Can anyone help with Italian?

[paulthompson]

Hi,
The other day, I came across this 9/13/01 article from Discovery News, which seems connected to the Discovery Channel:

While investigators in the United States scramble to indentify those responsible for terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Italy's daily La Repubblica reported today that bin Laden was plotting an attack against President George W. Bush already two months ago, at the G8 summit in Genoa, according to investigations by the Italian secret service Sisde.

A Sisde document tells of a meeting in the Finsbury mosque in northern London on June 29. It was attended by Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, a man named Mustapha Melki and a certain Omar.

"Abu Hamza proposed an ambitious but unlikely plot which involved attacks carried by planes," reads the note published in the paper, which goes on to dismiss the plan as potentially "unsuccessful" because of its complexity.

Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Afghanistan war veteran who lost both arms and an eye while defusing a mine, heads a radical Islamic group called Supporters of Sharia. Mustapha Melki is linked with Abu Doha, a key figure in Osama bin Laden's terrorism network, who was arrested in London recently.

"The belief that Osama bin Laden is plotting an attack is spreading among the radical Islamic groups," warned the Italian document in a chilling prediction of this week's events.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030418005712/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010910/abroad.html

This seems to be yet more significant evidence of foreknowledge at least on part of the Italians, because of the mention of "planes" instead of a single plane. Elsewhere, the article states: "At the same time, reports are emerging that the Italian secret service had foreknowledge of a terrorist attack involving planes." We know these concerns about the Genoa summit were passed on to Bush himself, who slept on an aircraft carrier as a result. Was he told about an al-Qaeda plan for a multiple airplanes-as-weapons attack?

I would really like to track down the original La Repubblica article and get it translated into English (as I could be misunderstanding the plural aspect based on a bad translation or something). Unfortunately, that paper doesn't seem to be part of Lexis Nexus. I looked on the Web Archive, and found Sept. 14, 2001, but not Sept. 13:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010914220534/www.repubblica.it/

Just by luck, that has another interesting foreknowledge article, here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010914221143/www.repubblica.it/online/mondo/afg/padre/padre.html

I gather from various keywords that it's another version of this incident that I have a timeline entry for:

September 7, 2001: Priest Is Told of Plot to Attack U.S. and Britain Using Hijacked Airplanes
At a wedding in Todi, Italy, Father Jean-Marie Benjamin is told of a plot to attack the U.S. and Britain using hijacked airplanes as weapons. He is not told specifics regarding time or place. He immediately passes what he knows to a judge and several politicians. He later states, “Although I am friendly with many Muslims, I wondered why they were telling me, specifically. I felt it my duty to inform the Italian government.” Benjamin has been called “one of the West’s most knowledgeable experts on the Muslim world.” Two days after 9/11, he meets with the Italian Foreign Minister on this topic. He says he learned the attack on Britain failed at the last minute. (ZENIT, 9/16/01) It is not known if the Italian government warns the U.S. government of this before 9/11.

So I'd like to see this short article translated, too, at least to confirm the Zenit account (Zenit is the Vatican's press agency).

Can anyone help? I'm hoping someone who speaks Italian might be able to poke around the above links and the La Repubblica website search engine, if they have one, and maybe find the first article. That would be much appreciated.

[seatnineb]

1. Translation.

Here you go Paul.


"These terrorists can destroy the the western world in just 3 days".
A French priest ,father Jean Marie Benjamin, who is one of the most knowledgeable with regards to the Muslim world, fired a warning to world leaders in an interview with Avvenire,which is on sale tomorrow.Informed by "credible sources in the Islamic world",as he himself claims,(he had) in someway predicted the attacks in New York and Washington.


Jean Marie Benjamin, last Thursday, at Todi, after having celebrated a wedding, told a euro minister,other politicians and a magistrate/judge:"they are getting ready to do horrible things, they have the ability to get hold of a commercial airliner with all the passengers and launch it against densely populated areas.Even Great Britain was a target but something went wrong and they had to abort.They have the technology and the capacity to commit unimaginable atrocities". All of this(was said), 4 days before the attacks perpetrated by the terrorists close to Bin laden.


And this evening, as a guest on the TV program Porta a Porta(Door to door) he restates: "capturing Bin Laden would not count for anything,on the contrary ,it would initiate a terrorist network branched throughout the world" warns the French priest who in 2000 organized the flight that violated the embargo against Bagdad.
"There are 70 organizations connected to each other in 30 different countries and they can strike at any moment including the heart of Europe.Hitting Bin Laden would be like eliminating a finger from a body that would immediately cause a reaction that would have tragic consequences for our society.


Paul,I actually have the interview from Porta Porta(recorded on 14/9/01)/
The presenter of the program asked Father Benjamin a couple of times if he would reveal his sources.

But he refused to do so.

[paulthompson]

2. Thanks!

On a point of clarification:

"Even Great Britain was a target but something went wrong and they had to abort."

Is that something that was said BEFORE 9/11, or is this something the priest is speculating after 9/11? There's a future tense, past tense, then future tense thing going on there.

From the Zenit account, it sounds like he doesn't know about the Britain failure until after 9/11:

The priest said he had no idea where the attacks would take place specifically. The individuals he met -- whose identity and country he did not reveal to the press -- only mentioned the United States and England, and the use of suicide planes.

According to what the priest has learned, the attack on Great Britain failed at the last minute.

http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=9943


Also, do you think you could find that other La Repubblica article somehow? Does the newspaper have a search function or something?

[paulthompson]

3. By the way...

Seatnineb, did you want to be credited for the translation, and if so, by what name? Thanks again for the help!