[Reader-list] Anarchists claim responsibility for Rome bombs

[Javed]

So far it was "...but all terrorists are Muslims". But where do you
fit in the anarchists? Are all terrorists not anarchists?

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Anarchists claim responsibility for Rome bombs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101223/wl_nm/us_italy_explosion

ROME (Reuters) – An Italian anarchist group claimed responsibility for
parcel bombs on Thursday that wounded two people at the Swiss and
Chilean embassies in Rome, a reminder of Europe's home-grown threats
at a time of political instability.

A Swiss man was seriously wounded and rushed to hospital. An employee
at the Chilean embassy was less seriously hurt. A note was found stuck
to his clothing, claiming responsibility for the attack on behalf of
the FAI, or Informal Anarchist Federation.

"We have decided to make our voice heard with words and with facts, we
will destroy the system of dominance, long live the FAI, long-live
Anarchy," said the note, written in Italian, which was released in the
evening by the police.

The incidents bore similarities to an episode in Greece last month in
which far-left militants sent parcel bombs to foreign governments
abroad and to embassies in Athens.

The note was signed by the "Lambros Fountas revolutionary cell" of the
FAI, named for a Greek anarchist killed in a clash with Athens police
in March. It also made reference to anarchist movements in Chile,
Mexico, Spain and Argentina.

"Greece, Italy and Spain have seen the presence of
anarcho-insurrectionalist groups that are tightly linked," Italy's
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said before the note was found. "They
are very violent."

The FAI is well known to Italian authorities. Intelligence services
said in a report to parliament last year that it was "the main
national terrorist threat of an anarchist-insurrectionalist type."

In December 2009 the group claimed responsibility for a bomb that
partially exploded in a tunnel under Milan's Bocconi University at 3
am, causing no casualties.

No note was found at the Swiss embassy, but police said the packages
that exploded were almost identical.

The explosions came at a time of tension in Italy. Last week saw an
anti-government student protest that descended into some of the worst
street violence in Rome for many years.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini condemned the incidents,
which he said were a serious threat to diplomatic missions in Rome. He
urged caution and warned against alarmist reactions.

The attacks, like those in Greece, focused attention on Europe's
domestic security threats at a time when authorities had otherwise
been warning of the risk of attacks by al Qaeda.

"It doesn't look like a typical jihadist thing. It looks more like the
act of a leftist, fringe group," said Stephan Bierling, professor of
International Politics at Regensburg University in Germany.

Spending cuts caused by the financial crisis have led to
demonstrations and strikes around Europe, and experts expect a rise in
political violence by far-left groups.

"Given the similarities with the recent parcel bombs in Greece
following anti-austerity protests, this could be a copycat incident by
domestic activists," said Samantha Wolreich, European risk analyst at
advisory firm AKE.

A Greek police official said they had so far not received a request
for help from Italian police. He said Greek authorities had stepped up
checks of parcels at airports across the country following the attacks
in Italy.

HEIGHTENED SECURITY FEARS

Bomb disposal experts searched the Swiss embassy offices but staff
remained in the building following the incident, which occurred at
around midday (1100 GMT).

Firefighters conducted checks of the Chilean embassy, in the same
prosperous neighborhood, after the explosion of the package the size
of a document. Other inspections were carried out at foreign missions
across the Italian capital.

A source in the Rome prosecutors' office said the package in the
Chilean embassy had been sent from Italy, while the package in the
Swiss embassy had been completely destroyed.

"We are reviewing our security posture in Rome in light of incidents
today," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in
Washington.

Chilean ambassador Oscar Godoy said there had been no indication that
an attack was likely.

"This is an absolutely irrational and brutal act of terrorism," he
told reporters.

The explosions follow the discovery of a rudimentary device in an
empty underground train in Rome on Tuesday. However, police said that
it lacked a detonator and tests showed it contained no explosive.

(Additional reporting by Antonella Cinelli, Massimiliano Di Giorgio
and Catherine Hornby in Rome, Sven Egenter in Zurich, Olzhas Auyezov
in Kiev, William Maclean and Peter Apps in London, Ingrid Melander in
Athens; Writing by James Mackenzie and Gavin Jones; Editing by Peter
Graff)