VETERAN ISLAMIC FIGHTERS COULD LAUNCH ATTACKS IN ITALY, SAYS REPORT
BBC Monitoring - August 1, 2004

"Mujahidin in Italy", published by Italian newspaper La Stampa on 31 July

Rome: The fear of the Italian intelligence services is that a group - "we are talking about roughly a few dozen" - of "old" mujahidin, jihad fighters in the various theatres of war, who are today settled in our country, may decide to go into action. This is a danger which the six-monthly report by the intelligence services, which was given to parliament yesterday, makes explicit: "In our country militants have settled who are linked both to the north African terrorist groups and to the networks active in Iraq. In general, these are individuals who have relocated to Italy after having waged jihad in the crisis areas (from Bosnia to Afghanistan)."

The analysis by Italy's secret services, which is backed up by the latest judicial investigations in Milan confirming there were direct connections between the cell which organized and carried out the Madrid massacres on 11 March and those present on Italian soil, has sounded the alarm: "The proximity to 'military' exponents, and the previous information regarding the participation of individuals from Italy in the 'martyrdom' activity in Iraq, lead one to believe that our country is exposed both to initiatives which come from outside - in other words, those entrusted to foreign commando groups - and to those thought planned and executed at the local level."

The intelligence officers' report leaves open the possibility that those who may go into action may be cells which come from outside, or cells present in Italy. Italy's intelligence services do not have clear information regarding an imminent attack in Italy: they reach this hypothesis by means of an assessment, the analysis of a scenario, in the firm belief that, with the Madrid attack on 11 March, Islamic terrorism has moved on "to a phase of direct aggression against Europe." "Well-placed sources," intelligence officials explained, "have indicated the presence on Italian soil of mujahidin from war scenarios. In the absence of reports regarding the mobilization of these veterans, with the purpose of organizing and carrying out an attack in Italy, their presence is to be analysed, and assessed in a more general context."

The mujahidin who have returned to Italy had been known about for some time. Several judicial investigations in the last few years had "recorded" the evidence of these "jihad fighters": eavesdropped conversations and wiretaps documented the participation of the individuals who were under investigation (and who were later arrested) in the attacks in Chechnya, as well as in Bosnia. And intelligence that had been gathered from the Iraqi scenario had signalled the presence of at least 50 or so mujahidin, with Italian identity documents. In short, if not resident in Italy, these mujahidin had certainly passed through Milan, or some other city, where they had been able to get hold of a forged identity document.

Also in the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, Italy's intelligence services had pointed up (in the report to parliament for the first six months of 2002) a worrying "mobility" on the part of jihad fighters: "The dispersion over the global scene of the fleeing mujahidin could foster the reorganization of the logistical structure of the movement in other sensitive contexts, the revitalization of fundamentalism in areas bordering on our country, such as north Africa, and its convergence in regions which are able to act as outposts for future offensive projections, such as the Balkans, where intelligence signals point up a worrying interconnection between the Islamic movement, irredentism, and crime."

Thus back then, prior to the war in Iraq, consideration had been given to the possibility that Islamic fundamentalist militants, who had tried to defend the regime of the Taleban, had abandoned Afghanistan, once they were defeated, in order to fall back elsewhere. Between then and now not only have cells and organizations along the lines of Al-Qa'idah multiplied in number in Islamic countries - the Arabian peninsula, and the Mediterranean area - but many combatants have moved into the Iraqi theatre of war. The intelligence services' report summed the situation up as follows: "By accentuating that compartmentalized structure which makes the front inspired by (Usamah) Bin-Ladin a galaxy which is as composite as it is evanescent, the armed Islamic movement has acted by means of regional networks and autonomous nuclei. This front can be broken down into the residual central network, which still includes the historical leaders of Al-Qa'idah, and area networks led by local emirs, and the whole range of affiliated organizations, which are to be regarded as including both the groups that are organically linked to Bin-Ladin's formation and those which have borrowed from that formation their ideological horizon and operational methods." Those who have "relocated," in other words the mujahidin based in Italy, could fit the identikit of "Jihad-style groups" which operate "largely outside structured movements."

Source: La Stampa, Turin, in Italian 31 Jul 04 p 7

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