Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ROME811
2006-03-15 12:52:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

ROME SECURITY ENVIRONMENT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE

pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ROME 000811 

SIPDIS

FOR DS/DSS/ITA, AND DS/IP/EUR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PTER IT ANTITERRORISM FORCE PROTECTION
SUBJECT: ROME SECURITY ENVIRONMENT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE
(SEPQ)

REF: STATE 162859

This cable is Sensative But Unclassified protect accordingly.

(SBU) Answers are keyed to questions in reftel:

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ROME 000811

SIPDIS

FOR DS/DSS/ITA, AND DS/IP/EUR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PTER IT ANTITERRORISM FORCE PROTECTION
SUBJECT: ROME SECURITY ENVIRONMENT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE
(SEPQ)

REF: STATE 162859

This cable is Sensative But Unclassified protect accordingly.

(SBU) Answers are keyed to questions in reftel:


1. (SBU) Political Violence:


A. Yes

B. Yes

C. Yes

D. 200 individuals in front of the Embassy, but more for
some sensitive issues, like the war in Iraq, can attract up
to twenty thousand when the demonstration is held in the city
center and then moves to the Embassy.

E. Can be for U.S. foreign policy, military and/or domestic
issues, all the above.

F. Generally peaceful, with a trend towards increased
levels of civil disobedience.

G. Currently no. Objects have been thrown at the Embassy
and into the compound but to date no damage.

H. No

I. Yes, anti-government demonstrations are common
throughout Italy. In particular there will be a General
election in April of 06 and we anticipate more and larger
demonstrations in the next two/three months.

J. Yes, in the last twelve months we have had
demonstrations against the U.S. and U.S. policies in front of
all our major facilities (U.S. Embassy and the three
consulates),as well as in front of all the U.S./Italian
Military Bases.

K. Demonstrations vary greatly in size, depending on the
issue and the organizers, but labor demonstrations frequently
attract numbers in the thousands and recent &hot-button8
causes drew upwards of 300.

L. Generally peaceful; however, based upon the recent trend
of increased levels of civil disobedience they can turn
violent.

M. Currently no.


2. (SBU) Macro Conflict Conditions:


A. Yes ) coalition activity in Iraq, Kosovo and
Afghanistan.

B. N/A

C. N/A

D. N/A


3. (SBU) Host Country Capabilities:


A. Yes

B. From time to time, USG agencies offer specialized
training. Italy does not meet the requirement for Anti
Terrorism Assistance.

C. No

D. Yes

E. Yes

F. Yes, arrests, expulsions and disruption of the
activities of Islamic extremists engaged in international
logistical support activity and possible planned attacks
against US Interests.

G. Yes

H. Good

I. Average

J. Average, due to long coastline and mountainous borders
with its neighbors.

(SBU) Indigenous Terrorism:



4. (SBU) Anti-American Terrorist Groups

A. Yes

B. Numbers are uncertain. There are the New Red Brigades
) Communist Combatant Corps (BR-PCC) and the Nuclei
Territoriali Anti-Imperialisti (NTA). These groups are not
believed to have large memberships and suffered several
arrests of personnel in the past year. They are primarily
directed against the host government, but espouse
anti-Americanism as well. Of the Islamic groups the Tunisian
Combatant Group is know to be active in Italy

C. No

D. N/A

E. Attempted, In January 2001 Sami Ben Khemais Essid, the
leader of a Tunisian Combatant Group cell, and four other
North Africans were arrested for a plot to attack U.S.
Government assets in March 2001. A different attempt in
2002, that was to target the U.S. Embassy water system, was
foiled by the Italian police who confiscated approximately 10
lbs. of a chemical compound containing cyanide in an
apartment in Rome. The police also confiscated maps
highlighting the U.S. Embassy and showing the city,s water
system.

F. Yes. In March of 2005 Anti-Globalists used IEDs to
attack a McDonalds and a Blockbuster, two U.S. businesses, in
Milan. In 2004 an American fast food chain was attacked in
Brescia.

G. Countrywide

H. The attacks are not limited to any particular region
but than there are U.S. Government facilities in all regions
of Italy so they are all potentially in harms way.


5. (SBU) Other Indigenous Terrorist Groups


A. There are numerous Anarchist groups and the BR-PCC and
NTA, noted above, which are definitively identified as
terrorist groups.

B. The Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI),the Informal
Anarchist Federation (FAI),Cooperative of Artisans, Cooks
and Affiliates (CACA) and the Black Bloc

C. In 2005, two timed IEDs were detonated at police
stations in Milan and Genoa, the Cooperative of Artisans,
Cooks and Affiliates (CACA),a participating affinity group
of the F.A.I., claimed responsibility. There were over
seventy attacks in 2004 by anarchist groups throughout Italy,
small scale and non lethal. The Italian Government is still
compiling the 2005 statistics. In 2003 a synagogue in Modena
was attacked. In December 2002, in Milan, at the Metro
station, an attack against police assets at the Cathedral of
Cremona was foiled. News reports stated that some of the
suspects arrested had direct ties to Ansar al-Islam.
A group claiming to be the &Red Brigade8 murdered an
advisor to the Italian minister of Labor in May 1999 in Rome.
A group claiming to be the BR-PCC murdered another advisor
to the ministry of Labor in Bologna on 19 March 2002. In
February 2003, a shoot-out on a Rome to Florence train left
one policeman dead, one wounded and a known member of the
resurgent Red Brigades dead and one captured.
Anarchist groups continue to engage in low-level attacks
using improvised explosive and incendiary devices against
mostly Italian and European Union-related targets. European
Commission President Prodi received a mailed incendiary
device at his Bologna home. Anti-U.S. sentiment does not
feature prominently in anarchist propaganda although over the
past several years Esso gas stations in Sardinia and an IBM
office elsewhere have been targeted. No deaths have so far
resulted from anarchist activity but Italian authorities have
noted an increase in attacks over the past year with the
potential to do serious bodily harm. Also, there is a
concern of a possible shift in tactics and the use of lethal
secondary devices intended to target police officers
examining the first attack site.
The Treno Alta Velocita (TAV),the under construction
high-speed train network from Lyon to Turin, is seen as a
symbol of State repression by the anarchist groups and by the
green groups it is seen as environmentally destroying the
Susa Valley, a very contentious issue for them. It has been
a site of protests in the tens of thousands and attacks since

1996. Leading up to the Winter Olympics in Turin protest
groups took advantage of increased World attention to
mobilize more and larger protests. During the Games protests
were in abeyance but will probably begin again in the near
future.

D. Some of the attacks listed in C. (above) were lethal.

E. Not in recent memory, although in 1984, the Red Brigade
killed the Director General (a retired U.S. Department of
State Foreign Service Officer) of the Multi-national Forces
and Observers in Rome.

6.(SBU) Transnational Terrorism:


A. Several Islamic terrorists groups including Al-Qaida,
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM),Armed Islamic Group
(GIA),Tunisian Combatant Group, Salafist Group for Call and
Combat (GSPC),Ansar al-Islam, HAMAS and Hizballah have
access to and can make use of support infrastructure provided
by various Islamic extremists located in Italy. Italy-based
cells facilitate terrorist operations globally by:
recruiting, fundraising, forging documents, maintaining safe
houses and running local crime enterprises. There are clear
connections to activity in Iraq, at least five suicide
bombers in Iraq are known to be from Italy, possibly
originating from Milan. There have been arrests and or
expulsions of several extremists over the past year for their
suspected support to international terrorist causes,
including individuals connected to the March 2004 Madrid
bombing.

B. Logistical support, financial, and propaganda support to
international groups.

C. No. The government has demonstrated a willingness to
aggressively pursue groups and individuals identified as
elements or supporters of terrorist groups.

D. No

E. Yes. Italy is home to a relatively large number of North
African and Middle Eastern immigrant communities. Some of
these groups, and certainly individual members of them, are
already sympathetic to Islamic extremist groups for a variety
of reasons. There are no indications that these groups were
spurred to anti-American activity as a result of the
hostilities in Iraq.

F. We continue to be concerned. Sympathy to Islamic
extremist groups may increase based upon continued/long term
presence in Iraq, possible translating into acts against
American interests.

G. Quite available.

7. This cable constitutes response for all Italian posts.
SPOGLI