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| Europe |
| Al-Qaeda cell likely carried out Madrid bombings |
| 2004-03-15 |
| Investigators believe the train bombings that killed 200 people here last week were the work of a multinational cell of al Qaeda loyalists, some of whom entered Spain specifically to carry out the attacks and who are now the target of an international effort to identify and capture them, according to European and Arab intelligence officials. The officials said the preliminary investigation and interrogation of five arrested suspects -- three Moroccans and two Indian Muslims -- as well as other evidence indicated that the Thursday morning rush-hour bombings were carried out by the al Qaeda network, marking the first time the group has struck in Europe. Not true - the GIA had a bombing campaign in France during the mid-1990s and even tried to hit Paris with a hijacked airliner. For European leaders, the al Qaeda link is a chilling development, and security services across the continent are now scrambling to assess the likelihood of further attacks in Europe. Analysts said the method of the Madrid attacks -- synchronized bombings apparently carried out by remote control rather than by suicide bombers -- suggested that Islamic extremists had become more adaptable and, therefore, even more of a threat. Spanish officials, who initially insisted on attributing the attacks to the Basque separatist group, ETA, have contacted security services across Europe and in the Arab world -- including in Morocco and Saudi Arabia -- in an attempt to understand how the plot was devised and executed without even a general warning from intelligence services that Islamic militants were about to strike in Spain. Officials said they believed the group that carried out the bombing was composed of Islamic radicals, possibly including Saudi nationals, as well as other North Africans besides the arrested Moroccans. The operation included residents of Spain as well as operatives who entered the country specifically for the attacks, said officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Soddy in question was likely the ringleader, it’s one of the perks of being a member of the Master Race. Spain’s interior minister, Angel Acebes, identified the five detainees at a news conference Sunday. Investigators said they tied the men to the bomb plot following the discovery of a cell phone in a gym bag filled with undetonated explosives. One of the detained Moroccans, 30-year-old Jamal Zougam, had been listed as an al Qaeda operative in a Spanish judge’s 700-page indictment last fall of Osama bin Laden and others for the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on Sept. 11, 2001, officials said. Zougam was not indicted in that case. A situation that will likely soon be remedied ... Acebes told reporters that the three Moroccans -- Zougam, Mohamed Bekkali, 31 , and Mohamed Chaoui, 34 -- were known to authorities because of past criminal records in Spain and that at least one may have been involved in a homicide. The Moroccan suspects have provided limited information under interrogation and have asked repeatedly for copies of the Koran, the officials said. A high-level Moroccan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that Zougam had been under surveillance since terrorist bombings in the coastal city of Casablanca last May. Investigators and analysts said Spain was an inviting target because of President Jose Maria Aznar’s support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and because the country is easily accessible to Moroccans and other North Africans. "Almost every European country has some al Qaeda presence, but Spain is the bridge between North Africa and Europe and it may be the most vulnerable to this kind of infiltration and attack," said Yonah Alexander, a terrorism expert at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington. Spanish officials have not yet ruled out the possibility of indirect ETA involvement in the Madrid bombings, perhaps through the supply of explosives to Islamic militants. Officials said they were also re-examining an alleged sale of explosives by ETA to the radical Palestinian group Hamas several years ago in an effort to identify Basque ties to Islamic extremists. Alexander said Yusuf Galan, a Spanish national who was charged in Madrid in November 2001 with involvement with al Qaeda, was a former ETA member who had converted to Islam. Despite these lines of inquiry into a possible ETA role, investigators appear increasingly certain that al Qaeda was behind last week’s attacks, and some intelligence officials Sunday described the pursuit of ETA as a dead end. Instead, they pointed to al Qaeda’s use of Spain as a staging ground since the months before the Sept. 11 attacks. The indictment of bin Laden said Spain had served "as a place or base for resting, preparation, indoctrinating, support and financing" for the attacks and other terrorist operations. The prospect of an al Qaeda campaign in Europe led to meetings across the continent Sunday, including in Germany, where Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder convened his national security council. "If it is confirmed that the Madrid attacks have an Islamic background, it means that Islamic terrorism in Europe has taken on a new quality," said Germany’s interior minister, Otto Schily, after the meeting. Germany called for an emergency meeting of European Union security ministers as countries tightened security, particularly on transportation systems. "If someone can walk on a train in Madrid and kill this many people, then what’s to stop them doing the same thing in London or Rome?" asked Mustafa Alani, a terrorism analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He added: "This is a major change and a very dangerous one. It shows how flexible al Qaeda has become. They change their activities according to the environment they operate in." Analysts said the European Union is about to become even more vulnerable because 10 more members are set to join in May, extending the union’s already relatively open borders. Officials have said they are particularly concerned about an attack at the Olympic Games in Athens this summer. Last December, Europol, the European Union’s police agency, warned that al Qaeda was still active in Europe despite a crackdown by security services in Britain, Italy, France and Spain. "The fact that no Islamic extremist attack has been committed in the European Union . . . should not be considered as a diminution or an absence of threat," stated its report, as cited by the Reuters news agency. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 Negative. Al-Qaeda distanced themselves from GIA heads shortly after the slaughter of Muslims in Algeria began in mid-90s. They remained tied to the European wing of GIA however (to include Hattab) until those forces jumped to GSPC...concluding that move in 1998 when they formally announced all ties boken. Sorry, should have been more detailed in my explanation. |
| Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever 2004-3-16 2:17:56 PM |
| #4 The al-Qaeda decision to dump the GIA for the GSPC was made in 1998, while the bombings in France occurred in 1995-1996. So I think the comment stands. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-3-15 2:44:25 PM |
| #3 #3 In the interest of accuracy, Al-Qaeda broke its support for GIA in the mid-90s and urged its European head, Hassan Hattab to jump to the GSPC. Many GIA types did in fact bolt over. So citing (in the imbedded comment)a GIA attack as an Al-Qaeda attack is not exactly correct. |
| Posted by: TerrorHunter4Ever 2004-3-15 12:29:15 PM |
| #2 Well, at least one good thing will come out of all the carnage in Madrid: The EU leaders will have lots more meetings and form committees, a la Parkinson's Law. /dark humour |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-3-15 9:31:46 AM |
| #1 Supplying Islamic |
| Posted by: Garrison 2004-3-15 2:09:47 AM |