TERRORISM: Al Qaeda Group Busted in Italy

StrategyPage.com ^ | February 2, 2003 | Adam Geibel

[Destro]

TERRORISM: Al Qaeda Group Busted in Italy

February 2, 2003: During a routine sweep for illegal immigrants, Italian police rounded up 28 Pakistanis suspected of being terrorists. Police found two pounds of dynamite, 165 feet of explosive fuse and various detonators, as well as hundreds of forged documents and maps of metropolitan Naples. Authorities said "sensitive targets" were circled with a pen but would not elaborate, while Italian news reports said the possible targets included the U.S. Consulate in Naples and nearby NATO bases. One map was to the town of Bagnoli (outside Naples), where the NATO southern headquarters is based.

During the searches, authorities found circled photo in a Pakistani-language newspaper of Britain's Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, who was expected to visit Naples in mid-March. Boyce, head of the General Staff of Defense of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, is about to retire and was planning to make series of calls to military bases. Police first claimed that they had uncovered an ``Al Qaeda terrorist cell,'' but gave no further details on the suspects' alleged involvement with Al Qaeda or any other international terrorist group. - Adam Geibel

[Destro]

Maybe the "powers that be" will put out some (dis)information claiming these Pakistanis were also "migrant workers" like those killed in FYROMacedonia in a shoot out.

[Destro]

bump

[princess leah]

But there's been no proof of an Al-Queda/Iraq connection RIght? That's what the democrats have been screaming and the UN officials!

[struwwelpeter]

I bet Sophia Loren's villa was one of the targets. Of course, I only say this in hopes someone will post a picture ;-)

[struwwelpeter]

And what does all this have to do with Trent Lott? ;-)

[alaskanfan]

During a routine sweep for illegal immigrants, Italian police rounded up 28 Pakistanis suspected of being terrorists.

Something that the ACLU would never allow to happen in this country. MEIN GOTT this reeks of profiling.

[HardStarboard]

Excuse me Miss, I know this is a very narrow hallway, but I must try to squeeeeeeze by. OOOps - mind if I share your table for a minute - my pacemaker just blew a fuse?

[struwwelpeter]

THANKS!

[ffusco]

ooooof!

[smokegenerator]

what is "oooof"?..:)

should it not be "oooof!" (pause-silence) thump! from hitting the ground?

[aristeides]

According to an article in Corriere della Sera just after the arrests, some members of the cell were street vendors in downtown Naples.

[Lion's Cub]

This fits with the reports that al-Q is planning assassinations.

In the back of my mind, perhaps because of the stories about the "anti-war" protestors attacking the US plane in Ireland, there's also a warning bell going off about the IRA. Their particular expertise I believe is explosives. I don't see enough in these stories to prove it, but I suspect the IRA is cooperating with the muslim terrorists again.

[aristeides]

I don't see enough in these stories to prove it, but I suspect the IRA is cooperating with the muslim terrorists again.

Given the extent to which the IRA depends on donations from Irish-Americans, that would be a very foolish move.

[Lion's Cub]

More on the Naples cell-- note the possible assassination attempt

[aristeides]

According to this report in the Feb. 3 Corriere della Sera, there was another antiterrorist raid on another apartment in Naples, this one in the "quartiere Sanitá". Anybody know where in Naples that district is?

[ffusco]

No, it was a lightning bolt "oooof" like when Michael Corleone spots his bride, Apollonia, for the first time. Your mouth goes dry, followed by tunnel vision and a lust for power.....

[knighthawk]

"Anybody know where in Naples that district is?"

No, sorry