Terror Suspects `Targeting Italy`

Life In Italy ^ | December 02 2008 | ANSA

[knighthawk]

(ANSA) - Milan, December 2 - Two Moroccans arrested on Tuesday were planning terrorist attacks on targets in northern Italy after failing to make the ``necessary contacts`` to be sent abroad as jihad fighters, police said.

Rachid Ilhami, 31, and Gafir Abdelkader, 42, are alleged to have been planning attacks on an immigration office and a police barracks in Milan as well as police stations, a supermarket and a night club carpark in smaller towns in the Lombardy region.

Milan anti-terrorist unit chief Bruno Megale stressed that the pair were not ``an organic part of any organisation`` despite wiretapped conversations in which they talked about al Qaeda.

``A few months ago they decided to fight their battle here, where they are well integrated with stable jobs and children,`` he said.

The Moroccans were recorded saying that they needed ``to do something that will go down in history and that will earn the recognition and thanks of God``.

Investigators said they were appealing a judge`s decision to refuse arrest warrants for six other Moroccans under investigation for their part in the plot.

The men are believed to have watched instructional films on terrorist attacks and researched methods on the Internet.

Wiretaps revealed the group had initially planned to use a van packed with explosives in their attacks but later decided on oxygen cylinders.

Police also seized the Peace Cultural Centre in the Lombardy village of Macherio, where Ilhami worked as a preacher, during Tuesday`s operation.

According to investigators, small groups of fundamentalists met at the centre in the evenings after the day`s official sermons were finished.

Last year police chiefs warned of the risk of attacks in Italy by North African terror groups linked to al Qaeda after a number of arrests in Lombardy.

The arrests were largely connected with the recruitment of suicide bombers to be sent abroad to Afghanistan and Iraq or to providing financial and logistical support to terrorists operating in Tunisia and Algeria.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[facedown]

The Moroccans were recorded saying that they needed ``to do something that will go down in history and that will earn the recognition and thanks of God``.

How about live in peace with your fellow man?

[null and void]

Milan anti-terrorist unit chief Bruno Megale stressed that the pair were not ``an organic part of any organisation``

Ummmmmmm, islam, maybe?

[MHGinTN]

Their god, their religion, isn’t about peace on Earth.

[gridlock]

Reminds me of this great Iowahawk bit: Well, That Didn't Work Out So Great - Iowahawk Guest Commentary by Kahlid Ahmed, MD

[gridlock]

Police also seized the Peace Cultural Centre in the Lombardy village of Macherio, where Ilhami worked as a preacher, during Tuesday`s operation.

You can't make this stuff up, folks...

[Dutchgirl]

My one Moroccan employee is heading home for a conjugal visit...iowahawk..I love him. Rotfltip...

[Zuben Elgenubi]

d*mn, that’s funny. Paradise poont*ng. LOL.

[Cindy]

ping.

[Cindy]

PHOTO:

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/newsfeed/photoM/re202yj9X_20081202.jpg

PHOTO CAPTION:

“Photo: Rachid Ilhami.”

[Godzilla]

been listening to rumors about an Italy strike for a while now. There are enought immigrants there that would give a cell an opportunity to blend into until the appointed time.

[Cindy]

I agree..and Moroccans, again.

[Karliner]

The Moroccans were recorded saying that they needed ``to do something that will go down in history and that will earn the recognition and thanks of God``.

How about live in peace with your fellow man?

Maybe they'll be hitting the Vatican? I highly doubt God will thank them for their blood vengeance but the "prince" of this world would love it for a time, sadly.

[piasa]

Thanks for the ping

[csvset]

Thug 1 & Thug 2

[piasa]

1990s late - spring 2003 : (MILAN, ITALY : MOSQUES USED AS BASES FOR TERRORIST RECRUITMENT) The Via Quaranta mosque and another on Milan's Viale Jenner have been bases for terrorist recruitment and logistics since the late 1990s, according to police. Investigations led by prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso have resulted in a dozen arrests and eight convictions of extremists affiliated with the mosques. - "Ansar al Islam's European connection : A Road to Ansar Began in Italy," By Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES , Second of two parts  April 27, 2003, Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman, in northern Iraq, contributed to this report.

[piasa]

1999 : (MILAN, ITALY : MILAN TERROR CELL OF TUNISIANS AND MOROCCANS IS OPERATING BY THIS TIME, RECRUITING & FUNDRAISING THROUGH SALE OF FAKE ID TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS -- See GALLARATE MOSQUE, IMAM MOHAMED EL MAHFOUDI, YOUSSEF ABDAOUI , MILAN CELL, GSPC) "The suspects have been operating, with help from Italian collaborators, since 1999 using private businesses and cooperatives based in the province of Milan as cover," the financial police said in a [June 24, 2003] statement. The businesses were a front for producing Islamist propaganda and fund-raising through the sale of fake identity papers to illegal immigrants, police allege. Funds raised were transferred to accounts in at least 16 countries in Europe, the Middle East and North America. ----- "Italian police arrest six in crackdown on Islamist cell," Yahoo News - AFP, Tuesday June 24, 10:53 PM 2003
*********
Italy's financial police launched [in June 2003] a major swoop on an Islamist group said to have ties to the al-Qaeda network, raiding dozens of sites around Milan and arresting six for allegedly financing and abetting a terrorist organisation. In an operation unleashed at dawn, 170 officers searched around 40 sites including a mosque in the northern region of Lombardy, police said Tuesday. Five Tunisians and an imam, or religious leader, of Moroccan origin were arrested. A seventh Tunisian was also sought but is probably already imprisoned in Tunisia, police added. They are accused of giving logistical help to a cell of the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a militant Islamic group waging a bloody civil war to overthrow the secular government in Algiers. "The suspects have been operating, with help from Italian collaborators, since 1999 using private businesses and cooperatives based in the province of Milan as cover," the financial police said in a statement. The businesses were a front for producing Islamist propaganda and fund-raising through the sale of fake identity papers to illegal immigrants, police allege. Funds raised were transferred to accounts in at least 16 countries in Europe, the Middle East and North America.
The detainees are accused of criminal association aimed at abetting and financing a terrorist organisation, false accounting, involvement in illegal immigration, receiving counterfeit documents and trafficking in stolen cars. One of the charged is 38-year-old Moroccan Mohamed el Mahfoudi, the imam of Gallarate mosque on the outskirts of Milan.
Also detained was a Tunisian political refugee, Youssef Abdaoui, who was already convicted in Bologna last February [2002] for receiving fake Pakistani visas.
----- "Italian police arrest six in crackdown on Islamist cell," Yahoo News - AFP, Tuesday June 24, 10:53 PM 2003

[piasa]

1999 late - 2001 summer : (ITALY : MILAN CELL CONVERSATIONS ARE OVERHEARD-- See AL QAEDA) The overheard conversations, which took place in apartments, offices and even automobiles in and around Milan, include numerous discussions of false travel documents and the clandestine movement of al-Qaida fighters across international borders — the twin specialties, investigators say, of the erstwhile Milan al-Qaida base. - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002

JULY ? 2000 : (A. ABDULRAHMAN CONVERSATION WITH MAHMOUD ES SAYED aka ABU SALEH ABOUT IMPENDING ATTACKS -- SEE 9/11, MILAN CELL) Recorded conversation of [Abdulsalam Ali Ali] Abdulrahman remarking to [Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed] aka Abu Saleh about an impending attack that "will wreak such a great havoc" and "leave them all dumbfounded." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002

NOVEMBER 1997 : (LUXOR, EGYPT : LUXOR MASSACRE -- ES SAYED aka ABU SALEH WHO PLAYED A ROLE IN THE ATTACK -- See MILAN CELL) He was convicted in absentia in Egypt for his alleged role in the killings of 58 foreign tourists at Luxor in November 1997----- "Italy (Local Prosecutor) Probes Possible CIA Role in Abduction (of Islamist)," Chicago tribune via Yahoo! News ^ | 2/25/2005 | John Crewdson

AUGUST 2000 : (ITALY : AL QAEDA : MILAN CELL : YEMENI HINTS TO MAHMOUD ES SAYED aka SALEH OF POSSIBLE INTENT TO DESTROY AIRCRAFT) During one wiretapped conversation between Abdelkader Mahmoud Es Sayed aka [Abu Saleh] and a Yemeni in August of 2000, the Yemeni tells Es Sayed that "God willing, I hope that I can bring you a window or piece of airplane the next time we meet." (This same Yemeni has also once referred to "studying airplanes.") - "Terrorists' Twin Tower Images, Secret Porn Messages ," ABC News , 5/8/03

AUGUST 2000 : (MILAN CELL, ABDULRAHMAN VISITS ES SAYED aka SALEH IN MILAN, CONVERSATIONS ABOUT AL QAEDA OPERATIVES IN US CLAIMING TO BE EGYPTIAN, 'MAIL ORDER BRIDE MAGAZINE TRICK') A suspected al-Qaida organizer, Abdulsalam Ali Ali Abdulrahman, paid a brief visit to Abu Saleh in Milan and was overheard referring to "some brothers who entered America thanks to a mail-order-bride magazine trick," but who "claimed to be Egyptians and kept their true identity concealed." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002

OCTOBER 2000 : (USS COLE BOMBED TWO MONTHS AFTER ABDULRAHMAN CONVERSATION WITH MAHMOUD ES SAYED aka SALEH) Two months after Abdulrahman's remarks to Abu Saleh about an impending attack that "will wreak such a great havoc" and "leave them all dumbfounded," suspected al-Qaida terrorists in the Yemeni port of Aden detonate a bomb next to the destroyer USS Cole, killing 17. - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002

[piasa]

DECEMBER 2000 : (FRANKFURT, GERMANY : CELL PHONE CALLS INTERCEPTED BY ITALY LEAD TO ARREST IN FRANKFURT OF FOUR SUSPECTS ; STRASBOURG/CHRISTMAS MARKET PLOT IS FOILED; FRANKFURT CELL APPARENTLY LINKED TO MILAN CELL - See MILAN CELL'S ESSID SAMI BEN KHEMAIS, BOUKARI, SABOUR, CHEMICALS WEAPONS CACHES) Suspicion [see Milan Cell] emerged last December [2000] when German authorities arrested four suspected terrorists in a raid on two apartments in Frankfurt, Italian prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso said last week [November 2001]. German authorities seized conventional arms and explosives and found a chemical weapons manual, Dambruoso said.
The suspects were accused of plotting to bomb an outdoor market in Strasbourg, France, at the end of 2000. Several of them had been in contact with Essid Sami Ben Khemais, later identified by Italian authorities as a top al-Qaida operative in Europe who headed a terrorist cell in Milan. --
-------- "Tapes hint at cyanide plot by al-Qaida," ©Associated Press via St. Petersberg Times Online (FL), December 1, 2001
*********
Information from other European law enforcement agencies, including cell phone conversations picked up by Italian authorities, led to the arrests of four suspects in December 2000. During a search of two Frankfurt apartments at the time of the initial arrests, authorities seized 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of a chemical that can be used to manufacture explosives, as well as homemade detonators, a hand grenade, submachine guns, dismantled rifles, revolvers and ammunition. The Italian report said they also found detailed handwritten instructions for making and use of the explosives and instructions on the use of toxic substances in lethal doses. Four suspects in planning Strasbourg, France New Year's Eve 2000 attacks are arrested.
Information from other European law enforcement agencies, including cell phone conversations picked up by Italian authorities, led to the arrests of four suspects in December 2000 and a fifth the following April.
------- "Terror suspect tells German court: 'You're all Jews," by Melissa Eddy, AP via Jerusalem Post , April 16, 2002