| Europe | ||
| Nine convicted Madrid bombers on hunger strike | ||
| 2007-11-03 | ||
 Nine of the 21 people convicted over the 2004 Madrid bombings have gone on hunger strike. The prisoners launched their protest against what they termed the "unjust" sentences handed down on Wednesday.
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| Europe | |
| Suspects get 40,000 years for Madrid train bombings. | |
| 2007-11-01 | |
A total of 21 out of 28 people on trial were found guilty of involvement in the 11 March 2004 bombings. "Today, justice has been done," said Spain's prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, commenting the sentences. Seven of the 28 defendants were acquitted, including the main suspect and alleged bombing mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as "Mohammed the Egyptian". Ahmed was extradited to Spain from Italy in 2004 and has been sentenced by an Italian court to eight years in jail for links to Muslim militant groups in Europe. Jamal Zougam, one of the leaders of the Islamist cell who was accused of planting the bombs, was sentenced to 30 years for each of the 191 victims and 20 years for each of the injured, and 12 years for belonging to a terrorist cell. Under Spanish law, he can only serve a maximum of 40 years in prison. Spaniard Emilio Suarez Trashorras, who was found guilty of supplying the bombers with dynamite, also received a sentence of over 35,000 years in jail. Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez ruled out the Basque separatist group ETA's involvement in the deadly bombings. The attacks caused a political earthquake in Spanish politics as voters resoundingly rejected a conservative Spanish government in parliamentary polls that took place three days after the bombings. Shortly after its election to office, Zapatero's new Socialist government pulled out Spain's troops from Iraq. The ruling centre-right Partido Popular (PP) had wrongly blamed the Islamist attack on ETA, despite mounting evidence that Islamists were responsible. Rafa Zouhier, a Moroccan national was sentenced to 10 years in jail for putting the bombers in touch with Trashorras to obtain the explosives used in the attack. Another Moroccan national, Otman el-Ganoui, also convicted of playing a role in obtaining explosives for the attack, was sentenced to 30 years for each of the 191 victims and 20 years for each of the injured. He also got a 12 year sentence for belonging to a terrorist cell. Spaniards Carmen Toro, Antonio Toro, Emilio Llano, Javier Gonzalez Diaz, Ivan Granados and the Moussaten brothers were acquitted of all charges. Of the nine Spanish suspects, one woman was charged and convicted with supplying stolen dynamite used in the attacks. The judge announced compensation for victims of the attacks ranging from 30 thousand euros per victim to 1.5 million euros.The victims were divided by 'groups' depending on the severity of their injuries. The jury reached their verdicts with "total unanimity," Bermudez said. All the suspects pleaded innocent and those found guilty are expected to appeal against their sentences. The verdict had been scheduled for 11:00 am, but was delayed due to protests by victims of the bombings, who wanted to be present in the courtroom. A total 25 journalists were removed from the public gallery in order to fit in 25 victims of the attacks in the courtroom. | |
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| Europe | ||||||
| Spain braced for verdicts in 3/11 train bombings | ||||||
| 2007-10-31 | ||||||
 The verdict on those accused of involvement in Europe's worst Islamist terrorist attack will be announced in a Spanish court today after a trial that has lasted four months and 17 days and heard testimony from more than 300 witnesses.
The eight main defendants could serve 40 years, the longest possible in Spain regardless of the sentence actually passed. Other alleged conspirators face between four and 27 years. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty.
The figure who drew most attention at the trial was Rabei Osman, said to be the link between the Madrid bombers and other Islamist terrorist groups. Mr Osman, also known as the Egyptian, was arrested in Milan in June 2004 after allegedly saying in wiretapped conversations that he planned the train bombings. Mr Osman claims he has been mistranslated, and condemned the attacks during the trial.
Rogelio Alonso, a lecturer in politics and terrorism at the King Juan Carlos university, said he believed the trial had shown that "it is possible to fight this type of [Islamist] terrorism through the courts". He also said the investigation had uncovered a link between the Madrid suspects and the wider world of al-Qaida.
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| Europe |
| More on the 3/11 indictments |
| 2006-04-12 |
| A Spanish judge indicted 29 people Tuesday for alleged roles in the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombings and concluded that the attack was carried out by a local radical Islamic cell that was inspired but not directed by al-Qaeda. After a two-year investigation, Judge Juan del Olmo handed down a 1,471-page report and the first indictments, charging six people with 191 counts of terrorist murder and 1,755 attempted murders. The 23 other people were charged with collaborating in the plot. Explosives-filled backpacks were detonated by cell phones on the morning of March 11, 2004, ripping apart four rush-hour commuter trains. One hundred ninety-one people died and 1,800 were injured in what remains Europe's second-worst attack by terrorists after the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bombers' alleged ideological leader and six other men blew themselves up three weeks after the attack as police closed in on their Madrid apartment hide-out. But several of the people indicted Tuesday are described as senior members of the conspiracy. They include Jamal Zougam, 32, a Moroccan. He is accused as a material author of the synchronized attack and charged with murder, attempted murder and membership in a terrorist group. According to the indictment, Zougam supplied the cell phones that detonated the 10 backpacks used in the attacks. In addition, four witnesses identified him as having placed dark blue bags under different seats on trains that blew up. Youssef Belhadj, Hassam El Haski and Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed -- known as "Mohamed the Egyptian" and currently on trial in Italy on separate terrorism charges -- are also accused of membership in a terror group, murder and attempted murder. Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, a former miner who allegedly provided the bombers with plastic explosives stolen from a mine in northern Spain, was charged with 192 murders. They included that of a policeman who was killed during the attempt to arrest suspected bombers at the Madrid apartment. The judge discussed the local nature of the conspiracy at length in his report. "If it is true that the operative capacity of al Qaeda has lessened in the past few years, it is not noticeable in a sustained decrease in its activity," del Olmo wrote. "From the point of view of the threat, regional networks and local groups have acquired greater importance." Del Olmo highlighted a trend of Moroccans and Algerians working together in radical Islamic groups in Spain. "It is a very noteworthy change, given that until relatively recently Algerian groups in Spain were homogenous in so far as nationality, and the relationship between Moroccan and Algerian jihadists was scarce," he wrote. The 29 indicted people include 15 Moroccans, one Algerian, one Egyptian, one Lebanese, one Syrian and one Syrian with Spanish nationality. Also indicted were nine Spaniards, most on charges of having helped the bombers obtain their explosives. According to Del Olmo, the bombers studied a report posted on the Web site of the Global Islamic Media Front in which a committee of al-Qaeda experts suggested an attack in Spain before the general elections of March 14, 2004. At the time, Spain had 1,300 troops in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led forces. The indictment details Spanish intelligence warnings to then-Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar that Spain was one of a group of European countries at high risk of an Islamic terrorist attack. The bombings took place three days before the election. Aznar initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA. But as evidence mounted of Islamic involvement, Spanish voters turned against Aznar and unseated his Popular Party. The Socialist Party, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, won the election and quickly fulfilled a campaign promise to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq. Some people in Spain have speculated that ETA helped the bombers in some way. The indictment draws no such link. "The judge has only addressed what evidence there is," a court spokeswoman said. A trial is likely to begin next year. |
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| Europe |
| Judge Indicts 29 For Madrid Train Bombings |
| 2006-04-11 |
| Madrid, 11 April (AKI) - A Spanish judge on Tuesday indicted 29 suspects in connection with the deadly al-Qaeda-linked train bombings in Madrid two years ago that killed 191 people and wounded 1,741 in a series of blasts on morning rush-hour commuter trains. One of the alleged ringleaders of the attacks, Jamal Zougam, was among those charged, by judge Juan Del Olomo, Spain's National Court announced. No-one has yet stood trial for the Madrid blasts - the deadliest terrror attacks in Western Europe since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people in 1988. The number of individuals indicted is far fewer than the 116 suspects who faced preliminary charges, and no trial is expected for months. The slow-pace of the judicial process has sparked criticism as unless the investigation is stepped up, some of the 25 defendants currently detained - 24 in Spanish jails and one Egyptian in the northern Italian city of Milan - might have to be released from custody before any trial ends. The attacks are believed to have been carried out by three al-Qaeda linked groups, made up largely of Moroccans. The three groups were allegedly augmented by other individuals linked to an al-Qaeda cell broken up in Spain in 2001. These groups were reportedly linked to a radical strain of Islam espoused by the North African Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM). The militants appear to have carried out the bombings on behalf of al-Qaeda in revenge for the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, Del Olmo wrote in December 2004. In the same document he detailed a series of radical Isalmic cells that that had formed in Spain and advocated carrying out Jihad - or holy war - on European soil. More than 80 people have so far been questioned by investigators, 200 DNA tests have been carried out, and more than 50,000 phone-conversations tapped in the course of an investigation that has so far run to thousands of pages. Seven key bombing suspects are dead. They blew themselves up three weeks after the Madrid bombings, as police closed in on their hideout in a southern Madrid suburb. A police special operations officer was killed and 18 police officers were injured in the blast. Victims are angry that Del Olmo has so far only called some 10 of those caught up in the bombings to testify.The Spanish government has granted more than 900 residency cards to immigrants who were victims or to their family members, the interior ministery said. The government has paid more than 70 million dollars in compensation to victims and their relatives. |
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| Europe |
| Custody Extended For Nine Madrid Bombing Suspects |
| 2006-03-06 |
| Madrid, 6 March (AKI) - Nine suspects in the deadly 11 March Madrid train bombings will be detained beyond the almost two years they have already spent in custody, investigating magistrate Juan del Olmo announced on Monday. The move will enable del Olmo to complete his indictments in connection with the bombings, the first of which he says he will file by 10 April. The blasts killed 191 people and injured 1,500 and were claimed by Islamic militants who said they acted on behalf of al-Qaeda in revenge for the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq . The nine suspects are Jamal Zougam, Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, Rafa Zouhier, Basel Ghalyoun, Hamid Ahmidam, Otman el Gnaoui, Rachid Aglif, Abdelilah el Fadual el Akil and Fouad el Morabi, del Olmo said, quoted by EFE news agency. They were among the first of a total 116 suspects in the case, many of them Moroccans. Zougam is seen as one of the key suspects; he was recognised by numerous witnesses and may have taken part in the attacks, organising people to place the mobile phone detonated rucksack bombs on the four commmuter trains, according to the daily El Mundo. Tashorras, one of the few Spanish-born suspects, is alleged to have helped other suspects obtain stolen explosives for the attacks from a mine in Asturia, northern Spain. Moroccan-born Zouhier is also suspected of involvement in stealing the explosives. Perhaps 30-40 suspects may be indicted, according to unnamed court sources. The indictments are expected to reveal more information about the attacks - such as the possible identity of the bombing mastermind. Out of the total 116 suspects, 24 are currently detained in Spanish prisons and one Egyptian, Rabei Osman, is being held in jail in the northern Italian city of Milan. Del Olmo had previously said he hoped to have the indictments ready by the second anniversary of the bombings this Saturday. More than 80 people have been questioned by investigators, 200 DNA tests have been carried out, and more than 50,000 phone-conversations tapped in the course of an investigation that has so far run to thousands of pages. Del Olmo and the National Court have been warned that unless the investigation is stepped up, some defendants might have to be released from custody before any trial ends. Spanish law permits up to two years of pre-trial prison, which can be extended to four after preliminary hearings. Last week, del Omo held separate hearings for the nine suspects whose detention he has announced he is extending beyond two years. Seven key bombing suspects are dead. They blew themselves up three weeks after the Madrid bombings, as police closed in on their hideout in a southern Madrid suburb. A police special operations officer was killed and 18 police officers were injured in the blast. |
| Link |
| Iraq |
| Salafi Jihad member named as key suspect in Iraq attacks |
| 2005-11-02 |
| The Moroccan blamed by the Baghdad government for a deadly car bomb attack in Iraq was a top recruiter of foreign fighters, sending militants across the border from Syria (search ) and acting as a liaison with European extremists, said a former associate. Muhsen Khayber (search ), also known as Abdul Rahim, moved to Syria from Morocco after allegedly being involved in coordinated homicide bombings (search) in Casablanca that killed 32 people, an Iraqi government statement said Tuesday, offering an unspecified reward for his arrest. Khayber first came in contact with Sunni Muslim extremists while working in his brother's dairy shop as a youth, said Abdellah Rami, who went to high school with Kayber and last saw him about six months before the May 16, 2003, bombings in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. Rami said Khayber has long supported the killing of Shiites, who were targeted in the Sept. 29 attack in Iraq (search ), in which three near-simultaneous car bombs killed at least 60 people and wounded 70 in the mainly Shiite town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. "Even before the Sept. 11 (2001 attacks on the United States), Muhsen supported the killings of Shiites in Pakistan, or the killing of Christians," Rami told The Associated Press. Khayber "became very animated in the discussions, was very fanatic." The Iraqi government statement said Khayber moved last year to Syria "where he helped organize terrorist cells" of foreign fighters who were sent to Iraq. Arab media said Khayber was arrested in Syria in May 2004 and handed over to the Moroccans. However, Rami said he doubted Khayber was in custody because he still sends money to his two wives in the Moroccan city of Larache, where he was born in 1970. Moroccan government spokesman Nabil Benabdallah said he had not heard of Khayber. Syria has denied any support for Iraqi insurgents and insists that it is trying to control the porous border. Rami said Khayber became attracted to the strict Islamic Salafiyah Jihadiya thinking during the 1991 Gulf War following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. "He was a normal person before he became involved in the salafiyah things," said Rami, a researcher of militant Islamic movements in Morocco. After Khayber graduated from high school in the northern coastal city of Larache, he worked in his brother's dairy shop where he met men espousing extremist ideas, said Rami. Soon afterward, Khayber, a thin man of medium height, began growing his beard and wearing clothes of Afghan men, said Rami. He took two wives and had a son. He also came into contact with Mohammed El Fazazi, a Moroccan cleric whose sermons called for holy war against the West. El Fazazi, accused by authorities of inspiring the homicide bombers that carried out the Casablanca blasts, is serving a 30-year sentence in Morocco. Rami said Khayber traveled to Tangier frequently to meet with El Fazazi and to listen to his mosque speeches. Apparently under El Fazazi's influence, Khayber organized the Larache branch of the cleric's group that follows an extremist Islamic doctrine. Other Al Qaeda and Islamic extremists were attracted to El Fazazi's preachings, including Mohamed Atta, leader of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Jamal Zougam, the prime suspect in the 2004 train attacks that killed 191 people in Madrid. Khayber was also influenced by the taped speeches of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-Palestinian cleric once described by a Spanish judge as Usama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe." Following the 2001 attacks on the United States, Khayber established contacts with militant Moroccan immigrants in Spain. There's no evidence he had any part in the Madrid bombings. In Syria, Khayber allegedly played a significant role in the Islamic extremist network, acting as a master recruiter and liaison with European militants, said Rami. Rami said Salafiyah Jihadiyah gained force in Morocco â and elsewhere â during or shortly after the Gulf War. "Before that, El Fazazi was an ordinary Salafi guy, like everyone else in Morocco. But the Gulf War and the Algerian crisis â which happened at the same time â changed all that." |
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| Europe |
| 3/11 Bombers wanted to swing election to Zappy |
| 2005-07-16 |
| via Barcepundit. His Spanish translation is better than mine would be AS IF THERE WAS still any doubt at this point, the Spanish press reports today on a document found in the computer of one of the key perpetrators of the March 11 terrorist attacks in Madrid (link in Spanish, my translation): A document found in the personal computer of Jamal Ahmidan, "The Chinese", undersigned by the Abu Hafs al Masri brigades and dated March 15, 2004 declares that the March 11 perpetrators intented to remove [Aznar's] Popular Party from the government. The document was recently found by police, according to the Cope radio network who has seen it. It says: "those who were suprised for our quick claim of responsibility in the battle of Madrid, let them know that there were other circumstances. In the case of Madrid, the time factor was very important in order to put an end to the government of Aznar the ignoble. The night of March 11, the Abu Hafs al Masri brigades sent the London daily 'al Hayat' a statement claiming responsibility for what they called the "operation trains of death". The same group claimed responsibility last July 9 of the terror attacks in London. "Let all know that we're a part of the so-called world order. We change states, we destroy others with Allah's help and even decide the future of the world's economy. We won't accept being mere passive agents in this world", the text found in Jamal Ahmidan's computer, one of the main perpetrators of the March 11 cells and who blew himself up in Leganes a few days later together with other co-participants, warns. Apparently, this statement was a response to intelligence services who questioned the authenticity of the first claim of responsibility sent by the brigades only a few hours after the Atocha [station] attacks. The text also contains strong criticism of Western leaders, particularly [Spain's] former Primer Minister Jose Maria Aznar, described as the "tail of the American tyrants". ABC (the Madrid newspaper, not the American or Australian TV network) reports further (also in Spanish) and reminds a very telling detail: when he was brought before a judge after the first 72 hours in isolation (permitted by Spanish anti-terror legislation), the first thing asked by Jamal Zougam, another of the key suspects of March 11, was: "Who won the election?". |
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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| Nasar may be the London mastermind |
| 2005-07-10 |
| THE terrorist believed to have organised last yearâs Madrid train attacks is emerging as a figure in the hunt for the London bombers. Spanish security sources are said to have warned four months ago that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian, had identified Britain as a likely target. Coded commands from the Syrian, thought to have included threats to other European countries including Britain, were found in a flat raided after the Madrid bombings in March 2004. Spanish investigators said Nasar, now believed to be in Iraq, had set up a âsleeperâ cell of terrorists in Britain. But they believed he was planning an attack to coincide with the British general election in May, rather than the G8 summit last week. One Spanish website yesterday claimed the General Information Commission, a Spanish police intelligence body, issued a report in March warning that Britain and Spain were the primary western targets. The statement was based on Spanish investigations into the Madrid bombings. In addition, investigators have noted strong similarities in the methods of the two multiple, coordinated bombings against public transport systems. Last Friday, a team of Spanish detectives arrived in London to help the Metropolitan police with the investigation. After last weekâs explosions, police were believed to be looking into Mohamed el-Gerbouzi, a Moroccan living in London who has been jailed in Morocco in his absence for terrorism offences. Yesterday, however, senior Met officers were strongly discounting that he had any involvement in the London bombings. Nasar, from Aleppo, Syria, also known as Abu Musab al-Asuri, who has a $5m (£2.9m) American bounty on his head, is believed to have fled either to Iraq or to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He has connections with London going back more than 10 years, has mixed with many prominent terror suspects and has reportedly been arrested in Britain in connection with bombings on the Paris Metro. When Nasar moved to London in June 1995 he was already under surveillance by Spanish police, who made a video recording of his departure with his wife Elena. They were accompanied by Abu Dahdah, a Syrian later arrested in Spain, accused of recruiting bombers and now on trial for providing support to the 9/11 conspiracy. Once in London, Nasar moved his family into a house in Paddock Road, Neasden. From there, he edited the Al Ansar magazine, a newsletter of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. He became an associate of the cleric Abu Qatada, one of the detainees released from Belmarsh prison last year and accused of being Al-Qaedaâs ambassador to Europe. In January 1997 he also set up a company called Islamic Conflict Studies Bureau. In documentation filed at Companies House, Nasar describes his nationality as British. His co-director in the company is named as Mohamed Bahaiah. Bahaiah is known to have been an Al-Qaeda courier in Afghanistan, where he is believed to have been responsible for delivering videotapes to foreign news media. Tayssir Alouni, a correspondent for the Arabic television news channel Al-Jazeera, claims to have met both men in Kabul in the late 1990s. Nasar was reported to have been arrested by British police following the 1995 bomb attacks on the Paris Metro, but later released. The American Department of Justice said this weekend that Nasar had âserved as a European intermediary for Al-Qaedaâ before leaving for Afghanistan in 1998. He is now believed to be an associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq. Some reports claim he has been spotted in London since the Madrid bombings. Nasar is at the centre of a network of connections uncovered by British and Spanish police between Britain and the Madrid atrocities. One of the last phone calls made by a group of seven bombers cornered in a police siege of a flat near Madrid was to a British Muslim cleric using the name Ben Salawi. After the call the bombers blew themselves up, apparently at his command. British police said the clericâs name was not known to them but may have been an alias. Last March a Syrian-born man was arrested and accused of helping indoctrinate the Madrid bombers, following a raid on his home in Slough, Berkshire. Moutaz Almallah Dabas, 39, is accused of renting a flat in Madrid where the men received initial training. Dabas, a Spanish citizen, is fighting extradition to Spain. He was detained just 24 hours after his brother, Mohammad Almallah Dabas, was arrested by police in Spain. Lawyers acting for the Spanish authorities told a court that Moutaz Dabas had housed radical Islamists at a house in Madrid he owned with his brother. âIn that house, Dabas and others kept texts referring to and published by Osama Bin Laden for distribution and encouraged those who attended to pledge their affinity to the jihad ideology of Osama Bin Laden,â they told the court. Others arrested in connection with the Madrid bombings and linked to Britain include Jamal Zougam, 31, a Moroccan believed to have visited contacts in London seeking funding, fake identities and logistical help for the terrorists. Spanish prosecutors believe two Moroccan men who blew themselves up during the Spanish siege also spent time in London. |
| Link |
| Britain |
| Moroccan jihadi leader may be linked to bombings |
| 2005-07-08 |
| The Wall Street Journal reports that the British are seeking a Moroccan man, Mohamed Guerbouzi, in connection with the attacks. Text: "A Brussels-based European police official said British police have asked their European counterparts for information on a Moroccan man, Mohamed Guerbouzi, in relation to the attacks in London. Mr. Guerbouzi has been under investigation in Britain in connection with two previous attacks, a 2003 suicide bombing in Morocco and last year's attack on commuter trains in Spain. Mr. Guerbouzi held a senior position in the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, or GICM, investigators say. He has been living in Britain for about a decade, the police official said on condition of anonymity. It is unclear if he is in British police custody. Also unclear if he is suspect of direct involvement in Thursday's attacks or if he is a witness. The European police official said Britain wants help in investigating Mr. Guerbouzi, for example, in learning more about his activities in other countries." An earlier unconfirmed press story published in the Wall Street Journal (as seen below) reports that "British police have asked their European counterparts for information" about Moroccan national Mohamed Guerbouzi (a.k.a. Abu Aissa)--an influential military commander with the Al-Qaida-affiliated Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (MICG). If correct, this could prove to be a major development in the London bombings investigation. Guerbouzi is a longtime resident of London who, according to credible sources, met while in the United Kingdom with another infamous Moroccan terrorist suspect -- Jamal Zougam. Zougam is currently on trial for his alleged role as a lead bomber in the Madrid 3/11 terrorist attacks and is also suspected of having played an organizational role in the 2003 Al-Qaida suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco. Reportedly Zougam visited London "in search of funding and logistical help" and contacted a number of North Africans living in Britain, including Guerbouzi. See also: The Sunday Mirror Confronts Guerbouzi in West London. When the Mirror asked Scotland Yard in April 2004 why Guerbouzi was still free in London, they explained, "We don't have any extradition treaty with Morocco and no evidence has been submitted before the courts to consider an arrest." |
| Link |
| Europe |
| Spanish demand more details on lead-up to 3/11 terror attacks |
| 2005-06-07 |
| JFM, any news about the PSOE's 11M media manipulations and/or possible "Madridgate"? Newly published exchanges with an informer reveal that police had extensive intelligence on terror cell's activities. By Lisa Abend | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor MADRID — They had the names. They knew when and where the men met and how they raised money. They even had the cell -phone numbers of the group's leaders. But with all that information, police were still unable to prevent the bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004. Spaniards have known for months that, long before the bombings occurred, police and intelligence forces here were monitoring the individuals who would carry out the attacks. But last week, El Mundo newspaper published 12 notes written by Abdelkader el-Farssaoui, imam of a mosque outside Madrid and informer to the intelligence unit of the national police, that describe with chilling specificity the members and activities of the suspected cell. Since the report, the debate over whether the police could have prevented the bombings has intensified, with the opposition Popular Party voicing demands for more hearings on the attacks. El Farssaoui, who went by the code name "Cartagena," began providing Spanish police with information in October 2002. He identified Serhane Abdelmajid, who would later kill himself and six associates by setting off explosives when police converged on their apartment, as the leader. In February 2003, he observed that Jamal Zougam, currently awaiting trial as a presumed author of the attacks, had joined the cell. And he recounted how Mohammed Larbi Ben Sellam, suspected of a role in the 2003 Casablanca bombings, had told him that "he didn't understand why most were so obsessed with going to ... Afghanistan to make jihad when the same kind of operation was possible in other countries, like Morocco and Spain." The national police will not comment on the report. But Isidoro Zamorano, spokesman for the Spanish Confederation of Police, a union group, said he was confident that street-level officers had not withheld information. "My colleagues fulfilled their responsibilities," said Mr. Zamorano. "What happened when that information was passed up [the police hierarchy], I don't know. That's for a judge to decide." Some suggest that the new evidence proves the police could have stopped the Madrid bombings. In an unsigned editorial, El Mundo stated, "In light of these revelations it is clear that the attacks in Madrid could have been avoided through diligent police action or judicial intervention ... neither of which happened." Angel Zuriñaga, who was injured in the bombings, agrees. "With this information the police and the Civil Guard should have been able to prevent the disaster. At the very least, they should have put better surveillance on the suspects," he says. Many terrorism experts, however, are hesitant to blame the police. Rogelio Alonso, political science professor at King Juan Carlos University, says, "You can't just say that the police could have prevented the attacks - it's more complicated than that. There are a lot of reasons why they didn't: a lack of resources, inertia, the fact that they were accustomed to thinking about terrorism in terms of [Basque terrorist group] ETA." Rafael BardajÃ, director of International Policy at the FAES Foundation, a Spanish think tank, asserts that the police did not knowingly suppress evidence. "Police and intelligence were working under the mental framework that Islamists would never attack Spain," he says. "So we can't say that they knew what was going to happen." Indeed, BardajÃ, a former Defense Ministry official, explains that Spanish security forces believed that Islamist extremists operating in Spain focused on logistical support for terrorists elsewhere. "It was thought that they would never attack Spain because the support apparatus was so important," he says. The 9/11 commission in the US identified a similar "failure of imagination" when it sought to understand why security forces could not prevent the Sept. 11th attacks, despite having information about the plotters. Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, testified in the US hearings. He notes that counterterrorism forces have since worked to hire more agents with the same linguistic and ethnic backgrounds as presumed terrorists, and to think more unconventionally about threats. But he notes, "As security measures tighten," he says, "the adversaries get more innovative." On Saturday, hundreds of thousands gathered at a public rally in Madrid called by terrorist victims groups. The protest was primarily directed against the government's recent offer to negotiate with ETA if the separatist group abandons violence. But protesters also voiced another complaint, repeatedly chanting: "We want to know what happened on March 11." |
| Link |
| Europe |
| Spain's "Terrorgate"? Investigating 3/11. |
| 2005-05-19 |
| I'm very curious to know what JFM will make of it, as he was skeptical about the political mud surrounding the accession to power of the PSOE. See also (hat tip Chrenkoff for thoses) : - http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/et-tu-abc-shortly-after-march-11-abc.html - http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/its-pity-but-i-havent-found-any.html - http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/one-and-only-fausta-of-bad-hair-blog.html - http://badhairblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/ march-11-spanish-terrorist-attack.html - http://www.eurabiantimes.com/archives/2005/04/ huarte_and_bene.php - http://www.eurabiantimes.com/archives/2005/04/ fernando_huarte.php - http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006673.php - http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006625.php It has long been understood that the Spanish socialists shamelessly exploited the March 11, 2004, terrorist attacks in Madrid's train station for political advantage. They did so with palpable disregard for a frightening fact: The far-reaching geostrategic repercussions of that incident which vaporized the ruling conservative party's electoral lead just days before the polling gave those seeking similar results elsewhere every incentive to engage in violence against other democracies' electoral processes. But what if the perpetrators were neither Islamofacists, as the winning socialists immediately asserted, nor the Basque terrorist organization known as ETA, as the government of José Maria Aznar initially (and fatally) assumed? On May 16, the Madrid daily El Mundo published a remarkable editorial that draws upon the paper's ongoing investigation and contains information potentially as explosive as the 3/11 attacks themselves: El Mundo suggests that, almost immediately after the 12 bombs went off in one of the city's busiest train stations, some in the Spanish police force fabricated evidence, then swiftly hyped it to the domestic and international press. The object seems to have been to support the oppositions' claims that Islamists angry over the government's support for the war in Iraq were responsible for the attacks. At worst, the information uncovered by El Mundo could mean that the deadly bombing was actually perpetrated with the complicity of the same Spanish police bomb squad, Tedax, that was subsequently charged with investigating the crime. Either way, if the leads published in recent days pan out, it would appear that Spain's 2004 elections were stolen by terrorists, alright. But the terrorist operation that brought the socialists to power may have been an inside job in effect, a coup perpetrated by some of the same authorities who are responsible for preventing terror. Explosive stuff, if true. But all preliminary and speculative right now. A blogger who writes under the name of Franco Alemän has helpfully interpreted and called the English-speaking Internet's attention to Monday's article written by El Mundo's Fernando Múgica. Highlights include the following: Questions have been raised about the actual provenance of a knapsack dubbed "Backpack 13" and its contents (plastic explosive, a cell phone used as a trigger, and nails and bolts that would act as shrapnel to maximize the bomb's destructive effect). Shortly after the 3/11 attack, ABC News showed what it claimed as "exclusive" footage of both the purported backpack and its unexploded innards. Alemän's posting says: According to reporter Fernando Múgica in the Spanish daily El Mundo. According to Múgica, at a Madrid police station "the officers wanted to help the ABC reporters, but when the camera crew came, they didn't have the backpack that had contained the bomb there, so one of the officers showed them a similar backpack which was the property of another officer." Said Mugica, "I don't know whether the network knew this or simply accepted that the bag they were shown was the real one."Alemän says the journalistic investigation revealed that "the Tedax officers hid for three months [from] the investigating judge that an X-ray done to the real (not to the [one] staged for ABC) backpack showed that there was no way it could have ever exploded since it had unconnected cables. Something odd, since it had always been said that the bombers were technically proficient." It seems that a phonebook belonging to Carmen Toro, allegedly one of the men who supplied the explosive used in the 3/11 attacks, contained the cellphone number for Tedax's chief. What is more, Alemän's posting incredulously recounts how, "When the investigating judge called the number, a chief's aide answered the phone and said that it belonged to one of the guys in the squad, 'who used the boss' name as a nickname.'" The claim that the Aznar government wrongly and for political reasons initially blamed ETA for the attacks rests on two propositions derived from Backpack 13's contents: The nature of the explosive and evidence associated with its cellphone trigger. The type of explosive found in the alleged bombers' backpack was a plastic known as Goma 2 ECO, rather than the Tytadine that ETA had employed in its prior attacks. Alemän notes, however, that "the conclusion that the exploded backpacks had Goma 2 ECO in it was made because of what was found on the unexploded one not on actual forensic analysis of the explosion site, since apparently once it's gone off it's absolutely impossible to know for sure, [since] both Goma 2 ECO and Tytadine [are] two brands of generic dynamite." The phone provided three pieces of incriminating evidence. First of all, on it were found to the fingerprints of one Jamal Zougam, the ringleader of the Islamist "Lavapies" cell now blamed for the Madrid attack. Second, the phone was supposed to be activated by its alarm and then vibrate, causing the plastic explosive to detonate. Since the bombers apparently made a novice's mistake by failing to connect the wires from the phone to the explosive with electrical tape, even the slightest movement of the backpack would likely prevent the cellphone's signal from setting off the bomb. Even more curious is the fact that the phone in the Backpack #13 was a Mitsubishi Trium, one of very few on the market that require a SIM card to operate the alarm. Since, as Alemän notes, "it was the analysis of the SIM card which, less than 48 hours after the blasts, allowed the police to arrest the alleged perpetrators," the question occurs: Why would terrorists who owned a cellphone shop and are deemed to be very technically proficient deliberately choose to use a device that would lead the police to their door? Speaking of cellphones, the Alemän blog titillates readers by offering further details from the unfolding El Mundo investigation. He reports that: Cellphones used for March 11 were unlocked in a phone shop owned by... a Spanish police officer. And not just any police officer: It was Maussili Kalaji, a Syrian born citizen who had been granted Spanish citizenship several years ago and entered the police department when he arrived in Spain [despite] his past as an Al Fatah member and as an agent for the Soviets' intelligence services.Apparently as soon as [Kalaji] left the [Spanish] police academy, he was assigned to infiltrate extremist groups and so he got acquainted with such nice guys as Abu Dadah, currently under trial for the 9/11 plot and who will be on trial again in the future for his role on March 11. He also was assigned to the security detail of Judge Garzón, now on leave and teaching at a New York university who insisted that, no matter what Aznar was saying on March 11, he knew from minute 1 thatâŠthe bombings had been by Islamic terrorists, not ETA. I think we know now why. And that's not all: Kalaji's sister was the translator for the police in charge of translat[ing] the wiretapped conversations between the alleged March 11 culprits before the bombings. And his ex-wife, also a police officer, was the first to arrive at the scene where another key [piece of] evidence pointing to Islamic terrorists and not ETA was found: a white van with detonators and some tapes with Koranic verses. Socialists blame Aznar's government for hiding this but, of course, maybe its guys got there first.... The evidence presented thus far by El Mundo is, to be sure, inconclusive. Yet, it strongly suggests that at least some in the Spanish police may know considerably more about who was really behind the 3/11 bombings attacks that undid the electoral fortunes of the Spanish government, brought to power socialists hostile to its most important domestic and foreign policies and precipitated changes in those policies that could only encourage terrorists to interfere in elections elsewhere. Given the stakes for Spain, for its relations with the United States, and for the democratic world more generally, there should be few higher priorities than getting to the bottom of what may be Spain's Terrorgate. As the current Spanish government might have reasons for resisting a no-holds-barred investigation, and those in Washington anxious to foster improved bilateral ties may be reluctant to press for one, it may fall to the sorts of citizen-activists and bloggers who thwarted Dan Rather's notorious attempt to hijack America's exercise of democracy in 2004 to find out precisely what happened to its Spanish counterpart. |
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