4 arrested with cyanide and Rome water supply maps Reuters News Service ROME - Italian police said today they had arrested four Moroccans in possession of large quantities of the deadly poison cyanide and maps of Rome highlighting the U.S. embassy and the city's water supply. Police said they suspect the men, arrested early on Tuesday in an outlying suburb as part of a covert operation, could have been plotting an attack on the embassy or to poison the city's water. They are probing possible links to Osama bin Laden. Seven Tunisians are on trial in Milan as part of a crackdown on groups suspected of having ties to bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. They are also suspected of plotting an attack on the U.S. embassy in January 2001. "The embassy of the United States of America compliments the Italian police and security forces for their excellent work concerning the most recent security threat," said a statement from the U.S. embassy. Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini hailed the operation: "We should be satisfied because this means that the police force is working hard and controlling our territory." But police chiefs and Italy's leading anti-terrorist prosecutors, who were meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday, told reporters that leaks regarding the case may have already caused irreparable damage. Those arrested were found with about 10 pounds of cyanide and a map pinpointing the embassy, charts of Rome's water network and about 100 counterfeit resident permits, police said. At least two of the men were illegal immigrants. The Moroccan embassy said it would only comment after Italy confirmed the identities of the men arrested. "We want to see if they are really Moroccan since in Italy, anyone of colour is called a Moroccan," an embassy source said. The U.S. embassy, prominently located on Rome's famed Via Veneto, has been a suspected target for attack on several occasions in recent months. Even before the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities, the embassy was forced to shut for three days after an intelligence warning of a possible bombing. Following the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, the U.S. State Department warned again that American symbols in Italy could be targets. Italy entered the international spotlight in the fight against bin Laden after U.S. investigators said they believed Milan's Islamic cultural centre was al Qaeda's main European logistics base. Muslim leaders in Italy have denied the charge. The four Moroccans, aged 30 to 40, had been followed by police for days and their detention was related to the arrest of three more Moroccans last week, police said. The Tunisians on trial in Milan have been charged with intent to commit crimes ranging from the trafficking of arms, explosives and poisonous chemicals to trading in false documents and helping illegal immigrants enter Italy. Police believe bin Laden sent them to Europe to supervise attacks, including the possible bombing of the U.S. embassy in Rome last January. Italian justice sources last year released transcripts of telephone conversations in which one of the men on trial in Milan indicated that he was planning chemical attacks in Europe. In one conversation, the Tunisian told a Libyan associate that there was a plan to "try out" a drum of a "liquid" in France. "This liquid is more efficient because as soon as it opens, people are suffocated," he was quoted as saying. --
