N.O. Pundit

Italy: Italian authorities arrested nine Moroccans were arrested with a map
of the U.S. embassy and large quantities of a cyanide compound that could
have been turned into a deadly gas. Later, the same group was suspected of plotting a chemical attack on the U.S. embassy in Rome who were arrested previous February

March 2002

Italy: Police arrested a group of six men who were plotting a bio-terrorist
attack involving cyanide.

April 2002

Germany: German authorities detained 11 members of a Palestinian group
suspected of planning attacks in Germany. The German cell members were part of the Sunni group called “Al Tawhid,” that was later discovered to be
associated with Abu Mus ‘ab al Zarqawi. According to contemporary Reuters’ reports the cell was involved in falsifying passports and travel documents, but had later begun to plan an attack inside Germany.

August 2002

Italy: Four Moroccans and an Italian were arrested after they were overheard discussing a plan to attack 14th century Basilica of San Petronio in the northern city of Bologna, which contains a fresco depicting the prophet Mohammad in hell.

September 2002

France/Morocco: French police discovered explosives found on board a
Moroccan airplane. Trained dogs found about 3.5 ounces of plastic explosive
without a detonator in the seat armrest of a Royal Air Maroc charter plane.

Germany: German police arrested a 25-year-old German-born Turk suspected of building five bombs near the tourist city of Heidelberg. They also detained his 23-year-old American fiancée who worked as a civilian at the commissary of the city's U.S. Army Europe headquarters.

October 2002

Italy: Italian police arrested three Egyptian fishermen suspected of
plotting to attack a cemetery of American war dead south of Rome. Police
found explosives and maps highlighting the Nettuno American Cemetery and Memorial in the town of Anzio. In a separate incident, police arrested
members of a suspected al Qaeda of four Tunisians who were allegedly
planning attacks in Europe.

December 2002

France: French police arrested nine suspected Islamist militants who were
preparing an attack on Russian interests in France, including Moscow's
embassy in Paris, as a reprisal for Russian actions in its rebel Chechnya
province. Police raided the suburban flat used by the men, three Algerians
and a Moroccan, and found electronic parts used in detonators and a chemical that can be used in explosives, as well as a personal protection suit from chemical agents, a large sum of cash and false identity papers.

January 2003

United Kingdom: Four North African men charged under Britain's chemical
weapons laws with manufacturing ricin, one of the world's deadliest poisons.
Another six arrested later in the month. A British policeman was killed and
four others injured in an anti-terror raid which police say was linked to
the discovery of a chemical weapons agent in London. Three were arrested.

February 2003

Germany: German police arrested three men suspected of planning attacks inGermany and of supporting the al Qaeda cell in Hamburg which launched the September 11 attacks.

March 2003

Germany: German prosecutors charged a 33-year-old Tunisian man with trying to form a cell to attack U.S. and Jewish targets in Germany. Before being arrested, he was in the process of acquiring "chemical substances" to make bombs, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

August 2003

Germany: German police arrested an Algerian man they said was planning at
least two bomb attacks in holiday resorts in Spain's Costa del Sol.

December 2003

United Kingdom: British security officials foiled planned terror attacks by
al Qaeda followers in Britain and also probably across Europe. Britain
warned an attack is almost inevitable and security services were on high
alert for the past few weeks - arresting 23 suspects - after they said they
had information an operation was planned.

Italy: Italian security forces arrested two Somalis after surveillance
uncovered a planned attack on Italian president Silvio Berlusconi.

April 2004

Spain: Spanish authorities found a bomb planted on a high-speed rail line
south of Madrid. Investigators believed that it was an attempt at a second
attack by the cell that committed the 3/11 Madrid train attack.

United Kingdom: British and Canadian authorities arrested individuals in
both countries. Dawn raids in London and other parts of the country were
later associated with a large-scale VBIED plot that was intended to include
some form of dirty bomb. The raids were Britain’s biggest anti-terror
operation since the September 11.

June 2004

France: French anti-terror police detained a dozen people early in Paris
raids, recovering a handgun and equipment for making false identity
documents. The arrests came five days after reports that the Paris metro had been singled out for attack by militants.

October 2004

CH: Excuse me. When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?

RR: I guess because I listen to the 9/11 Commission, and read their report, and they said that Saddam Hussein was not exporting terror. I suppose that's how, Christopher.

CH: Well, then they were wrong, weren't they?