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American Morning

Italian Police Claim to Foil Chemical Attack on U.S. Embassy in Rome

Aired February 20, 2002 - 09:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, a possible terrorist attack averted. Italian police say today they foiled a planned chemical attack on the U.S. embassy in Rome. Four Moroccan men were arrested. They were said to be armed with a cyanide-based chemical and also maps of the city's water supply network, as well as map of Rome with the U.S. embassy circled.

CNN's Rome's bureau chief Alessio Vinci joins us now from Rome.

How real was this threat, Alessio, this morning?

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.

Investigators here, police investigators here, are only confirming to us that yesterday's arrest took place on Tuesday in a pre-dawn raid just outside of Rome. But they would not tell us whether the suspects are believed to be terrorists or people belonging to any specific terrorist organization. What we know here so far is what the embassy officials, U.S. embassy officials are telling us, and that is that after meeting earlier today with officials, officials here in Rome, they are working under the assumption that there was a threat against the U.S. embassy, and that is because investigators during that raid found a map of Rome with the location of the U.S. embassy circled.

U.S. embassy officials, however, are saying they do not want to comment further, because, they say, it is an ongoing investigation, and so far, any other comment would be premature. Of course security at the embassy is very tight. It has been very tight for a long time, ever since especially September 11th, so no new security measures have been taken at the embassy as a result of this particular threat, which again Italian investigators say is real, but still needs to be investigated further -- Paula.

ZAHN: Alessio, I know some of these details are kind of murky at the moment, but when they said these guys were armed with a cyanide- based chemical, in what form was that? Do we know?

VINCI: I understand from media reports it was sort of white powder, like a container with white powder, and people who know about this chemical also say that it is a chemical that is extremely dangerous mainly because it is very difficult to detect, and very difficult to smell. If you put this powder, this composite in water, you won't be able to see it, you won't be able to smell it, you won't be able to taste it, if you drink the water.

So therefore, investigators here are very concerned about what exactly the suspect had been arrested and what they were going to do with this kind of powder. As you said, they had also been found besides with the map of the city of Rome with the U.S. embassy circled, they also had a map of the underground water system adjourned since about a year ago. So those suspects had the very latest information about where to hit, if indeed they wanted to hit the water mane here -- Paula.

ZAHN: Frightening stuff indeed. Alessio Vinci, thank you very much for that update.

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