Italy Arrests Three Moroccans for Running 'Terror School' in Mosque

The home of my ancestors has put the USA to shame in their unabashed willingness to fight terror. This comes from many years of dealing with various forms of terrorism including the mafia & camorra. So it comes as no surprize for me to read the news of the Italiano anti-terrorism Polizia to be willing to even raid a mosque in the battle against terrorism. In this case 1 in Perugia, the capital of Umbria.

According to a report on FoxNews' website: "Operating in a nondescript mosque in Perugia, the central hill town known for its Renaissance architecture and idyllic countryside, a small extremist cell allegedly ran what Italian police say was a "terror school" that trained in hand-to-hand combat, bomb making and airplane piloting.

Anti-terrorism police said they arrested three Moroccans — an imam and two of his aides — on Saturday and raided the Ponte Felcino mosque on the outskirts of the Umbrian capital, finding barrels of chemicals hidden in the cellar, and documents including instructions on how to pilot a Boeing 747.

"The investigation has shown that, in the Ponte Felcino mosque, there was a continued training for terrorist activity," anti-terror police head Carlo De Stefano said. "We have discovered and neutralized a real 'terror school,' which was part of a widespread terrorism system made up of small cells that act on their own."

The modest mosque, on the ground floor of a red-painted residential building, hid chemical substances, including acids, nitrates and ferrocyanide, which may have been used to experiment during the courses, said Claudio Galzerano, head of the international terrorism division with the anti-terror police.

Activities at the mosque used films and documents downloaded from the Internet, and included weapons training, instructions on how to prepare poisons and explosives, as well as how to lay an ambush, reach combat zones safely and send encrypted messages, police said in a statement.
Police identified the imam as 41-year-old Korchi El Mostapha and his two aides as Mohamed El Jari, 47, and Driss Safika, 46, while a fourth Moroccan suspect was still being sought and was believed to be abroad. All four are suspected of conducting training with the aim of international terrorism.

Another 20 people who frequented the mosque were placed under investigation for various charges, including violating Italy's immigration laws, Galzerano said.

The arrests followed a two-year investigation in the small city, which has a large non-Italian population, including tourists roaming Medieval and Renaissance palaces, students at the local foreigners' university and immigrants working in local industry."

Can you imagine the outrage you would hear on the cable news talk show circuit here in the USA if this happenned here? People scream profiling & all the rest if we even dare question anyone despite a plethora of evidence. But the Italiano Parliament doesn't have the qualms we do. Instead they pass laws that allow the Italiano Polizia to have the tools they need to investigate, all the while protecting the rights of the accused. "In recent years Italy has tightened its anti-terrorism laws and stepped up surveillance at mosques and Islamic centers.

Authorities have kept a close eye on what they say are extremist clerics, having some expelled or arrested and put on trial."

The report has this to say about the events at the mosque: " Galzerano, the top anti-terror official, told The Associated Press that the cell was involved only in training activities, and that no one was accused of preparing or carrying out attacks.

The police statement said the cell had contacts with two members of the Moroccan Islamic Combat group arrested around two years ago in Belgium.

The Islamic group — known by its French acronym, GICM — is believed to have ties to Al Qaeda and has been linked to the 2004 Madrid bombings and 2003 attacks in Casablanca."

Who knows, my paisans may have put a stop to a future attack against the USA while it was still in its early stages, or at the least put a huge roadblock in the plans. Either way, we are definitely a tiny bit safer because of what they have done. Congress & US Law Enforcement, are you paying attention? Are you willing to follow their lead?

BRAVO ITALIA!!!!!