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Italy: Men May Have Planned Poison Gas Attack at U.S. Embassy, Reports Say Four Moroccan men arrested last week in Rome might have been nearly ready to carry out a poison gas attack on the U.S. Embassy, according to reports yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 20). Italian law enforcement officials said yesterday they had discovered an underground passage — which might have been part of a terrorist plot — cut into tunnels underneath the U.S. Embassy in Rome. Although various sources have reported that a chemical found in the men’s apartment — potassium ferrocyanide — is harmless when mixed with water, it could have been turned into a lethal gas, a scientist said (see GSN, Feb. 21). The men could have released the gas through tunnels under the city, ITAR-Tass reported. “A toxic cloud would have formed and spread through the tunnels under the center of Rome,” said an expert. “They might have reached the air conditioning units of the embassy and other buildings.” Soon after the arrests, police and maintenance staff began examining water, electricity and gas tunnels under the embassy and found a hole cut into a wall near the embassy, according to ITAR-Tass. Officials who examined the tunnels during a maintenance check in mid-January had found no evidence of any hole (Oleg Osipov, ITAR-Tass, Feb. 24). Investigators said the hole was probably made after the mid-January maintenance check. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that a ladder and a work uniform different than those used by utility workers were found in a section of the tunnel further away from the U.S. Embassy (Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, Feb. 24).
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