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Thanks for your efforts Ian.

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Italy: Police arrest two Moroccan terrorism suspects
Dec.2.08

Milan - Italian anti-terrorist police on Tuesday arrested two Moroccans suspected of international terrorism, Ilhami Rachid and Abdelkader Ghaffir, and raided the homes of other people believed to be linked to the pair. Rachid and Ghaffir were allegedly plotting attacks on military and civilian targets on the outskirts of the northern city of Milan. Rachid, 31, and Ghaffir, 42, had planned attacks on a supermarket, a bar, night club car park, and two police stations, as well as the immigration office at police headquarters in Milan.

The two men do not belong to any terrorist organisation, but closely followed jihadist websites, especially statements by the Al-Qaeda terror network, according to investigators. Rachid had 'indoctrinated' his two-year-old son, teaching him to recognise photos of Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden and to call him 'Uncle Osma', investigators said. Phone taps revealed he and Ghaffir had initially planned to use a van packed with explosives but then decided to use oxygen cylinders after searching and downloading the bomb-making information from the Internet.

Police are also checking a total 10 contacts of the Moroccans, who attended an Islamic cultural centre located in an old warehouse in the town of Macherio, where Rachid worked as an imam. Both he and Ghaffir had lived in Italy for some time, said investigators.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2778566399

They're Winning
by Steve Emerson

Terrorism expert Steve Emerson says there’s no hope of victory in the war on terrorism until we call it what it really is.

This past Saturday, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece entitled “What They Hate about Mumbai,” focusing specifically on the free market sins of that great city. With contrived evenhandedness, the op-ed managed to blame both Hindus and Muslim extremists—without blaming either party in particular for the murderous attacks.

Without realizing it, the Grey Lady had hit upon a great travel series. In the best spirit of jihad for dummies, why not a year’s worth of op-eds focusing on “Why They Hate____” filled in, mad-libs style, with the U.S., Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Kenya, and the other 74 countries where radical Islam has reared its violent head? With only the moral blindness that the New York Times could capture, each op-ed would portray the attacks in a contrived even-handed way, without blaming, or even naming, the perpetrators of the attacks—Muslim jihadists.

Watching and reading the last 5 days of reports of the Mumbai attacks was an Alice in Wonderland experience. Even after an Islamic terrorist group took credit, TV anchors and reporters assiduously avoided the term Islamic terrorist. They must have consulted with the Thesaurus for the Politically Correct to determine that the word “gunmen” would not offend any jihadist.

Excerpted

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-12-01/theyre-winning/