 ROME -- Investigators have broken up an international terrorism ring in a series of raids in Europe, according to Italian officials. Seventeen people were arrested in a sweep that targeted a terrorism group allegedly involved in raising funds to finance terrorist activity, Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told a news conference. He didn't provide details on the nature of the alleged operations. Six of the arrests were made in Italy on charges of criminal association and falsifying documents, police said. Two other arrests were made in Austria in an operation coordinated between investigators in the U.K., France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Algeria, authorities said. None of the people arrested were charged with attempted terrorism. "An important ring has been dismantled," Mr. Maroni said. The conservative government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been under heavy public pressure to crack down on foreign terrorism. Mr. Maroni said the arrests on Thursday "confirmed that surveillance and constant operations on the terrorism front in Milan are very relevant." It wasn't immediately clear why the suspects were not charged with attempted terrorism.
Italy created tough laws aimed at combating international terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Charges of attempted terrorism, however, have proved difficult to prosecute in court. As a result, some anti-terror investigators have at times decided to arrest suspected terrorists on charges of criminal association, a charge traditionally used to combat the Mafia. Italian police said the group raised about €1 million over a three-year period by carrying out muggings, burglaries and other thefts. The funds were sent to Algeria, police said, without disclosing details on how the money was used. The group also created fake identification documents that allowed members to travel between North Africa and Europe, police said. Mr. Maroni said the group operated in cells that he described as "terrorist franchises," gathering funds for potential attacks outside of Italy. He didn't disclose the names of any people involved in the alleged terrorist ring. Source: WSJ 
 AN Italian court is to reach a verdict this week in the landmark trial of 26 US secret agents in the 2003 abduction of a terror suspect from a Milan street.
The trial, which opened in June 2007, is the highest profile case involving the CIA's covert “extraordinary rendition” programme in which scores of terror suspects are thought to have been transferred to countries known to practise torture.
The Milan court will reconvene Wednesday, when Judge Oscar Magi will invite brief final remarks before withdrawing to deliberate, with a verdict expected the same day.
Observers said the verdict may not be known until as late as Friday, however.
Twenty-five 25 CIA agents and a US air force colonel were tried in absentia in the case, which also involved seven Italian secret service officials including the former head of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, who was forced to quit over the affair.
Osama Mustafa Hassan, an imam better known as Abu Omar, was snatched from a Milan street on February 17, 2003, in an operation coordinated by the CIA and Italian military intelligence.
The radical Islamist opposition figure, who enjoyed political asylum in Italy, was allegedly taken to the US air force base in Aviano, northeastern Italy, then flown to the US base in Ramstein, Germany, and on to Cairo.
The imam's suspected captors failed to take many standard precautions, notably speaking openly on cell phones, leaving investigators to suspect that the Americans had cleared their intentions with senior Italian intelligence officials.
“No one could seriously argue that they were in Italy for other reasons” than to abduct Abu Omar and transfer him to Cairo via two US military bases, Spataro said in his closing arguments.
Spataro is seeking a 13-year jail term for former CIA chief Jeff Castelli and Pollari for their alleged role in the kidnapping.
He also argued that two former Italy-based CIA officials, Robert Lady and Sabrina De Sousa, should serve 12 years, while the officers believed to have been directly involved in seizing Abu Omar should spend 11 years behind bars.
Abu Omar's lawyer is demanding 10 million euros (14 million dollars) in damages for “humiliations that would be unimaginable for most human beings” when he was transferred to a high-security prison outside Cairo.
 Nick Pisa in RomeThe Vatican has surprisingly welcomed a proposal to teach Islam in Italian schools. Adolfo Urso, an ally of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said the subject should be taught for an hour a week to "avoid Muslim youngsters being drawn to the ghettos of madrasse (Islamic schools) run by fundamentalists" and was backed by deputy prime minister Gianfranco Fini. Cardinal Renato Martino, of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said: "This would avoid radicalism and should be considered - obviously with some form of control." But the proposal rocked Fini's Right-wing coalition and was slammed by the anti-immigration Northern League. Source: The Evening Standard H/T: WomenAgainstSharia
 A British newspaper report alleging 10 French soldiers died in Afghanistan because Italy failed to inform them of a Taliban payoff deal has been strongly denied by both Italy and France. The Times newspaper reported on Thursday that Italy's secret services paid the Taliban "tens of thousands of dollars" to keep the Sarobi area in Afghanistan safe for its troops, but did not tell Nato allies about the deal. It accused Italy of misleading the French, who took over control of the district in mid-2008, into believing the area was safe, leaving them unprepared for the attack in which the soldiers died.
But the office of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, called the report "completely groundless", while the country's defence minister added he wanted to sue the newspaper. "The Berlusconi government has never authorised nor has it allowed any form of payment toward members of the Taliban insurgence," a statement from the prime minister's office said.
Admiral Christophe Prazuck, a spokesman for the French military, also dismissed the report as "baseless". "These are rumours, and it is not the first time we have heard them," he said. But Jean-Marc Ayrault, leader of the opposition Socialists, called for a review of the Afghan mission, in which 2,900 French troops are serving. The Times report said that because the French were not informed of the alleged deal they made a "catastrophically incorrect threat assessment" of the area. It said US intelligence officials had discovered through intercepted phone conversations that the Italians had been buying off fighters in Herat province, western Afghanistan. The paper continued that a number of high-ranking Nato officers had told it that payments were discovered to have been made in the Sarobi area as well. Following the ambush in August 2008, in which the French troops were killed, reports emerged that the soldiers had been poorly equipped, and only had one radio, which went dead, leaving them unable to call for help. However, the French military have denied these reports. Prazuck said French, Italian and Turkish troops, all of whom oversee the Kabul region, had a relationship of "trust, full transparency". "We share information constantly with the Italians, the Turks and the French in Kabul, daily, regularly," he said. Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas met Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday in the capital Rome, at his office in Palazzo Chigi.
The meeting was part of a bid to help restart peace talks in the Middle East and amid calls for his resignation by Palestinian politicians.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini was also present at the meeting between Abbas and Berlusconi.
Before meeting the premier however, Abbas (photo) held an hour-long talk with Italian president Giorgio Napolitano in his Quirinal Hill office and then inaugurated the Palestinian Authority's new headquarters in Rome.
Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno was also present at the inauguration and said he hoped that the two-state solution could be realised to bring peace to the region.
"We are absolutely convinced that the concept of 'two peoples-two states' is the key for a just and long-lasting peace in the Mediterranean.
"The decision to inaugurate the new headquarters for our Palestinian friends to use, shows our strong conviction," said Alemanno, who also urged Israel to stop its Jewish settlement construction.
"It is key that Israel does every effort possible to indefinitely stop the settlements in the West Bank," said Alemanno.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Abbas will meet Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience.
Abbas has been under fire in Ramallah for his decision to delay a vote on the United Nations-backed war crimes report on Gaza, or the so-called Goldstone report.
The report said Gaza's ruling Islamist party Hamas and the Israeli army both committed war crimes during the deadly three-week Israeli offensive in late December last year and early January.
Reports say Abbas gave in to pressure from the United States to withdraw a motion from the UN Human Rights Council to take action on the report by judge Richard Goldstone.
Some politicians from the Palestine Liberation Organisation have apologised to the Palestinian public for the delay, while others have called for the resignation of Abbas and the dissolution of the Palestinian National Authority government.
The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has demanded an apology for the "sin" of deferring the vote of the report, Palestinian news agency Maan said.
 BY DAVID SCHENKER Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi, once a terrorism-sponsoring pariah, is on the brink of rehabilitation. Can he hold his tongue long enough to pull it off? Today, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi arrives in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. Although he hasn't touched down yet, the colonel is already fraying nerves.
In the spring, with the Obama administration in the White House, the old tensions between Washington and Tripoli had started to ease. At the July summit of the G-8 in Italy, President Barack Obama and Qaddafi had one of those handshakes often described as "historic."
But, last month, Libya affronted many by giving the Lockerbie bomber a hero's welcome. (A Scottish court had convicted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of killing 270, including 189 Americans, by blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
In August, a judge granted the bomber compassionate release as he is terminally ill.) More recently, the State Department has had to scramble to find appropriate accommodations for Libya's quixotic leader after New York City and New Jersey said they wouldn't allow him to pitch his tent. Most of all, workers in Foggy Bottom are wringing their hands because Qaddafi has a long history of making humiliating statements when he has an international stage. Thus, as he arrives for a week in the Big Apple, one question looms large: Will Qaddafi restrain himself, helping foster the quiet U.S.-Libya diplomatic rapprochement, or will he let loose, shoot from the hip, and foment outrage? European leaders have been the most recent victims of the Qaddafi treatment. In the past two years alone, the Libyan leader has managed to embarrass French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and, most recently, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz.
In the last case, Qaddafi upbraided Merz after Swiss authorities arrested his son, Hannibal Qaddafi, for assaulting two maids at a Geneva hotel. The Libyan colonel managed to shame Merz into traveling to Tripoli to issue a public apology -- after, allegedly, threatening to cut Libya's bank deposits and oil exports to Switzerland. With the Swiss public far from amused, Merz's humiliating actions might cost him his job. Read more here,,,, Source: Foreign Policy
 September 01, 2008
BENGHAZI, Libya: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday apologised to Libya for damage inflicted by Italy during the colonial era and signed a $US5 billion ($5.8 billion) investment deal as compensation.
Mr Berlusconi made the apology during a visit to the Mediterranean city of Benghazi for a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to seal a co-operation accord with the oil-rich north African nation.
"It is my duty, as a head of government, to express to you in the name of the Italian people our regret and apologies for the deep wounds that we have caused you," said Mr Berlusconi, whose comments were translated into Arabic.
He and Colonel Gaddafi then signed a "friendship and co-operation agreement" aimed at recompensing Libya for damage incurred during the colonial era.
"The accord will provide for $US200 million a year over the next 25 years through investments in infrastructure projects in Libya," Mr Berlusconi said.
"This agreement should put an end to 40 years of discord. It is a concrete and moral acknowledgement of the damage inflicted on Libya by Italy during the colonial era."
The signing ceremony took place in the garden of a palace occupied by the Italian governor in colonial times.
Mr Berlusconi then bowed before the son of the hero of Libyan resistance against the Italian occupiers, Omar Mokhtar, in a symbolic gesture.
"This is a historic moment when two brave men acknowledge the defeat of colonialism," Colonel Gaddafi said, raising his arms in a sign of victory.
"The Libyan people endured injustice and were attacked in their homes and they deserve an apology and compensation."
Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Libya was occupied by Italy in 1911 before becoming a colony in the 1930s.
The country gained its independence in 1951 after a brief period under a UN-mandated Franco-British administration.
Italy and Libya have spent years negotiating a wide-ranging treaty to cover compensation for Rome's military occupation and colonisation.
An association representing Italians expelled from Libya in 1970 denounced Rome for compensating Libya and not repatriated Italians.
Mr Berlusconi should have "a sudden burst of dignity, humanity and respect so as to finally give satisfaction ... to the 20,000 Italian citizens who are still waiting for fair compensation from their government," it said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to arrive in Libya next week for the first visit by such a high-ranking US official since 1953.
Mr Berlusconi said a coastal motorway from the Tunisian border to Egypt would be among the major projects to be financed by Italy. Rome would also fund housing construction, scholarships for Libyan students to study in Italy and pensions for those mutilated by landmines laid by the Italian military. Source: The Australian
ITALIAN daily La Repubblica today received a death-threat letter aimed at Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi which contained a bullet, the newspaper's website reported.
The letter, which also proclaimed “Allah is Great”, vows to “hit” Mr Berlusconi as well as the speakers of Italy's upper and lower parliamentary chambers, Renato Schifani and Gianfranco Fini, the website said.
According to the left-leaning title, a similar letter was received by the right-leaning daily Libero yesterday in Milan.
In January, a letter threatening Mr Berlusconi and his brother Paolo – containing two bullets – was received by the Milan daily Il Giornale.
Mr Berlusconi, while prime minister in 2001, infuriated Muslims and appalled Western diplomats with remarks asserting the superiority of Western civilization over Islam. Source: Herald Sun
Milan, 18 June (AKI) - Young Italian Muslims have expressed their support for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and journalist Magdi Allam, after death threats were posted in an Islamist website said to be close to al-Qaeda. The Young Muslims of Italy (GMI) told Adnkronos International (AKI) that no Muslims should sympathise with these death threats. "The association, Young Italian Muslims, expresses disdain and rejects the unacceptable violent threats that appeared in an internet forum, run by Muslims," said the organisation in a statement on Wednesday. The death threats were directed at Berlusconi and Allam, an Egyptian-born journalist who converted from Islam to Roman Catholicism during the Vatican's Easter vigil in April 2008. Read more ...Source: AKI
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ROME -- Investigators have broken up an international terrorism ring in a series of raids in Europe, according to Italian officials.
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