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Italy: Police arrest two Moroccan terrorism suspects
Dec.2.08
Milan - Italian anti-terrorist police on Tuesday arrested two Moroccans suspected of international terrorism, Ilhami Rachid and Abdelkader Ghaffir, and raided the homes of other people believed to be linked to the pair. Rachid and Ghaffir were allegedly plotting attacks on military and civilian targets on the outskirts of the northern city of Milan. Rachid, 31, and Ghaffir, 42, had planned attacks on a supermarket, a bar, night club car park, and two police stations, as well as the immigration office at police headquarters in Milan.
The two men do not belong to any terrorist organisation, but closely followed jihadist websites, especially statements by the Al-Qaeda terror network, according to investigators. Rachid had 'indoctrinated' his two-year-old son, teaching him to recognise photos of Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden and to call him 'Uncle Osma', investigators said. Phone taps revealed he and Ghaffir had initially planned to use a van packed with explosives but then decided to use oxygen cylinders after searching and downloading the bomb-making information from the Internet.
Police are also checking a total 10 contacts of the Moroccans, who attended an Islamic cultural centre located in an old warehouse in the town of Macherio, where Rachid worked as an imam. Both he and Ghaffir had lived in Italy for some time, said investigators.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2778566399
They're Winning
by Steve Emerson
Terrorism expert Steve Emerson says there’s no hope of victory in the war on terrorism until we call it what it really is.
This past Saturday, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece entitled “What They Hate about Mumbai,” focusing specifically on the free market sins of that great city. With contrived evenhandedness, the op-ed managed to blame both Hindus and Muslim extremists—without blaming either party in particular for the murderous attacks.
Without realizing it, the Grey Lady had hit upon a great travel series. In the best spirit of jihad for dummies, why not a year’s worth of op-eds focusing on “Why They Hate____” filled in, mad-libs style, with the U.S., Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Kenya, and the other 74 countries where radical Islam has reared its violent head? With only the moral blindness that the New York Times could capture, each op-ed would portray the attacks in a contrived even-handed way, without blaming, or even naming, the perpetrators of the attacks—Muslim jihadists.
Watching and reading the last 5 days of reports of the Mumbai attacks was an Alice in Wonderland experience. Even after an Islamic terrorist group took credit, TV anchors and reporters assiduously avoided the term Islamic terrorist. They must have consulted with the Thesaurus for the Politically Correct to determine that the word “gunmen” would not offend any jihadist.
Excerpted
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-01/theyre-winning/
doomed to repeat history
Snippets: The federal government has already deployed new detection machines that can scan citizens without their knowledge from as far as 50 feet away and "read" their personal documents such as passports or driver's licenses.
The RFIDs are so sensitive that, even before a vehicle pulls up at a border checkpoint, agents already will have on their computer screen the personal data of the passengers, including each person's name, date of birth, nationality, passport or ID number, and even a digitized photo.
Panel rules jail stabbing constituted terrorism
A reputed former leader of Al Qaeda who is serving 32 years in prison for stabbing a jail guard in 2000 must be resentenced, a federal appeals panel in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday, because a judge wrongly concluded that the man’s crime did not meet the legal standard for terrorism.
Federal prosecutors, who argued that the attack met the standard for terrorism, had sought a life sentence for the defendant, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim. Officials have described him as a founder of Al Qaeda and a former top aide to Osama bin Laden.
Terrorism suspects arrested in Italy
Two Moroccan factory workers living in the Milan suburbs were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of plotting to carry out bomb attacks on the outskirts of Italy's financial capital.
Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Abdelkader Ghafir, 42, both married with children, had frequented an Islamic cultural centre in the town of Macherio, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns a home. They had been grooming recruits there, police said.
Possible targets included the parking lots of a bar and a supermarket, a police barracks and an immigration office, according to police, who had been investigating the pair since March 2007.
Captured gunman sold into terrorism by his father
The sole Mumbai gunman to have been captured alive claims that his father introduced him to the terrorist faction suspected to be behind the terror attacks last week in exchange for cash.
Azam Amir Kasab, 21, believed to be from Pakistan, said that members of his family would be killed because he was ordered not to be taken alive. “Spread terror and your family will be looked after,” he was told, according to a leaked account of his interrogation.