Italy Arrests Four Moroccans with Maps, Cyanide

abc ^ | 2/19/02

[knak]

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police arrested four Moroccans on Tuesday in possession of large quantities of cyanide and maps of Rome highlighting the location of the U.S. embassy, ANSA news agency reported early on Wednesday.

ANSA quoted police sources as saying the Moroccans, aged 30 to 40, also had maps of Rome's water system.

Police were not immediately available for comment.

At least two of the men arrested had been followed after three other Moroccans were arrested last week, ANSA said.

[truth_seeker]

Peaceful, tolerant Islam. Europe's citizens should declare to their political leaders, that they want no more open immigration.

Forget about Islam as a religion. It is a violent terrorist political movement. Always has been. Always will be. Treat it as such.

[Bill Rice]

"...the entire Italian army invading Iran.."

Gee, I'll bet that would make those Iranians tremble!

If you check your history, you'll see that Italy usually switches sides faster than the French.

They DO make damn fine motorcycles though.

[piasa]

True... it would be more effective to poison the vino or food and probably easier, given the lack of security in most food processing plants.

Panic and publicity, of course, is the usual desire of terrorists. If it hurts politically or economically, it is useful to them whether or not they kill large numbers of people.

BTW, cyanide can also make a pretty nasty gas. That was the lamebrain idea the first WTC bombers had.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Ever heard of pumps? Acrobatics to get into water towers would not be necessary. And as a bonus, the water company might end up sending them a refund as the meter runs backward. (OK I was kidding about that last part.)

[GeronL]

bump

[DeaconBenjamin]

I thought the multiculturalist battle cry was:
"Moor is better"

[powderhorn]

What is needed is draconian punishment, like hanging the perps that get caught-- before they have a chance to kill anybody.

What might even be more effective would be to hang the leaders of the perps. I wonder how many dead wahabee mullahs it would take to get the message across.

[Stultis]

I don't know how to do it, but anybody think we should have a terrorism_foiled list to ping these kind of articles to? Could be a useful resource in answering appeasers who claim the threat is gone and we should go home and shut 'er down after Afghanistan.

[Stultis]

Ever heard of pumps?

Hmmm. Gee, anybody know what the pressure would be in Rome's municipal water system? I happen to know that 6" to 12" PVC water mains in the United States are generally rated for use at up to 150 or 200 psi, and that municipalities here try to maintain pressures of at least 50 psi in their systems. Are there pumps, which would be available to these charaters, that will move large volumes against pressure of, say, 70 or 80 psi?

[lavaroise]

They are called weapons of mass destruction. They kill the target and many others, including the attacker. Hence is the fine martial science of the 21st century, a blitzkrieg we do not understand.

[FreedomPoster]

Are there pumps, which would be available to these charaters, that will move large volumes against pressure of, say, 70 or 80 psi?

Speaking as a degreed and registered mechanical engineer who has designed large domestic water systems for high-rise hotels and offices - yep, a pump able to do that is really not that big a deal. I'm not counting on all terrorists being stupid, though many sure seem to be.

FYI, from a civil defense readiness standpoint, I have a blue polypropylene 55 gallon drum of potable water (and a few ounces of bleach, of course) in my crawl space.

[piasa]

No need to give them ideas, one of the terrorist documents reported early on was an email that mentioned how they hadn't thought of going after the water supplies until the western press made such a big deal out of how vulnerable water sytems can be. Which is amusing since it always seemed like an obvious target to me.

They sure found an unusual way to use passenger jets.

[lafroste]

Are there pumps, which would be available to these charaters, that will move large volumes against pressure of, say, 70 or 80 psi?

The problem is so easy to solve it borders on the trivial. It would be extremely easy to inject a concentrated cyanide solution into a pressurized force main. Many companies make the requisite equipment, and that equipment can be quite small.

[eno_]

Yup. Multi-layered threat, poison... all in the Al Quaida playbook.

[denydenydeny]

Indexing.

[Francohio]

You are CORRECT, Sir.

While many many of our MTV kids are trimming their mullets, majoring in speech at the local JC, doping, and screwing, the country is full of earnest young Muslims plodding through Engineering. (Perhaps it's because only they can understand the Chinglish spoken by the instructors... but they're doing it.)

Some are smart. But even the many who are flunking will learn enough to follow a water pipe blueprint.

[ffusco]

completely false statement. Italy reluctantly entered ww1 as an ally of the US, after the war she received almost none of the spoils promised by the west. This discontent let to a dictatorship. Fascist italy was an axis member ( Il Duce was an idiot) Liberated Italy rejoined the west after They had removed the dictator. Italy hsa since the end of ww2 been one of America's best allies.

[theDentist]

Seems more likely they were going to try to poison the water supply of the American embassy.
I'd imagine they'd consider the Holy See to be acceptable collateral damage.

The b@st@rds!