MADRID - Investigators believe the masterminds of last yearâs Madrid train bombings set the date for their attack one day after Osama bin Laden threatened Spain and other foreign nations with troops in Iraq, a newspaper report said on Friday. The Al Qaeda chief, in a video that aired Oct. 18, 2003, warned of attacks on US allies that had dispatched troops to Iraq, including Britain, Australia and Spain.
The next day, a key suspect in the Madrid bombings purchased a cell phone in Belgium under a false name, and as a birth date gave March 11, 1921, El Pais said, citing a confidential police report to the judge investigating the attacks that killed 191 people. | So following Binny's threat, he purchased a phone. On that evidence you conclude they decided right then to begin planning the attack? And 3/11/1921 has what signifigance, exactly? |
Police also believe the bombers chose that date to influence Spanish general elections - which were expected in March 2004 - and because March 11, 2004, was exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the report said. | 1921 = 2 1/2. I guess that makes some sense. Or not. |
âIt thus seems the perpetrators considered themselves heirsâ to Sept. 11, the police report said. |