Posted on 09/13/2002 6:32:56 AM PDT by freeperfromnj
ROME (AP) - Thousands of lead bars - found on a cargo ship on which 15 suspected Islamic extremists arrived in Sicily from Morocco - will be tested to see if they contain materials to manufacture nuclear weapons, a police official said Friday. The men, described by Italian authorities as Pakistani citizens, were arrested Thursday and charged with having terrorist links.
The lead bars weighing a total of some 800 tons would be inspected as a precaution, said police official Angelo Bellomo.
Lead, because of its magnetic properties, can be used to conceal radioactive material by making it difficult to detect, he said.
The suspects arrived in Sicily on Aug. 5 aboard the ship from Casablanca, Morocco. The vessel had been headed to Libya, but stopped off the coast of Sicily because it was running out of supplies.
Authorities found that the men had fake passports and took them to a detention center for illegal immigrants in the central Sicilian town of Caltanissetta.
After their arrest on Thursday, an American defense official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the cargo ship was on a U.S. Navy watch list and had been suspected of smuggling Islamic fundamentalists in the past.
Authorities have not commented on newspaper reports that phrases and phone numbers on notes in the possession of some of the suspects linked them to Osama bin Laden's network.
On Friday, the Pakistan government questioned whether the men were actually Pakistani citizens, insisting that the documents were forged and that the Italian government was informed of that. Police in Sicily had no immediate comment on the claim.
"Claims that the detained individuals are Pakistani nationals and are linked with al-Qaida are unfortunate and premature," a statement from the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry said
In the past year, Italian police have arrested more than 30 people with alleged links to al-Qaida, bin Laden's terror network.
Seven Tunisians were convicted earlier this year in a Milan court of helping al-Qaida recruits get fake documents - the first al-Qaida-related guilty verdict since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Among those convicted was Essid Sami Ben Khemais, the alleged head of bin Laden's terrorist operations in Europe.
AP-ES-09-13-02 0854EDT
Scientifically illiterate reporter alert.
HUH?
Is this reporter the product of public education?
If you think this way, you too can be employed by the AP. And if you think I am exaggerating, get to know an AP reporter.
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