washingtonpost: Italian Police Arrest Pakistani Al Qaeda Suspects
15 Pakistani men have been arrested and apparently charged with
association with a terrorist group, after Italian authorities boarded a
ship last month off the coast of Sicily. The evidence rests largely on
coded messages that refer to marriage.
Authorities have concluded that Italy has functioned as a transit and logistics center for international militant groups. But in recent months, investigators have expressed fears that Italy's high profile in the American-led "war on terrorism" would turn it into a target of attacks. Such concerns led to the detention of five Moroccans last month in Bologna after they videotaped a fresco in an old church there and made disparaging remarks about Christianity. After first announcing that a plot to blow up the church was averted, police released the Moroccans, saying it was all a mistake. [...] The decision to charge the Pakistanis came after U.S. naval intelligence officials deciphered coded messages found on board and gathered evidence on some of the men. Telephone numbers found on some of the suspects link them to al Qaeda operatives in France and Spain, Giuffre said. A U.S. Navy officer present at the press conference, Samuel Worth, told reporters that the coded reference to marriage was especially worrisome. "We are alarmed," he said, because it's a word that was intercepted during the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993. It is one of the elements that induced us to intervene. (see www.washingtonpost.com)