<

Officials Investigate Breach in Access Tunnel
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
By Frances D'Emilio
Associated Press Writer

As part of an ongoing investigation into al-Qaida, Italian authorities have arrested 12 suspects and a court there recently convicted Essid Sami Ben Khemais, who is suspected of being bin Laden's logistics chief in Europe. Ben Khemais was sentenced to five years for criminal association with the intent to obtain and ship arms, explosive and chemicals.

ROME -- AP
A hole discovered in a tunnel next to the U.S. Embassy in Rome was large enough to crawl through, and embassy officials said yesterday that water pipes leading to the building were circled on a map that was seized along with a cyanide compound in a raid that led to nine arrests.

However, the suspects, all Moroccans, have not been cooperating with Italian authorities who lack hard evidence that an attack was being planned on the embassy, the officials said.

"It's too premature” to know what the aim was, one embassy official said. "We just don't know.” The Rome embassy came under threat a year ago in a thwarted plot blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Italian news reports have said investigators think the Moroccans were involved in a plot to either pump gas into the embassy or poison the water supply.

Today, security experts from the State Department will inspect the tunnel that was marked on the suspects' map of Rome's underground utility lines. The tunnel runs under Via Boncompagni, a street flanking one side of the heavily-guarded U.S. Embassy complex on the fashionable Via Veneto.

After the arrest of the Moroccans last week, a hole was found Wednesday in the tunnel, which contains power and telephone lines, embassy officials said.
(More: The Columbus Dispatch News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Related Stories:
* Tunnel Holes Found Near U.S. Embassy
Nicole Winfield -- The Associated Press
Monday, February 25, 2002

* 'Cyanide attack' foiled in Italy
BBC.com
Wednesday, 20 February, 2002

Dan