Evidence continues to mount that the Madrid train bombings on 11 March 2004 were planned in Belgium by a group of terrorists who were under surveillance at the time by security service agents. and who did nothing about it. big whoop
When Spanish police said shortly after the attacks that the video claiming responsibility for the attacks had been made in Brussels, the Belgium government angrily said there was no evidence to support this.
deny it all and then demand that a committee be formed ... classis Belgian / Eurocrat behavior
The attacks were claimed by a man called Abu Dujan, but Spanish and Belgian justice officials now suspect the name was an alias for Youssef Belhadj, a Moroccan man living in the Belgian town of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek since 2000. Spanish justice authorities are increasingly convinced Belhadj was the key figure behind the attacks. They claim an analysis of his mobile phone indicates he knew the date of the Madrid attacks some five months before the bombings took place. Belhadj bought a mobile phone in Brussels in October 2003 and gave as his date of birth 11 March 1921.
| "Legume! My saxophone! Note, if you will that the suspect claimed he was 82 years old! Yet he had not only a full head of black hair but a full, bushy beard of the same color!" Inspector Camembert paused to blow the first few bars of "Saint James Infirmary," then set the instrument aside. "Come!" he cried. "The game's afoot! We shall find the merchant who sells him his Grecian Formula!" |
| Or it could have been the date on the driver's license he stole... |
The 19 suspects were arrested in Maaseik and Brussels in two police operations; one before and one after the Madrid attacks. Various suspects are allegedly linked to attacks in Madrid, Casablanca and Saudi Arabia and are suspected members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM). Meanwhile, an alleged member of the GICM arrested in France last week has said all of the European GICM leaders met in the Limburg town of Maaseik in November 2003. GICM is believed to have planned the Madrid bombings and it is considered likely the plans for the attack would have been discussed at the Belgium meeting.