Free Republic

MILAN, Italy (AP) — An Italian judge indicted three North African men Thursday on charges of arms possession and supplying forged documents to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, a lawyer for one of the defendants said. Nabil Benattia of Tunisia, Yassine Chekkouri of Morocco and Abdelhalim Hafed Remadna of Algeria, were arrested in Milan in November in connection with an investigation of the city's mosque and Islamic cultural center. U.S. authorities have described the center as the main al-Qaida station house in Europe. Benattia's lawyer, Antonio Nebuloni, said all three suspects were indicted Thursday on charges of criminal association, possession...

Tue May 28, 5:12 PM ET By PIERO VALSECCHI, Associated Press Writer MILAN, Italy - Analyses of wiretapped conversations between a sheik from Yemen and the leader of a Milan mosque have turned up what police now believe are chilling predictions of the Sept. 11 attacks, including a boast of a terrifying operation by a "madman," apparently a reference to Osama bin-Laden. Milan daily Corriere della Sera Tuesday ran excerpts of transcripts of the conversations, which took place in 2000 and 2001 before the attacks. The conversations were between Abdulsalam Abdulrahman, the sheik, who had traveled to Italy, and Abdelkader...