Al-Qaeda calls, Rome responds
By Lorenzo Vidino for Counterterrorism blog
It appears that al Qaeda is playing politics in Europe once again, this time targeting Italy. Last April Italian voters ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of U.S. efforts in the war on terror who sent a contingent of 1,600 troops to Afghanistan and 2,700 to Iraq. Italians voted to replace Berlusconi with Romano Prodi, who heads a coalition government whose main components have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of all Italian troops. Since Prodi’s election Italian troops have been hit with repeated attacks in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The attacks came as surprises, since Italian troops are involved mostly in peace-keeping missions and have been attacked only sporadically in the three years they have been operating on the ground in the two countries. Hence the suspicion, revealed by Italian military intelligence, that the attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan have been coordinated in order to put “pressure on the new Italian government to withdraw its military contingents.” Knowing that the new government is already inclined to withdraw troops, but has not taken the decisive step in order not to open its mandate with a faux pas with Washington, al Qaeda might be trying to put additional pressure and to, once again, influence the democratic process of a European country. We’ll see in the next weeks if they have scored another victory.
read it all here
It appears that al Qaeda is playing politics in Europe once again, this time targeting Italy. Last April Italian voters ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of U.S. efforts in the war on terror who sent a contingent of 1,600 troops to Afghanistan and 2,700 to Iraq. Italians voted to replace Berlusconi with Romano Prodi, who heads a coalition government whose main components have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of all Italian troops. Since Prodi’s election Italian troops have been hit with repeated attacks in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The attacks came as surprises, since Italian troops are involved mostly in peace-keeping missions and have been attacked only sporadically in the three years they have been operating on the ground in the two countries. Hence the suspicion, revealed by Italian military intelligence, that the attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan have been coordinated in order to put “pressure on the new Italian government to withdraw its military contingents.” Knowing that the new government is already inclined to withdraw troops, but has not taken the decisive step in order not to open its mandate with a faux pas with Washington, al Qaeda might be trying to put additional pressure and to, once again, influence the democratic process of a European country. We’ll see in the next weeks if they have scored another victory.
read it all here
posted by Enzo at
5:31 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks for the information contributed in this site.
Hi, I would like to invite you to visit
http://www.newcreation.org.sg/testimonies/testimonies.htm
http://www.newcreation.org.sg/resources/video/videomessage.htm
Non credo che gli atti violenti siano legati....specie quello in Afghanistan. Le casualità esistono ed anche molto spesso.
Abdul
Stavolta credo che siano collegati. E' un messaggio diretto a Roma, al tuo nuovo governo, ai tuoi amici comunisti. Ciao, amico mio
I wish there was something that could be done to get Prodi OUT. From all I read he is nothing but bad news for Italy, Europe and the US.
Berlusconi called him only a few months ago a "useful idiot". He is delivering Italy to the worst communists in the world: the capitalist communists! They are loaded with money, support and sponsors...What a bunch of hypocrites!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home