio Scala near Salerno, a stone's throw from the world-famous Ancient Greek temples of Paestum. In September in a separate terrorism probe, charges were filed against 11 Algerians suspected of ties to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat .
Investigators said the men were under investigation for international terrorism and that several were already in jail on other charges .
They added that some of the Algerians were included on terror suspect lists drawn up by the European Union, the United States and the United Nations .
Italy, which is a staunch ally of the USA and has troops serving in Iraq, has been the target of numerous Internet threats from purported terrorists .
Here's an earlier story, different perps (Bourhama is a common thread), with more detail on the wiretapping. Still nothing to justify attaching "warrantless" to the story.
Friday, November 18, 2005
ITALY: ALGERIAN SUSPECTS ALLEGEDLY PLANNED TO KILL 10,000Brescia and Naples, 18 Nov. (AKI) - The three Algerians detained on Tuesday in the Italian cities of Brescia and Naples were planning a massive terror attack - "on a ship as big as the Titanic, packed with explosives" - that aimed to kill "at least 10,000 people", as well as an attack on "Italian citizens and interests" in Tunisia, according phone conversations between the three men, which Italian anti-terror police say they intercepted after al-Qaeda's deadly 7 July attacks on London and on the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
In their tapped phone conversations, Yamine Bouhrama, Mohamed Larbi and Khaled Serai described the 7 July London subway and bus bombings that killed over 50 and injured 700, and the 23 July Sharm El-Sheikh terror attacks that killed 90 people and injured over 150 as "highdays and holidays", according to police. The three also spoke of having "documents ready", "war on the infidel", and "a bigger party" than the London attacks.
They are suspected of being members of the al-Qaeda-linked Algerian militant formation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Investigators allege they were not just in Italy to provide logistical support such as false passports and residency permits, but were actually "potential operatives" who were "ready to attack".
Serai and Larbi are being detained in Brescia, where they were living when arrested, while Bouhrama is being held in Naples, where he was living at the time of his arrest. three were detained on suspicion of association with the aim of international terrorism, a charge introduced in Italy following the September 11, 2001 attacks in America. Italy's interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu on Friday played down the case, saying "too much fuss" was being made about it. However, he said that Italy remains on "high alert" over possible terrorist attacks.
Naples magistrates on Friday approved Bouhrama's arrest warrant for suspected intent to carry out international terrorism, as well as minor offences. Brescia judge Roberto Spanò ruled Sarei and Larbi were to remain in jail on minor charges of receiving stolen goods, assisting illegal immigration and falsifying documents. He announced he would be referring their cases to magistrates in Naples.
The men's arrest in Brescia and Naples came as they were allegedly about to flee Italy and followed a complex three-year surveillance operation of a GSPC cell by the Italian intelligence service SISMI. The three were flush with cash, and moved around constantly between the northern cities of Brescia and Vicenza, the Italian capital, Rome, and the southern city of Naples, police allege. They were also in contact with other terror cells in the northern cities of Venice, Cesena and Milan, as well as the central Italian city of Florence, according to the investigators. They say they also have evidence of the three men being in contact with extremist groups in Norway, France and Britain.
Bourhama is thought to have undergone training at terrorist camps in Chechnya and Georgia and may be capable of making explosive belts used by suicide bombers. He allegedly had in his possession a bottle of "perfume" containing toxic substances, police said.
While under surveillance, Serai is believed to have been followed to Norway, where Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi Kurd who heads the radical Islamic militia group Ansar al-Islam, has lived since requesting political asylum in 1991, despite being wanted around the world. The US has accused Ansar al-Islam of offering sanctuary to al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan, including the now leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The GSPC is the main armed Islamic organisation in Algeria and its aims are reported to include replacing the Algerian government with an Islamic state and attacking Western interests in the region. The GSPC has been on America's list of "terrorist groups" since 2002 and is said to have extensive contacts in Europe, the US and the Middle East, as well as being linked to the al-Qaeda terror network.
http://intelligence-summit.blogspot.com/2005_11_13_intelligence-summit_archive.html