Free Republic

Intelligence agencies have had some success in tracking suspected al-Qaeda operatives. But the organisation is changing to continue its fight against the West. The West has never encountered an enemy like al-Qaeda before. The problem for the world's intelligence agencies is that it is not a unified organisation with an identifiable structure, like the IRA, but an amalgam of groups around the world whose members embrace Osama bin Laden's ideology of global jihad, or holy war. These Jihadi warriors share the belief that they have an obligation to fight the oppressors of their Muslim brothers, from Palestinians in the Middle...

An Algerian who sought asylum in Sheffield has been jailed for plotting to bomb tourists at a French Christmas market. Lamine Maroni has been sentenced to 11 years in Germany. Three other men were also jailed for between 10 and 12 years each. They were found guilty by a Frankfurt court of conspiracy to murder scores of people outside Strasbourg Cathedral on New Year's Eve 2000. Prosecutors said they were part of a network of mostly North African extremists called the Non-aligned Mujahadeen, with ties to al-Qaida. Maroni had arrived in Sheffield as an asylum seeker in August 2000 and...

French authorities have charged a woman in relation to an alleged ISIS plot to attack this city's famous Notre Dame Cathedral last week, the Paris prosecutor's office said. The woman, whose name was given as Ornella G., was charged Saturday night with "terrorist criminal association to commit crimes against people" and "attempted assassinations as an organized gang in connection with a terrorist enterprise," the office said. The prosecutor, Francois Molins, whose office handles terrorism investigations, said Friday that the woman's fingerprints were found last Sunday in a car containing a half-dozen gas cylinders and left parked in front of Notre...

PARIS (AP) — Authorities in the south of France have arrested a Tunisian who is allegedly part of a group with links to the al-Qaida terrorist network, officials said Monday. The suspect, who was not identified, was arrested on Oct. 14 in Marseille — four days after Italian police arrested four alleged accomplices, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A fifth man was arrested on Oct. 11 on the Mediterranean island of Malta. The group was based in Italy and provided logistical help to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, ministry officials said. The suspect arrested in France also allegedly...

Two Moroccans arrested in Italy yesterday wanted to blow up the Milan Cathedral on Christmas. They hoped an attack during the busy holiday would cost dozens of lives. This according to tapped phone calls, reports La Repubblica. The two belonged to an Islamic terror cell which had been followed by the Italian police already for months... Rachid Ilhami (31) and Abdelkader Ghafir (43) were arrested in Giussano, a city 25km away from Milan. The detectives gathered from tapped phone calls and confiscated computer files that the two also prepared attacks on a supermarket and a police bureau. They are arrested...