Free Republic

A MAN linked to Al-Qaeda and believed to have helped to mastermind the Madrid train bombings was overheard last month describing a plot for a woman to carry out a chemical or germ attack in America that he said would “wipe out an entire neighbourhood”. The Italian warrant for the arrest of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, 32, an Egyptian seized in a suburb of Milan last week, details transcripts of bugged conversations and telephone calls in which he not only boasted of his involvement in the Spanish attack of March 11 but also spoke of future plans. The Spanish government...

MILAN (Reuters) - A group of suspected Islamic militants arrested in Italy and Belgium may have been planning an attack on NATO headquarters or the European Parliament, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said on Wednesday. Quoting Italian investigators, Corriere said a suspected planner of the Madrid bombings in March -- among those arrested on Tuesday -- had intended to travel from Italy to Belgium possibly to take part in an attack on a "symbolic" target. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," was seized on Tuesday with a fellow suspect in Milan, and Belgian police, acting on information...

Egyptian bombs expert held over Madrid outrage By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels (Filed: 09/06/2004) An explosives expert said to be one of the masterminds behind the Madrid train bombings was arrested in Italy yesterday Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", was seized in Milan as he was planning more outrages, said Giuseppe Pisanu, the Italian interior minister.. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed: conversations At least 16 other suspected Islamic extremists were arrested in a co-ordinated series of raids in Italy, Belgium, France and Spain. The attacks in March in Madrid killed 191 people and wounded 1,900. Mr Pisanu...

MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - Italy arrested an Egyptian man considered to be a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings in the first Europe-wide swoop on Islamic militants linked to the March attack, judicial sources said Tuesday. "Mohamed the Egyptian" was seized after a three-month probe by Italy's anti-terrorist unit and Italian intelligence and he was thought to be the head of a Moroccan radical Islamist cell, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said militants had been planning more attacks as police swooped as part of an operation across Europe. He said the swoop was aimed...

By Emilio Parodi and Clara Ferreira-Marques MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - Italy arrested an Egyptian man considered to be a mastermind of the Madrid train bombings in the first Europe-wide swoop on Islamic militants linked to the March attack, judicial sources said Tuesday. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said militants had been planning more attacks as police swooped as part of an operation across Europe. He said the swoop was aimed at a group "close to al Qaeda." Police in Milan arrested Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian," and another man as part of cross-border raids into the...

ROME (AP) - Italian police have arrested a suspect in the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people, an Italian newspaper said Tuesday. The man has been identified only as Mohamed the Egyptian according to the Milan daily Corriere della Sera. The newspaper said he had been under investigation for three months before police picked him up Monday night. Police in Milan have not confirmed the report. The March 11 bombs, planted on four commuter trains, also injured more than 2,000 people and have been blamed on Islamic militants with possible links to al-Qaida. Twenty people, mostly...