Italian Officials Arrest Islamic State Suspects Plotting To Hit Vatican, Israeli Embassy In Rome

Italian Officials Arrest Islamic State Suspects Plotting To Hit Vatican, Israeli Embassy In Rome.(WSJ).

Italian police issued six arrest warrants Thursday for people suspected of plotting to join the Islamic State group. Three of the suspects were plotting attacks on the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome, Reuters reported.

According to authorities, investigators intercepted communication from Islamic State members in the Middle East in April ordering Abderrahim Moutaharrik, a Moroccan-born Italian, to carry out attacks in Italy, a sign that the group wants aspiring foreign fighters to stay in the West rather than travel to Syria and Iraq.

“These were messages with alarming, even devastating content,” prosecutor Franco Roberti said. There were no signs that a specific attack had been planned, he said.

The man was told to pay particular attention to Rome because Christians would be flocking to the city for the Holy Year, another prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli said. Pope Francis initiated the Jubilee “year of mercy” in December.

Mr. Moutaharrik, a Moroccan boxer who has Italian citizenship, was detained together with his partner, identified as Salma Bencharki.

Jihadist network ready to strike #Rome, #Vatican nabbedhttps://t.co/wR0leS3krx pic.twitter.com/5UDdPqnQBI

— TRACterrorism.org (@TRACterrorism) April 29, 2016

“I swear I will be the first to attack them in this Italy of crusaders, I swear I’ll attack it, in the Vatican, God willing,” one man said, according to a transcript of a wire-tapped conversation released by Italian officials. Another recording revealed the same man said he had contacted an Albanian man in order to get a gun so he could target the Israeli embassy in Rome.

Officials across Europe have stepped up security in the wake of major terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, took responsibility for both attacks. The November attacks in Paris left 130 people dead and hundreds injured while attacks in Brussels in March left 32 people dead and hundreds injured.

American officials said Monday that ISIS was operating cells throughout Europe in countries including Germany, Britain and Italy.

“That is a concern, obviously, of ours and our European allies,” said James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, when asked about the terror group’s activity across Europe, the New York Times reported.

Italian officials said four of the six suspects were arrested Thursday while the location of a Moroccan man and his Italian wife was still unknown. Officials said the couple had left Italy last year to travel to either Iraq or Syria where ISIS controls territory.

“The new aspect here is that we are not talking about a generic indication [of an attack] but a specific person being appointed to act on Italian soil,” said Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli. Read the full story here.

Plots constantly being interdicted - many of which don't see light due2secrecy, never mind the1's that get coverage. https://t.co/MzSa6hCDsk

— Mubin Shaikh (@MrMubinShaikh) April 30, 2016

United States warns Italy of Terrorist attack threat, authorities searching for five suspects.

United States warns Italy of Terrorist attack threat, authorities searching for five suspects. (TP).

US authorities have warned of possible militant attacks in Italy, whose security services are looking for five possible suspects, Italy’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

Paolo Gentiloni referred to “possible terrorist attacks that could be aimed at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome or the Duomo (cathedral) or Scala theater in Milan”.

“As of yesterday our security forces are working to identify five people,” he said in an interview with state broadcaster RAI.

Italy raised its security alert level to 2, the highest possible in the absence of a direct attack on the country, following Friday’s attacks in Paris in which Islamic State gunmen and bombers killed 129 people.

Gentiloni said the US embassy in Rome had recommended tourists take particular care in certain parts of Italy but had not advised them against going there. Hmmm.....Make sense IS always puts Rome & Vatican as a high value target.

Video - President Obama meets Pope Francis for the first time in Vatican City.

Source NBC News.

First Lady and her girls feed the pandas before leaving China......heading to Rome for 'tête-à-tête' dinner party?

First Lady and her girls feed the pandas before waving goodbye to China......heading to Rome for 'tête-à-tête' dinner party? (DM). 

Michelle Obama and her family ended their week-long trip to China with a visit to a reserve where they helped feed giant pandas before getting on the plane back home. 

The U.S First Lady has been visiting the country on a good-will tour with her daughters Sasha, 12, and Malia, 15, as well as her mother Marian Robinson.

On the final day of the trip the family visited the Chengdu Panda Base, a reserve for about 80 giant pandas, where they were able to feed a number of the animals.


According to Belgium Newspaper NHL the first lady is heading to Rome for a 'tête-à-tête' dinner party with her Hubby.

Hmmm....."Now, make no mistake: the change we need won't come easy or without cost. We will all need to tighten our belts, we will all need to sacrifice and we will all need to pull our weight because now more than ever, we are all in this together."

Video - Rome the scene for the next Woolwich? Long islamic procession chants Allah Akbar in central Rome.

Hmmmm.....As i said earlier in a comment today: "This is just the beginning expect similar ' attacks' in Paris , Brussels and all the main European capitals. When we warned about the potential danger we were called 'Islamophobes , racists , Crusaders'...... But who's doing the killing?"

Is Biden Making False Excuses for Obama?

Is Biden Making False Excuses for Obama?HT: WhiteHouseDossier.By KeithKoffler.

Vice President Biden, who is in Rome to attend the installation mass of Pope Francis I, today told Italian President Giorgio Napolitano that President Obama is skipping the event because of his trip to Israel.

“The President sends his regards and the only reason he’s not here is he’s going to Israel,” Biden said.
Except, during the mass Tuesday morning, Obama will be in . . . Washington. He doesn’t depart for Israel until Tuesday evening U.S. time, which is well into Wednesday at the Vatican. What’s more, Rome is on the way to Israel for Obama. 

Obama has nothing going on Monday that couldn’t be rescheduled. He does meet with the Irish prime minister Tuesday, who is in the United States for the annual St. Patrick’s Day promotion of his island. And he’ll have a substantive chat with the leaders of Northern Ireland. But even Biden doesn’t cite this as a reason to ditch the Pope. It seems perhaps the real reason is that Biden, who is Catholic, has far more interest witnessing the installation of a new Pope that President Obama, who is not.Read the full story here.

Update:  Just one of the things -- with the election of the new Pope and the President’s trip, it seems that we’re going to have both the President and the Vice President abroad next week. You’ll have to excuse me for not having the kind of institutional knowledge that Mark Knoller does, but is there a precedence for this? Were there arrangements that had to be made in order to accommodate the fact that both of them will be moving abroad? And do we have adequate safeguards in place that, God forbid, something would happen that we don't have another Al Haig moment?

MR. RHODES: You know, it’s an interesting question. I actually don't know for certain if they’ll be abroad at the same time. I believe that the Pope’s first event is Tuesday that the Vice President is attending, and the President will be leaving late Tuesday night. So it is an interesting question you ask. I’m actually just not sure whether it will be the case that the Vice President is still overseas in Italy at the same time that President Obama will be leaving U.S. airspace for the region.

So we can look into that. We do take those considerations into account and do prudent planning to ensure that we’re prepared for any contingency, and we often seek to coordinate their travel for that purpose.