Word: swiss
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Were it not for the impressive efforts of Swiss and Italian antiterrorist squads last week, the marble and granite U.S. embassy on Rome's Via Veneto could have shared the fate of the American embassy in Beirut last September. The police teams uncovered a cell of Islamic extremists who seemed to be on the verge of executing yet another bomb attack on a symbol of U.S. authority. The plot may have been the one brazenly promised by the shadowy Islamic Jihad group two days before the U.S. presidential election, when the terrorists promised to mount a violent operation that...
...counterterrorist operation began when Swiss police stopped Hussein Hanih Atat, 21, a Lebanese national, at Zurich International Airport as he was making a connection from Beirut to Rome. Officials found several explosive arming devices in his suitcase. Atat was also carrying 5 Ibs. of highly volatile plastic material in a cloth belt under his shirt. An accomplice escaped detection and took a taxi to Zurich's railway station, where police later found a suitcase containing another 5 Ibs. of explosives. The accomplice is thought to have made his way to Rome...
...Swiss alerted the Italian secret service, which immediately swung into action. In a predawn raid, agents broke into two apartments in the seaside resort of Ladispoli, 24 miles northwest of Rome. There they rounded up seven young Lebanese, all students at the University of Rome. In the apartments the Italian agents found volumes of propaganda for Islamic Jihad, the outfit that claimed responsibility for the Beirut embassy bombing, as well as last year's suicide attack on the U.S. Marine compound in Beirut in which 241 American servicemen died. The agents also discovered a suspiciously accurate plan...
...highly publicized case sparked a diplomatic tug-of-war between officials in Washington and Bern. Because Switzerland's law forbids the divulging of business secrets, authorities there took a dim view of an American court fining a Swiss firm to obtain documents. In August 1983 Swiss officials descended on Rich's Zug offices and seized papers out of fear that the company would cave in to U.S. investigators...
Federal officials will probably never be able to put Rich and Green on trial. Swiss authorities refused last month to hand over the pair on the ground that a 1900 extradition treaty with the U.S. does not cover the fugitives' alleged crimes. A further difficulty is that Rich has renounced his American citizenship to become a Spaniard, and Green reportedly is now a Bolivian. The two are unlikely to return to the U.S. of their own accord. Prosecutor Giuliani has said he would accept no plea bargain from the traders unless it would "expose them to substantial prison terms...