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| Europe |
| Spain holds half of the 3/11 cell |
| 2004-03-27 |
| Spanish investigators believe that they have identified the core group of Islamic militants who carried out the deadly train bombings in Madrid this month and that more than half of those involved are now in custody, a senior Spanish official said Friday. Investigators are still trying to determine who was behind the plot, which was carried out by eight or nine Moroccan extremists who operated primarily in Spain and Morocco, the official said. The assessment came as Spain announced it had provisionally charged another Moroccan in connection with the attacks, bringing to 12 the number of people who have been formally accused of involvement in the bombings on March 11, which killed 190. The fast-moving investigation has focused on a network of Moroccan extremists that also had ties to Islamic militant cells elsewhere in Europe. Moroccan officials said they, too, had detained several people, while the German police raided an apartment in Darmstadt where one of the Moroccans arrested in Spain this week lived briefly. The Spanish official said one of the major suspects still at large was a Moroccan militant who had spent time in Turkey in recent years and had been sought before the bombings in connection with a Qaeda cell that operated in Spain. A witness who survived the bombings has identified a photograph of the Moroccan, whose name was not disclosed, as someone who had been on board one of the four commuter trains that was destroyed, officials said. So far, the primary Spanish suspect in the case is a man arrested on suspicion of providing the terrorists with explosives that were apparently stolen from a mine or quarry in the northern Spanish province of Asturias. The Spaniard had previously been convicted on drug charges, officials said, and he was believed to have met a Moroccan in prison who was related to one of the suspects in the bombings. Several of the Moroccans arrested have ties to militants who had been identified in various countries as members of Al Qaeda. Some of those militants have also been blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Casablanca last year that killed more than 40 people, including 12 terrorists. Moroccan officials said they were investigating several people in the country's impoverished north, a region once administered by Spain. They said some had been taken into custody but denied a newspaper report that one of the men had been found in possession of maps of the Madrid train stations that figured in the attacks. Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan cellphone salesman in Madrid, who was one of the first people arrested in the attacks, may have helped to coordinate the operation but apparently did not directly take part in the bombings, a Spanish official said. Mr. Zougam first came to the attention of French officials in 2000, as they investigated David Courtallier, a French convert to Islam who spent time in Afghanistan and is now being tried on charges of planning terrorist attacks in Europe. After his return from Afghanistan in 1998, Mr. Courtallier visited Islamic militants in London who gave him contacts in Spain and Morocco. Among those he later met were Mr. Zougam in Madrid and another militant, Abdelaziz Benyaich, the French official said. Armed with evidence of contacts between Mr. Courtallier and Mr. Zougam, France urged Spain to detain Mr. Zougam for questioning and to search his apartment in 2000. It was only after pressing the country for a year that French officials succeeded in having Mr. Zougam questioned and his home searched. "The Spanish weren't interested because they had not found evidence of his own involvement in a terrorist cell plotting against Spain," the French official said. Spanish officials said they simply did not have sufficient cause to charge Mr. Zougam. Mr. Zougam had met with Mr. Benyaich in Tangier shortly before leaving Morocco on April 20, the officials say. After the Casablanca bombings, Moroccan officials identified Mr. Benyaich as a senior Qaeda operative who easily moved around Europe on a French passport and plotted terrorist attacks in northern Morocco and France. After the Casablanca attacks, Moroccan investigators searching the home of Mr. Benyaich in Tangier found a cellphone that had been tampered with to make a detonator. They now believe that Mr. Benyaich was the source of the cellphone detonator design used in Madrid. Mr. Benyaich fled to Spain after the attacks and was arrested there late last year. One of his brothers, Salaheddin, was arrested in Morocco and later convicted of helping to plan the Casablanca attacks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #16 Max Kampelman, Chairman emeritus of Freedom House, is a former Reagan Admin official. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-03-28 12:14:18 AM |
| #15 Freedom house has been around for decades, and was contoversial for pointing out the low civil and political rights not only in the soviet Block but in lefty 3rd world states, and showing how by comparison pro-US states such as in Latin America often were less totalitarian, despite Am Intern and others focusing on them. FH was VERY unpopular among the leftists, and was widely admired by the Reagan admin. Soros probably likes it cause, FH, like Soros, is interested in democracy promotion in the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. And while Morocco has made major progress by the standards of the Arab world, its not a constitutional monarchy like UK or Spain. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-03-28 12:10:21 AM |
| #14 Jen> Nuff said. It's Leftist. I think that says 'nuff about you, actually. Shipman> You also forgot to drop in your point. Didn't you consider that one important either? |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-03-27 8:49:16 PM |
| #13 Dang, Aris forgot to drop in the URL. It didn't seem important at the time. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-03-27 8:17:02 PM |
| #12 Ah, "Freedom House", one of whose major sponsors is "The (Geroge) Soros Foundation." Nuff said. It's Leftist. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-03-27 7:43:56 PM |
| #11 Shipman> Yup. But I'm somehow guessing that the sentence you quoted doesn't refer to Morocco, but to Greece instead. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-03-27 7:31:44 PM |
| #10 Ninety-eight percent of the population belongs nominally to the state-sponsored Greek Orthodox Church. Orthodox bishops have the privilege of granting or denying permission to other faiths to build houses of worship in their jurisdictions. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-03-27 5:50:07 PM |
| #9 Freedom House's report card on Morocco: http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2003/countryratings/morocco.htm They rate both its political and civil rights at 5 (with 1 being the best, and 7 being the worst). |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-03-27 4:34:09 PM |
| #8 Another historical tidbit along this line... Extremely important to America's survival in the Revolutionary War was the "first" official recognition of American sovereignty by Dutch Fort Oranje on St. Eustatius, which fired its guns in salute of the American Brigantine Andria Doria flying revolutionary colors on November 16th 1776. Some links --1-- --2-- --3-- for this (strangely) uncelebrated act. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-27 2:56:51 PM |
| #7 DCreeper - B- You missed the BIGGIE! Morocco's Mohammed III was the FIRST FOREIGN MONARCH to recognize the Independent United States, and to establish diplomatic relations with the new nation in 1787. The United States and Morocco each issued a stamp in 1987 commemorating the event. The United States has helped the nation of Morocco frequently from time to time, but the relationship has more normally been stormy - at least in part due to the influence of other nations, most notably Britain, France, and Spain. Hmmm, on further thought, how is that different than today? The more things change... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-03-27 2:30:57 PM |
| #6 Is Spring Break going on at Anonymous U., or something? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-03-27 1:10:33 PM |
| #5 She left out BUSH LIED and NO BLOOD FOR OIL. Must be a newbie. |
| Posted by: John C. Lately 2004-03-27 8:45:13 AM |
| #4 You're forgiven,Dc. Nice rant with a great conclusion. Pay heed anon and join the fun. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-03-27 7:16:38 AM |
| #3 egads, I ran that through a spell checker and some how part of the last paragraph was doubled! sorry guys, I failed in Copy-Paste 101 |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2004-03-27 6:50:27 AM |
| #2 monarchy ? from the cia world facts book "Gradual political reforms in the 1990s resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature in 1997. " does not look like a monarchy to me technically they have a constitutional monarchy, a very very different thing than a simple monarchy. If your not sure what it is, try a history book. but since you are no doubt too lazy to actually look anything up, I'll give you a hint, the king is not the head of the government. here is their life expectancy male: 67.77 years female: 72.41 years that’s pretty high for 'living like animals' as for us propping the country.. it IS a developing country and receives aid like any other as of 1995 it the nation receives $565.6 million, a paltry sum ;p Pakistan gets around 2 billion so the whole coming home to roost thing does not make sense, only way that would make sense is if they were blowing up French buildings, ( they recently gained their independence from the French) you have to understand, here at rantburg we place a high value on accurate debate, simple rhetoric that works well on your standard lefty site does not fly here, so you have to make sure that everything you say is at least partially grounded in reality. you have to understand, here at rankburg we place a high value on acurate debate, simple rheutoric that works well on your standard lefty site does not fly here. Anyway stick around :) once you climb the learning curve you will fit in nicely - buh get a nickname! |
| Posted by: Dcreeper 2004-03-27 6:48:25 AM |
| #1 Moroccans--involved in this? But they are staunch US allies bought and paid for as we prop up their joke of a monarchy and people live like animals there--unless they are royalty or visiting French and Spanish tourists--it all comes home to roost |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-03-27 3:22:25 AM |