The suspects, he later told Spanish investigators, envisioned a wave of spectacular attacks: Coordinated suicide bombings would start in Barcelona's vast subway system and then sweep through Portugal, Germany, France and Britain if certain demands were not met.
Asim had been sent to Spain to be a suicide bomber, but he also was an informer for French intelligence working in the no man's land of Waziristan in Pakistan. After he got word to his handlers of an impending attack, the military police in Spain swooped into the neighborhood of Raval in the early hours of Jan. 19 and arrested 14 men. |