The following report from Italy is not current — the event described occurred in early August — but it is relevant to what is happening now, and what is likely to happen in the near future. After the “Balkan route” was choked off early this year, the flow of migrants has taken a detour through North Africa and the Mediterranean to the islands and southern coastline of Italy. In October along, more than 27,000 “refugees” — a record number — landed in Italy.
This should be of concern not just to the Italian authorities, but to the security services of all Western European nations, since the first thing the new arrivals do when they get to Italy is hotfoot it to the border of France, Switzerland, or Austria in hopes of making their way to the Promised Land (Germany, Sweden, or the UK).
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Below is the text of the report on the incident from Il Giornale, also translated by FouseSquawk:
August 1, 2016
Praying to Allah in the station: Six Muslims arrested with machete
Night of tension in Venice: Three men and three women arrested. Doubts over their identities. In a suitcase (bag) were discovered machetes and stones
High tension at the train station in Venice. In fact, last night trouble broke out when six Muslims who were praying turned toward Mecca, were picked up with a machete and stones.
A discovery that threw a shadow of uncertainty upon the group of Turks, who, according to what was gathered from security services, also had false documents on them. What they were doing, where they were headed, and especially what their intentions were is not yet clear.
A sworn guard was alerted at 4:30am. He became suspicious when he saw six persons, three men and three women, on their knees and reciting the prayer to Allah. All six were turned towards Mecca. The Muslims prayed until they saw the guard. At that point they took off but didn’t get far. Security forces, in fact, came to blows with two persons. As explains Il Messaggero they were “O.A.”, 49 years of age, born in Germany, in possession of a Turkish identity document and a German residence permit in another person’s name; and “A.E”, born in 1992, with a Turkish passport, currently living in Slovenia “for study reasons”. In O.A.’s bag agents found a machete and some stones — one particularly large. He tried to explain “the stone”. “I don’t know how it got there.” “The machete was for use in celebrating the Islamic feast of sacrifice.”
The documentation on O.A. arrived from Germany in a few hours. The photo did not match with the arrested person. In addition, the story told by A.E was not convincing. He said he didn’t know his co-nationals and wound up praying with them almost by accident.
“They had been sitting and talking in Turkish,” he said — I went up to them and was invited to pray with them.”
Then in the afternoon, the other four persons of the group were arrested. They are three women and one man. According to the accounts of Il Messaggero, they entered Italy at the Fiumicino airport (Rome) last July 29. They had Interrail train tickets with them. They said they were headed to Barcelona. “We are tourists,” they continued to repeat. “We met O.A. by accident yesterday in Venice, and he asked us to join the group to pray together”. However, this account did not convince anyone.
Video transcript:
| 00:01 | A butcher knife in a back pack with a length of about 35 centimeters. | |
| 00:05 | “Was for my use to sacrifice animals”, (unintelligible) justified the 24-year-old “Tunisian’“ | |
| 00:10 | arrested with false documents at the Venice-Santa Lucia train station, | |
| 00:14 | who was part of a group of six co-nationals who at about five o’clock on Sunday morning | |
| 00:19 | began to pray in a suspicious manner, drawing the attention of a guard | |
| 00:23 | who called 113. Searched by the POLF (railway) agents. | |
| 00:28 | The Turk turned out to be in Italy illegally while possessing the knife and a sharpened stone. | |
| 00:33 | After the latest attack carried out by ISIS on a train in Germany, | |
| 00:37 | the anti-Terrorism apparatus is on maximum alert. The photo | |
| 00:42 | of the man was immediately circulated to all European police to get some verification. | |
| 00:47 | It is obvious that this experience shows us that just because a person has no previous record | |
| 00:52 | does not mean he cannot commit crimes of a certain type, | |
| 00:55 | especially with what is happening and what happened in the recent past | |
| 00:59 | in the European region teaches us. Therefore we can’t take anything for granted. | |
| 01:04 | The foreigner has thus been arrested for making a false declaration to a public official because | |
| 01:08 | he stated he was a German citizen presenting forged identity documents | |
| 01:12 | His case is continuing. Released after interrogation | |
| 01:16 | are the other five Turks who were praying in his company, among them the women, | |
| 01:20 | and turned out to be casual acquaintances. I was in close contact all yesterday afternoon with | |
| 01:25 | the chief of police, also, naturally keeping other high officials informed, | |
| 01:30 | because it is obvious that at the first moment the thought | |
| 01:34 | whether its the POLF (rail agents) who intervened, | |
| 01:38 | whether it is DIGOS, who arrived immediately afterwards, it was | |
| 01:42 | to verify that the subject didn’t have others | |
| 01:46 | together with him and perhaps also in possession of instruments | |
| 01:51 | such as what he had. |
Tourists celebrating the Islamic feast of sacrifice (Eid al Adha). That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Never mind it was in September this year. I too, gather with total random strangers and start praying in random locations. Once again, people just over reacting to Jihadis with sharp objects. Maybe he was talking about that new celebration “The Islamic feast of infidel sacrifice”. You can celebrate that any time.
They were let go! So what was the point of it all? They are probably now in hiding. This story is repeated all over Europe. Apprehended and then released! A waste of time. They ought to be DEPORTED.