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DECEMBER 2000 : (FRANKFURT, GERMANY : CELL PHONE CALLS INTERCEPTED BY ITALY LEAD TO ARREST IN FRANKFURT OF FOUR SUSPECTS ; STRASBOURG/CHRISTMAS MARKET PLOT IS FOILED; FRANKFURT CELL APPARENTLY LINKED TO MILAN CELL - See MILAN CELL'S ESSID SAMI BEN KHEMAIS, BOUKARI, SABOUR, CHEMICALS WEAPONS CACHES) Suspicion [see Milan Cell] emerged last December [2000] when German authorities arrested four suspected terrorists in a raid on two apartments in Frankfurt, Italian prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso said last week [November 2001]. German authorities seized conventional arms and explosives and found a chemical weapons manual, Dambruoso said.
The suspects were accused of plotting to bomb an outdoor market in Strasbourg, France, at the end of 2000. Several of them had been in contact with Essid Sami Ben Khemais, later identified by Italian authorities as a top al-Qaida operative in Europe who headed a terrorist cell in Milan. --
-------- "Tapes hint at cyanide plot by al-Qaida," ©Associated Press via St. Petersberg Times Online (FL), December 1, 2001
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Information from other European law enforcement agencies, including cell phone conversations picked up by Italian authorities, led to the arrests of four suspects in December 2000. During a search of two Frankfurt apartments at the time of the initial arrests, authorities seized 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of a chemical that can be used to manufacture explosives, as well as homemade detonators, a hand grenade, submachine guns, dismantled rifles, revolvers and ammunition. The Italian report said they also found detailed handwritten instructions for making and use of the explosives and instructions on the use of toxic substances in lethal doses. Four suspects in planning Strasbourg, France New Year's Eve 2000 attacks are arrested.
Information from other European law enforcement agencies, including cell phone conversations picked up by Italian authorities, led to the arrests of four suspects in December 2000 and a fifth the following April.
------- "Terror suspect tells German court: 'You're all Jews," by Melissa Eddy, AP via Jerusalem Post , April 16, 2002

FEBRUARY 2001 : (MILAN CELL: ES SAYED aka ABU SALEH CONVERSATION ABOUT AL QAEDA OPERATIVES NEEDING DUAL CITIZENSHIP PASSPORTS, INCLUDING ONE WITH SYRIAN & US NATIONALITIES ON IT) Six months later, in a conversation dated February 2001, Abu Saleh, unaware of the microphone hidden in his Citroen ZX, mentions to a passenger that "three brothers" will soon need dual-citizenship passports, including one with both Syrian and American nationalities. "Make sure the passports bear stamps," he admonishes the young man, a Tunisian. " The higher-ups want the job to be done properly, to make sure that they won't get caught as they reach their final destination." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002
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Abu Saleh, unaware of the microphone hidden in his Citroen ZX, mentions to a passenger that "three brothers" will soon need dual-citizenship passports, including one with both Syrian and American nationalities. "Make sure the passports bear stamps," he admonishes the young man, a Tunisian. "The higher-ups want the job to be done properly, to make sure that they won't get caught as they reach their final destination." Six months earlier, in August 2000, a suspected al-Qaida organizer, Abdulsalam Ali Ali Abdulrahman, had paid a brief visit to Abu Saleh in Milan and was overheard referring to "some brothers who entered America thanks to a mail-order-bride magazine trick," but who "claimed to be Egyptians and kept their true identity concealed." It was in the same conversation that Abdulrahman made several cryptic remarks about an impending attack that "will wreak such a great havoc" and "leave them all dumbfounded." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002

FEBRUARY 2001 : (MILAN CELL, ES SAYED aka ABU SALEH CONVERSATION ABOUT FAILURE TO GET TERRORISTS INTO US : BUT ITALIANS MUST CEASE TAPING ABU SALEH BY LAW) Abu Saleh had a conversation with a man who answered Abdulrahman's telephone in Yemen. "I have heard you are getting into America," Abu Saleh is heard to say.
"I'm sorry," replied the voice on the other end, "but we did not manage to get in ... ."
"How come, man?" Abu Saleh asked.
"This is our goal," the voice replied, "and we have no greater desire. ... We hope and wish to enter clandestinely by land. ... ."
Within days of that conversation, however, the electronic and physical surveillance of Abu Saleh was discontinued.
One investigator explained that, under the Italian laws, it was necessary to either stop the surveillance after one year or to notify Abu Saleh that he was the target of an anti-terrorism investigation. Fearing that any notification would imperil a concurrent investigation of one of Abu Saleh's alleged lieutenants, the police simply turned off the microphones in Abu Saleh's house and automobile.
After Sept. 11, 2001, the law was changed to extend the prenotification period to two years.
------ "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002

MARCH 2001 : (MILAN CELL : BEN KHEMAIS ' PHONE CALLS ARE RECORDED , SEEM TO INDICATE A CYANIDE PLOT? - See "Tomato Cans" - Milan Cell is linked to Frankfurt Cell) MILAN, Italy -- The men spoke in code of a mysterious "drug" they wanted to try on people. One referred to the substance as "tomato cans" and said he wanted to see what effect it would have on someone breathing it in. The conversation between suspected members of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was cryptic, but authorities in Italy think they know what the men were talking about: getting cyanide, a poison used to make deadly chemical weapons.
A tape of the conversation, recorded in March [2001], is part of evidence gathered in an investigation into an apparent plan for chemical attacks by groups linked to bin Laden, raising fears that they intended to use unconventional weapons to inflict casualties on a large scale....
Italian investigators said there also is evidence that the Milan cell was linked to chemical weapons. An Italian investigative report, part of which [Italian prosecutor Stefano] Dambruoso allowed the AP to review, contains excerpts from wiretapped conversations among members of the Milan cell, including Ben Khemais. In one phone call, excerpts of which were among the material reviewed by AP, Ben Khemais spoke of an unspecified "drug," also referring to it as "tomato cans," the report says.
"I'd like to learn how to use the drug and see the effect on someone breathing it," he said on the tape.
Authorities say they believe the phrase "tomato cans" -- which was repeated many times throughout several conversations -- was code for cyanide, an easy poison to get that can be used as a chemical weapon. Dambruoso would not say what specific evidence authorities have that cyanide was the weapon being discussed.
"Do we have hard evidence they possess chemical weapons? No. Is it very possible they have them? Yes," Dambruoso said.
The conversations were recorded in March, a month before Italian police arrested Ben Khemais and four other suspected members of the group, all Tunisian. The five are expected to be brought to trial this month.
---------- "Tapes hint at cyanide plot by al-Qaida," ©Associated Press via St. Petersberg Times Online (FL), December 1, 2001

MARCH 2001 : (ITALY : MILAN CELL "TOMATO CAN PLOT" -- See BEN KHEMAIS, CYANIDE PLOTS) A transcript of one call showed that cell leader Essid Sami Ben Khemais spoke of an unspecified drug, also called “tomato cans,” which Italian officials said they took to mean cyanide. “I’d like to learn how to use the drug and see the effect on someone breathing it,” Ben Khemais was recorded as saying.
Authorities recorded the conversations in March and arrested Ben Khemais and four other suspects in April. -------- "Al-Qaeda: Italian Cell Sought Chemical Weapons," From Global Security newswire, Monday, December 03, 2001 issue, (Victor Simpson, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 1)