Posted on 06/23/2002 5:48:55 AM PDT by Jordi
ROME (Reuters) - Italian investigators have broken up a Milan-based ``terror cell'' with links to al Qaeda which planned an attack on a 14th century church in Bologna earlier this year, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Corriere della Sera newspaper said the group was identified after intercepted telephone conversations between several Tunisians and Moroccans with links to a Libyan known as Amsa, considered one of Osama bin Laden's chief operatives in Europe.
Amsa was arrested last month in Britain, the paper said.
The Milan-based cell, which included members of Algeria's radical Salafist Group of Preaching and Combat, allegedly planned an attack on the basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, northern Italy, because it contains a fresco depicting Mohammad in hell.
Italian police began intercepting telephone conversations after the September 11 attacks on the United States, and recorded discussions between the suspected Tunisian and Moroccan extremists. They had regular contact with Amsa, who at the time was living in Milan.
Italian authorities tracked Amsa's movements to countries including Afghanistan and Iran, and, after contact with the CIA, learned that the United States considered him one of bin Laden's chief operatives, according to Corriere della Sera.
Italy kept tabs on Amsa, tracing his movements to the Netherlands and learning through other intercepted conversations he was considering an attack on the U.S. embassy in Amsterdam, the paper said.
At the same time, he was coordinating ``cells'' in Britain, Spain, Belgium and Italy, including the Milan-based group.
Corriere della Sera said the Milan group had planned to attack the Bologna church, whose 14th century fresco depicts Mohammad being torn limb from limb by the devil, in February this year, but investigators raised the alarm first.
Since the September 11 attacks, Italy has been among nations at the forefront of President Bush's fight against terrorism. Late last year, the State Department said it believed an Islamic center in Milan was a financial hub of al Qaeda in Europe.
History repeats itself. The struggle between Christian and Muslim world is nothing new,it is 1,500 years old. But the Christianity didn't lose when Islam was the true center of the world power. So we mustn't cede to the fear of being overtrown now. Irrational actions would be a demostration of fear. Rage and fear comes togheter. The western world is doomed to win because it has rationanlity. It's the greatest weapon. Never forget.
I don't know. The thugs from CAIR are walking the streets in perfect freedom. Mid-east terrorists teaching at US universites are suing if they meet obstacles, instead of being booted onto the first open flight to their islamic homelands. Jihadists openly organize fundraisers and recruitment of suicide bombers with no ill consequences to speak of. The butcherers are flooding the public discourse with Nazist screeches to the point where venturing onto any public forum will guarantee that you're within a few degrees of an actual terrorist. Oh, and "Islam is a religion of peace" - when Bush knows perfectly well that the only peace associated with islam is the silence of death.
I see no action of any consequence being taken against this state of affairs - on the contrary, I see the state department qualifying seven (or was it nine?) of the myriad of terrorist murders in israel last year as actual terrorist actions.
So you tell me: where did our esteemed administration, to say nothing of the public, stuff their rationality?
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