The cyanide-based chemical found in the possession of four Moroccan men arrested in Rome yesterday might not be as dangerous as previously thought, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 20).

Italian police discovered the men had a four-kilogram bag of a cyanide-based chemical and a map of Rome’s water system on which the U.S. Embassy was marked.  Italian officials had told the embassy that the bag contained potassium cyanide, a common rat poison.  If four kilograms of potassium cyanide were mixed into a few thousand gallons of water, it would kill anyone who drank it, said Rome University pharamacologist Luciano Caprino.

Later, however, Italian Chief Prosecutor Salvatore Vecchione said the chemical had been identified as potassium ferrocyanide, which contains a small amount of cyanide.  The chemical is harmless if it is dissolved in water, Caprino said (Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 21).

“If this substance had been put in the water network, it appears that it would not have been capable of causing any damage whatsoever,” said a top Italian government official.

The Italian police said that they do not know how the four men planned to access the water pipes to the U.S. Embassy.  A label on the map, however, identified the precise location of an access point, according to a source familiar with the case.

“We’re carefully reviewing security measures and taking all appropriate precautions,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.  “At this point, we don’t see an immediate threat to the embassy or embassy employees” (Melinda Henneberger, New York Times, Feb. 21).

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