| Italian intelligence is taking recent Al Qaeda threats addressed against Italy extremely seriously. Intelligence reports a rise in activity concerning websites connected with the July 15 deadline set by Bin Laden for Westerners to leave Iraq. Based on prior analysis of the Saudi sheik's behavioural patterns intelligence believe the message is a go-ahead for jihad factions to act. The aim is hence to create expectation which translates into generalised panic and a high onus on security forces. The threat according to intelligence is real and has to be taken seriously. There is no clean cut idea as to what the threats refer to, intelligence are merely aware of a general Al Qaeda threat of a grand attack against the infidels. Targets are mush the same as they have always been: European capitals - including Rome, especially after the fall of what many considered as being the Vatican's "protective shield", ill spent as a result of the meeting between the Pope and George Bush -, soldiers in Iraq, Western concerns worldwide as well as Islamic countries with high western tourist influx. Bin Laden has always targeted moderate Arab or Islamic countries in an attempt to swell the tide of fundamentalist unrest. |