VATICAN THE TARGET? – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Italy has conducted a large anti-terror sweep that shows that the threat of terror is as great as ever, and may be greater.  From CNN:

Rome (CNN) Italian authorities said they had launched a "vast anti-terrorism operation" Friday, going after suspects associated with al Qaeda who had discussed a range of targets, including the Vatican.

Some members of the terrorist cell had direct contact with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before his death in Pakistan in 2011, wiretaps showed, Italy's state-run ANSA news agency reported.

And wiretaps and other intelligence revealed that the group planned to carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as in Italy, according to Caligari Chief Prosecutor Mauro Mura.

Some evidence indicated the Vatican was among the targets considered, police said. Talk of this took place March 2010, around the time a possible suicide bomber from Afghanistan entered Italy, Mura said.

Police said, too, that some of the suspects were involved in a Pakistani market bombing in 2009 in which more than 300 people were killed and injured

The suspects had been under surveillance for years, some as far back as 2005, police said.

On Friday, Italian State Police closed in, carrying out raids in seven provinces in what they called a first-of-its-kind operation. One of the raids targeted the alleged terrorist cell's headquarters on the island of Sardinia.

COMMENT:  With the Middle East in flames, we can only imagine what will happen if terror groups get control of governments.  We've been lucky that Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons, has not gone down the drain.  But the drain is still there, and our will power may not be.

April 24, 2015