Al Qaeda's Communications Center From Bosnia To Italy (The Islamic Cultural Institute)

The Islamic Cultural Institute is a mosque located in Milan, Italy, which has close ties to Ayman al-Zawahiri of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. And Egyptian radical fundamnetlist cell, Gamma Islamiyah, whose leader Omar Abdel Rahman (Blind Sheikh) is also a major influence. The mosque is also sometimes frequented by 1992 WTC Bombing suspect, Ramzi Yousef, as a logistics base. The mosque was used as a coordination center for future terrorist plots in Europe.

The Italian security service, Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare, began an operation monitoring Shaaban and the mosque for terrorism related activities in the mid 1990's. Later, US and Italian intelligence will claim that the mosque was a major conduit for Al Qaeda and Egyptian terrorist groups, and begins wiretapping calls in August of 2000, between Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman,Yemen section chief in the Political Security Organization and Mahmoud Es Sayed. Sayed is a close associate to al-Zawahiri. It is learned that Abdulrahman insinuates an attack against the United States and that sleeper cells are already in the country learning how to fly airplanes at local flight schools.