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Italian authorities were incensed when news of the arrests leaked out and put a freeze on information related to the case. The Rome-based daily La Repubblica quoted an angry Italian intelligence source: "This affair is damn serious, and some big mouths have blown it. Now we have seven Moroccans who are barely talking, and the big fish are still at large." By the end of the week, an Interior Ministry official confirmed that a total of nine Moroccan immigrants had been taken into custody on suspicion of being part of the Rome-based terrorist cell. But at least...
...week's guilty verdicts were the first since the attacks in the U.S. that "recognized the existence on European territory of a cell that had strong links with a base in Afghanistan." The Milan cell has not, however, been caught with potential weapons, such as the toxins found in Rome...
...Italian justice official told Time that investigators are trying to determine if there were direct links between those arrested last week and Khemais' Milan cell: "It looks as though the Rome suspects are part of the same Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat. So it's a real possibility that there were contacts." Other early evidence points to signs of al-Qaeda operations, including piles of false identity papers for apparent sale and distribution. And the plot's unsophisticated approach recalls the relatively simple tools used by other presumed al-Qaeda members, such as suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid...
Another troubling aspect of the case is the renewed interest in the U.S. embassy in Rome, which was closed for three days last January after the Tunisian secret service warned that an attack could be imminent. At the time, the shutdown took much of the embassy staff by surprise. The latest threat comes in a much different context, however, and the embassy remained open throughout the week. "We're keeping our spirits up," said one embassy official. Still, additional barricades could be seen around the palatial complex after the arrests had been made...
...embassy may become even more of an al-Qaeda target as attempts are foiled. "We've seen the penchant - almost obsession - of Islamist terrorists to go back to targets they have been prevented from destroying in earlier plots," this source says. This new attempt on the U.S. embassy in Rome may not have been as daring or well-planned as the World Trade Center attack, but it could have been deadly