| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Italy tape: 'Joy' over American's beheading |
| 2005-12-12 |
| Is this what Islam is all about? Need Gentle to clarify things. Italian police were listening as the man identified as an Egyptian radical shouted with joy while watching a video of the beheading of American Nicholas Berg by his al Qaeda captors. "Come nearer, watch closely, this is the politics you have to follow, the politics of the sword," he advised another man as Berg's screams rang out. "Go to hell, enemy of God, kill him, kill him, cut it well, cut off his head," he said. Authorities say the statements recorded from phone taps and microphones show that Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, a 34-year-old Egyptian facing trial in Milan next month on terrorism charges, preached a radical form of Islam and the need to carry out holy war against Western elements. The trial is considered one of Europe's major terrorist prosecutions in recent years. Ahmed is not only accused of terrorist crimes in Italy and of having links to cells across Europe, but he also is considered one of the masterminds of the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,600. Guido Guella, Ahmed's lawyer, said his client maintains his innocence and claims he "never had any role in any association with terrorist aims." He said the Egyptian also says he is not the person speaking on the tapes. But prosecutors say the statements, which appear in a report prepared by Italian anti-terrorism police, are proof of Ahmed's extremist beliefs. He has been indicted on terrorism charges for allegedly planning an attack in an undisclosed location. In the May 28, 2004, conversation about the Berg tape, Ahmed's co-defendant, 22-year-old Egyptian Yahia Ragheh -- described by authorities as a would-be suicide bomber -- questions Ahmed's assertions. "It's not a sin?" he asks. "Who said this?" Ahmed replied. "It's never a sin ... because the cause is never a sin ... Are you scared? Are you shocked?" "No no, I think it is a sin, I only think it's a sin," Ragheh said. "When you enter a movement it's never a sin because there's a cause, the Islamic cause, all in hell ... everyone finishes in hell, everyone. For those who wound Islam the end is this." The taped conversations also reveal Ahmed's alleged connection to the Madrid bombings, authorities say. "There is something, there is something I can't hide from you," he said, lowering his voice in a conversation overheard in a Milan apartment two months after the attacks. "The Madrid attack is my project and those who died as martyrs are my dearest friends." Spanish officials have described Ahmed as one of the March 11 ringleaders. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said after his arrest that Ahmed was "probably among the principal authors" of the Madrid bombings, and that he was "preparing other attacks." Officials have not said where Ahmed, who was trained in the use of explosives in the Egyptian army, was planning the attacks. Italy handed Ahmed over to Spain last December for interrogation in the Madrid bombings, and Spanish authorities sent him back to Italy in April. Spanish Judge Juan del Olmo has filed provisional charges against him of mass murder and terrorism. It is not known when indictments may be handed down in Spain. In the arrest warrant, del Olmo said that while living in Madrid the Egyptian "managed to take control of a small group of Arab followers, all of them with extremist Islamic ideology, supporters of jihad and Osama bin Laden." The Italian police report alleges that Ahmed used tapes, cell phones and computers as recruitment tools in his travels across Europe. He is also accused of giving lessons on falsifying documents, computers and the need for caution in using communications. Italian prosecutors cite the case as an example of cooperation among European law enforcement agencies, often seen as unable to coordinate their investigations because of differing laws and traditions. "Real cooperation is the only instrument to successfully battle international terrorism," said prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli. They say that investigations in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Belgium have turned up evidence that a dangerous group of Islamic militants have moved into Western Europe to recruit insurgents to fight in Iraq. |
| Posted by:Rafael |
| #1 "Come nearer, watch closely, this is the politics you have to follow, the politics of the sword," Comes to mind that Christ had something to say about that. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-12-12 06:03 |