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Italian police explore Al Qaeda links in cyanide plot
Christian Science Monitor ^ | Thursday, March 7, 2002 | By Courtney C. Walsh | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

Posted on 03/06/2002 9:37:16 PM PST by JohnHuang2

ROME - During a raid on a small Roman apartment frequented by alleged Arabic terrorists arrested at dawn last Friday, police found videos of decapitations and suicide bombings, plus political propaganda for a holy war.

But what set off alarm bells was an Arizona address on a folder of Arabic documents. "We are working with our American colleagues to see if there is a link between this Phoenix address and pilots of the September suicide attack in New York," says Col. Gianfranco Cavallo, a leading police investigator, in an interview. He says Italian and FBI detectives are also exploring the possibility that Lofti Raissi, the Algerian accused of training the Sept. 11 suicide pilots, stayed at the Phoenix address.

Investigators also believe the men arrested Friday may have been part of a network of cells operating throughout Italy and Europe with links to the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) and the GSPC (Salafist Group for Call and Combat), and ultimately with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

Salafism, a philosophy shared by bin Laden, is a pan-Islamic movement advocating a return to the purity of the roots of Islam, as Mohammed and his companions practiced it. The GSPC is an offshoot of the GIA, the most radical antigovernment force in Algeria, which has been waging war on the government for several years. Where the GIA puts priority on overthrowing the Algerian government, the GSPC believes "that if jihad is not international, it has no meaning," says Claude Moniquet, an expert on fundamentalist Islamic groups.

The GSPC is believed to have received funding from bin Laden, and to have sent members to his Afghan training camps. The group was banned in March 2001 in Britain, where police say it raises money from racketeering, smuggling in Algeria, and money laundering. The organization was on President Bush's list of 27 organizations whose assets were frozen after Sept. 11.

Italian authorities are looking for any links between the group arrested last Friday - which included a Pakistani (suspected as the ringleader), a Tunisian, an Algerian and three Iraqis - and a group of nine Moroccans arrested earlier this month after the discovery of a perforation in a tunnel near the US Embassy. So far, the only links between the two groups are cyanide and a mosque whose address was found in the Moroccans' apartment. The mosque was attended by the other group.

In conversations bugged in mosques and apartments and published in the press (which police confirm as authentic), the group led by the Pakistani allegedly discussed the need to find cyanide and also talked about having a pistol, obtaining other arms, killing a policeman, and even the need to eliminate US President George Bush.

The group's alleged leader, Ahamad Naseer, arrested at the Fiumicino airport in Rome on charges of "subversive association and violation of arms" as he returned from Saudi Arabia, is the director of a small makeshift mosque near Rome's main train station.

Chihab Goumri - an Algerian accused of being the "messenger" of the cell and in "direct contact with elements of Islamic fundamentalism," according to published judicial documents - argued that he frequented the mosque to have assistance for a physical handicap resulting from the loss of his left leg in an accident in the early 1990s. In an interrogation Monday, the three Iraqis arrested with Nasser said they were Kurdish refugees who slipped into Italy illegally.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the case of the nine Moroccans continues. Five of them were found with slightly under 10 pounds of potassium-ferrocyanide, a cyanide compound used in agriculture, and maps of the water main located in underground utility tunnels around the American embassy in Rome.

Press leaks and the discovery of the hole in a tunnel containing a water main led to a wave of panic and speculation that the terrorists were trying to contaminate the water supply of central-northern Rome. Though US State Department officials downplayed the risk to the embassy, Cavallo says that the Moroccans had the capacity to create poisonous substances. Along with the cyanide compound, police found a gunpowder substance that could have created the heat needed to release the cyanide gas, he says.

"But what is even more damning are the maps of the tunnels around the embassy," he says. "What were they plotting to do? Police have said the men may have been "small fish" laying ground-work for a more sophisticated operation.

The number of people in custody in Italian jails on charges related to international terrorism continues to grow, with around 30 arrested since Sept. 11. This month four men, including Tunisian Essi Sami Ben Khemais, one the alleged leaders of Al Qaeda in Europe, were convicted of selling false documents, recruiting Islamic militants for Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, organizing illegal immigration into Italy and associating with criminal intent to obtain and transport arms, explosives, and chemicals - the first such terrorists with ties to bin Laden to be convicted since September 11.

Arrested last April, Mr. Khemais is believed by police to have spent time in Afghanistan - though his lawyer denies it - and to have conspired with cells in different European countries to obtain weapons to terrorize civilians. In one wiretapped conversation, he reportedly discussed putting poison gasses in cans of tomatoes and talked of wanting to get permission from the "sheikh" to move forward with the "attack". "Khemais had contacts all over Europe, but especially with Germany, France, England, and Spain," says Inspector Massimo Mazza, head of the Milan office of Italy's antiterrorist police (DIGOS).

In late November, another group of North Africans in Milan was arrested. Mr. Mazza says that they were "in telephone contact with people high up in Al Qaeda and in particular with people running training camps in Afghanistan." Defense lawyers maintain this was a group of young, poor, frustrated immigrants who were "simply blowing off steam" during their taped conversation, and point out that no arms or tangible evidence was found, apart from documents.

Mazza says the only "advanced stage" plan for an attack by Milan cells was on the cathedral of Strasbourg, which was foiled by police. Khemais and another Tunisian were each sentenced to five years, while two other defendants each received four years.

Peter Ford in Paris contributed to this report.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: armedislamicgroup; cyanide; espionagelist; gas; gia; italy; khemais; raissi; terrorwar
Quote of the Day by MoscowMike
1 posted on 03/06/2002 9:37:16 PM PST by JohnHuang2
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To: JohnHuang2
The plotters were Arabs? What a coincidence!
2 posted on 03/06/2002 9:47:49 PM PST by sheik yerbouty
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To: *TerrorWar;*Espionage_list;Black jade
Check the Bump List folders for articles related to the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.
3 posted on 03/06/2002 9:56:17 PM PST by Free the USA
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As of 8:05pm CST, 3/6/2002
Freeper State (Never Never Land) .. $4,872.45
California (931) --- $4,391.10
Texas (925) --- $2,885
New York (329) -- $1,950
Ohio (246) ---- $1840
Florida (457) ---$1,530
Virginia (365) ---$1,499
Pennsylvania (302) ---$1,255
New Jersey (177) ---$1,241
Arizona (179) ---$1,094
Washington State (254) ---$1,085
Michigan (196) ---$852
North Carolina (241) ---$847
Connecticut (91) ---$830
Illinois (231) ---$805
Massachusetts (131) ---$795
Georgia (230) ---$735
Missouri (179) ---$700
Wisconsin (141) ---$700
Minnesota (119) ---$675
Montana (14) ---$600
Alaska (44) ---$529
Maryland (221) ---$500
Colorado (153) ---$475
Indonesia (2) ---$400
Tennessee (172) ---$360
Kentucky (88) ---$350
Oklahoma (120) ---$340
Louisiana (98) ---$320
New Hampshire (46) ---$300
Oregon (122) ---$270
Indiana (143) ---$250
Alabama (104) ---$230
Kansas (90) ---$205
South Carolina (106) ---$200
Hawaii (25) ---$180
Delaware (18) ---$180
Mississippi (62) ---$175
Maine (34) ---$175
Arkansas (60) ---$170
Utah (47) ---$159
West (by God) Virginia (34) ---$159
Nevada (55) ---$150
New Mexico (61) ---$125
Spain (4) ---$100
Nebraska (42) ---$75
Vermont (11) ---$65
Iowa (60) ---$65
England (44) ---$50
Australia (15) ---$50
Chile (4) ---$50
Overseas Armed Forces (1) ---$50
Washington, D.C. (3) ---$50
Idaho (54) ---$50
South Dakota (25) ---$50
Canada (69) ---$35
Republic of Ireland (14) ---$30
Wyoming (10) ---$25
Rhode Island (11) ---$15
Sweden (7) ---$10
North Dakota (13) ---$10

Ok Freepers .. see the list above .. how about getting the number's of your State up ...

Y'all can do it .. LET'S ROLL!!!

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4 posted on 03/06/2002 9:59:20 PM PST by Mo1
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To: sheik yerbouty
There ya go, racially profiling again. hahahahaha
BTW ~ I really get a kick out of racial profiling charges.... since there is only ONE race - HUMAN. But that doesn't stop people from making other ones up! We are all same species. I am part everything, German, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, Cherokee, English, Black... and prob. some more I don't know about yet.... But these genes are all HUMAN. Since my family traced its lineage back several centuries, and I found out I have all kinds of DNA, I feel totally different about 'races'. I see us as HUMAN RACE. All the fighting, terrorism, etc., is stupidity. But that doesn't stop the idiots!
5 posted on 05/18/2002 3:57:13 AM PDT by buffyt
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To: Mo1
THANKS for the reminder! What is Freeper State?
6 posted on 05/18/2002 4:01:57 AM PDT by buffyt
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To: buffyt
Better late than never.
7 posted on 05/18/2002 5:17:11 AM PDT by sheik yerbouty
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