Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian linked to al-Qaida and suspected of heading a terrorist network in Iraq, is now believed to have been the brains behind the deadly Madrid railway attacks, a French investigator told The Associated Press on Friday.
| Called that one, didn't we? They shoulda asked us first and saved all that bus fare... |
Investigator Jean-Charles Brisard said Spanish officials told him some suspects held in the March 11 attacks were in contact with al-Zarqawi as recently as a month or two before the bombings, which killed 190 people and wounded more than 1,800. "They believe today he was the mastermind," Brisard, who is probing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, said in a telephone interview from Geneva, Switzerland.
| First have a look at the usual suspect. If he was someplace else, it might be somebody else. Otherwise, it was probably him. Rinse. Repeat. |
The Spanish Interior Ministry declined to comment on his assertions. "The investigation is at a critical stage," a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Brisard's comments came as the probe spread to Germany, a key staging ground for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. German police raided an apartment in Darmstadt where a Moroccan suspect arrested Wednesday in the Madrid train bombings stayed briefly last year. The 28-year-old man is suspected of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, a prosecutor said. But German officials said they had no evidence that the Madrid attacks were planned or prepared in Germany.
| My guess is that they weren't. Morocco and Moroccans seem to be playing a starring role. |
Morocco, the native country of at least nine of the suspects, reported its first arrests in the case, although a senior official said they had not yielded significant information. In Spain, authorities announced another arrest Friday, and a judge charged a 12th suspect in the case. Spanish investigators believe six or seven of the 18 people now in custody in Spain helped plan the Madrid attacks and that al-Zarqawi was behind the plot, Brisard said.
"So, Mister Big! We meet at last!... Hey! Aren't you...?"
"Yes, Legume. It is I. Zarqawi. Are you surprised?"
"I can't say I'm surprised."
"Mahmoud, hit him in the groin."
"Well, maybe I can say it!" |
In just two weeks, Spanish police say they have put together most of the pieces of the puzzle behind the bombings, Brisard said. "The picture is almost complete now. They are basically telling me that several of these people are talking a lot," Brisard said, referring to suspects he did not name. Brisard is working for lawyers for relatives of Sept. 11 victims and has a copy of a dossier prepared by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who is investigating an alleged al-Qaida cell in Spain. Garzon says the cell's alleged leader and other members helped prepare the Sept. 11 attacks. Suspicion in the Madrid bombing has fallen on an Islamic extremist group from Morocco. The lead suspect, a Moroccan named Jamal Zougam, was described last year by Garzon as a follower of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of the Spanish al-Qaida cell. The description appeared in an indictment returned in September against Yarkas, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and 33 other terror suspects. |