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Alessio Vinci: Terror foretold in Italy?

CNN's Alessio Vinci

ROME, ITALY (CNN) -- With the FBI set to announce a major reorganization after criticism of its handling of pre-September 11 investigations, new information has emerged about what Italian authorities might have known before the terrorist attacks in the United States.

According to newspaper reports in Italy, Italian officials caught alleged al Qaeda members on tape discussing a major attack on the United States involving airplanes. Those conversations took place as early as August 2000.

CNN Correspondent Alessio Vinci reported Wednesday on the revelations.

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VINCI: These transcripts were published by the two leading newspapers in Italy, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica. And according to the transcripts, the conversation took place between the leader of a mosque in the city of Milan in northern Italy and a sheik from Yemen.

And according to those transcripts, the sheik is reported to be saying to the leader of the mosque -- and I quote here -- "In the future, listen to the news and remember those words: above the head." And the sheik continues as saying, "The action will be one of those strikes you will never forget," adding, "It will be a terrifying thing. It will move from south to north, from east to west. He who made this plan is a madman but a genius. It will turn you to ice."

Another portion of the transcript says, "You know we are in a country full of enemies of God. But we are always mujahedeen fighters. We can conquer any power using sparks and airplanes. They can't stop us even with their greater weaponry. We just have to hit them and keep our heads high."

These are part of the transcripts published in Italian newspapers [Tuesday]. Italian authorities stopped short of making any direct connection between the transcript and the two suspects, and the September 11 attacks.

But they are saying that because of the September 11 attacks, those transcripts now are gaining new relevance, a higher relevance -- they're more important than what they originally thought.

The reason why those transcripts are coming out only now is because while the intercepts took place at the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001, it took all this time for investigators to go through those intercepts and transcribe them, to translate them. And mainly, the investigators are saying that because of the poor quality of those intercepts, it took all this time to come to the conclusions of what the two suspects were talking about.

So certainly, it would have been very difficult for investigators -- even a year ago when those transcripts first emerged, at least on their desks -- to make a direct connection with the September 11 attacks.

The mosque leader in Milan is a known person to Italian investigators. He was part of an investigation Italian authorities launched before the September 11 attacks, which prompted the arrests of at least 10 Islamic militants. Those 10 Islamic militants were arrested both before and after the September 11 attacks.

CNN: There seems to be the suggestion that the FBI was involved in analyzing these intercepts. Is it clear at what point the FBI got involved with this process?

VINCI: We did ask specifically this question to the Italian investigators. And they're basically telling us, "We're not telling you anything about the involvement of the FBI in this investigation."

We do know, however, that because of the cooperation between the Italian authorities and the United States authorities, it is conceivable that the FBI and other top security agencies in the United States have cooperated or collaborated with the Italian authorities in trying to come to terms about whether this transcript or any other investigation may have been leading to more information about the September 11 attacks.