Terrorism threat 'could drift to Europe'
Italy’s top domestic security official said today that terrorists were likely to head to Europe once violence in Iraq was over, and that Italy was getting ready to deal with the threat.
Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu told a news conference in Rome that terror networks were now focusing their fight in Iraq, but there were concerns they would eventually drift to Europe.
“Al-Zarqawi’s network is more interested in fighting the West in Iraq than in Europe or in the US,” he said, referring to Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked leader of Iraqi insurgency.
“Once the Iraqi situation is solved or cleared up, they will tend to come back to Europe,” Pisanu said, adding the expected drift would be similar to the one seen in western European countries at the end of the Balkan wars.
“We’re getting ready,” he said, without elaborating on how Italy was preparing.
Anti-terrorism police and prosecutors in Italy have described the country mainly as a logistics base for international terrorism, with cells active in recruitment and busy procuring false documents.
According to an intelligence report released last year, however, Italy also served as a departure point for suicide attackers linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida and active against US-led forces in Iraq.
Italian authorities have carried out large numbers of arrests against alleged members of extremist cells which they say have links to international terrorism, mainly in the north of the country. Many suspects have been released or acquitted at subsequent trials.
Shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Italy introduced the charge of subversive association aimed at international terrorism as part of its efforts to step up the fight against suspected terrorists.
So far, no one has been convicted of the charge.
Police have also been on high alert since the terror attacks in the US, beefing up security at government buildings, embassies, monuments and places of worship, as well as at airports, ports and train stations.
About 13,000 potential targets in Italy are under constant surveillance, Pisanu said.
