Posted on 10/05/2002 6:31:05 AM PDT by veronica
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police said Saturday they had arrested three Egyptian fishermen suspected of plotting to attack a cemetery of American war dead south of Rome.
Explosives and maps highlighting the Nettuno American Cemetery and Memorial in the town of Anzio were seized in an apartment in Italy belonging to one of the men, a police official said.
"They were preparing a symbolic attack against the American cemetery," the official said, adding police suspected the men were tied to Islamic terrorism.
The Egyptians, aged 30 to 45, were arrested Friday but have not been formally charged. Police said they had been living in Italy and had legal working papers.
Italian media quoted the men as denying the allegations, one saying they had used the explosives for fishing.
Two of the Egyptians were arrested in their apartments and the third was seized on a fishing boat, police said. Police also found a map of Rome's international Fiumicino airport and maps highlighting some McDonald's restaurants.
The American Cemetery in Anzio was completed in 1956, and more than 7,000 U.S. soldiers killed during World War II are buried there. It has been visited by former U.S. presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton.
U.S. authorities have indicated that a mosque and Islamic center in Milan might be the financial hub of the European operation of al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States last year.
Italy has made more than 40 arrests on anti-terrorism grounds over the last 12 months, but prosecutors have had only mixed success in winning convictions against suspected al Qaeda members.
Four Tunisians suspected of being al Qaeda members were jailed earlier this year for five years in Italy's first conviction of terrorist suspects since September 11.
A group of Moroccans who had been arrested on suspicion of plotting to poison Rome's water network with a potentially lethal chemical compound were later freed.
Attacking dead people would normally incur little risk to the attackers, but there are two complicating factors at work here: first, the dead people are former American warriors; and second, the attackers are worthless Islamaniacs. Based upon related military precedent (such as Operations Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom, the various Arab-Israeli wars, etc.), it is entirely possible that the belligerents might suffer a shocking, sudden defeat, attended by heavy casualties, furious waving of surrender flags, and great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Wouldn't Allah be so proud?
With a coastline to defend that's about as long as ours, (immigrant) smuggling is very hard to stop. The only people that this alarming trend is helping, is Beretta. (Stock Tip)who are selling heat to the paesani who desperately need protection from an especially Albanian-led crime wave that is huge.
This is a very dangerous situation, potentially worse than any other European nation. When it goes political, it ain't gonna be pretty.
Welcome to the real world of Islam! Glad people are finally waking up! Islamists have been desecrating Christian graves in the Balkans for ages!
I agree and this article infuriated me. Yet it's hard to even define what is lowest these days. 9-11 was the lowest. Turning planes full of innocent humans into missiles with which to murder other innocent humans. Decapitating Danny Pearl and making a "training video" out of it. That was the lowest too. You will find that vandalizing Jewish grave sites is a favorite activity of neo-Nazis and Jew haters. More lowest. The list goes on and on.
To me that sounds too optmistic. Islam, by appeal or force, has rapidly spread to a billion people. It is now growing fast mainly by violence and murder.
So I wonder what makes them suspect an attack on dead folks instead of these McDonald's stores? Do they think that they wouldn't attack McDonald's for fear that the terrorists' good buddy bill clintoon might be in one of them?
Are explosives commonly used in fishing?
As long as its American, they don't care. With higher security at airports, embassies and other US interests, it was probably all they could think of that was AMERICAN. just a guess.
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