Number Found at Spain Site Leads to Arrest (Madrid Train bombing )

The Las Vegas Sun ^ | May 08, 2004 at 9:16:24 PDT | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

MADRID, Spain (AP) -

Police investigating the Madrid terror bombings have arrested a Moroccan whose telephone number was found in the ruins of an apartment where seven suspects blew themselves up, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.

The man, whose name was not released, was arrested Thursday night in Parla, a town just south of Madrid, a ministry official said.

The suspect's telephone number was found in the wreckage of an apartment where seven suspects, including the suspected ringleader of the train attacks, blew themselves up on April 3 as police prepared to go in and arrest them, the official said.

The attacks on March 11 killed 191 people and wounded more than 2,000, and have been blamed on Islamic militants with possible links to al-Qaida.

Eighteen people have been charged so far - six with mass murder and the rest with collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. Six of the 18 have been released from jail but still face charges.

On Thursday, the FBI arrested an American lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, 37, in the United States as a material witness in the case.

Spanish officials say at least one of Mayfield's fingerprints were found on a plastic bag containing detonators of the kind used in the attacks. The bag was found in a van left near the station from which three of the four trains bombed on March 11 departed. U.S. officials said a single print of Mayfield's was found on the bag.

The newspaper El Pais reported Saturday that Spanish investigators have serious doubts as to whether the print is Mayfield's. They have no record of him traveling to Spain recently, and experts found only eight points of similarity between the print and the one of Mayfield held in U.S. files because of his status as a former member of the Army. The FBI said it found 15 such points, El Pais said.

The Interior Ministry declined to comment on the report.

[snopercod]

You're on this like a duck on a June Bug ;-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The newspaper El Pais reported Saturday that Spanish investigators have serious doubts as to whether the print is Mayfield's.

What is the newspaper El Pais???

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This guy is giving my home state a bad name!!!

[Eurotwit]

It is the newspaper El Pais :-)

One of the major newspapers in Spain.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Guess we can't ignore the report then!!!

[monkeywrench]

Is it a leftist paper?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Any body out there?

[McGavin999]

LOL, yeah right, I guess that's why Bin Laden referred to Spain as Our Andalusia. If you don't get the connection, study some history.

[freedom moose]

What is the newspaper El Pais???
it's one of the biggest. it's considered to be one of the best. "intellectuals" like it because it doesn't have pictures on the front page and it's all in B&W, although they may have changed this rule. I haven't read it recently. often the editorials are anti-American and anti-Israel.

[Grampa Dave]

Good find.

My wife has me on Honey Do routines, and I'm getting a little break here.

Please ping all of those who are interested and the indexers like you.

I will be back Honey Doing very quickly! :)

[freedom moose]

They have no record of him traveling to Spain recently,

now that's pretty funny. i imagine i don't need to explain record keeping in Spain

pinging livius if you're not already here

[navyblue]

He could have very easily been in Spain with no record. He could have flown into any other EU country, been picked up by an accomplice and driven across the Spanish border. There really are no effective borders in the EU. Then housed by his team mates and again with no record.

As for the fingerprints, I have no idea.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Pulled some names from an earlier thread where the finger print issue was being discussed.

[LayoutGuru2]

I guess the big question is whether he has been out of the country in the recent past. Check his passport. My wife and I went to Europe for three weeks back in 2002, we flew into Heathrow (UK) and when we left we flew out of Schiphol (Netherlands). How would anyone know where we went in between? We weren't trying to cover our tracks so looking into ATM records would give you a good idea that we likely spent four days in London, took the Dover ferry to France, picked up a rental car and drove all over - Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France. There were no borders over there - Very much like Interstate travel here in the U.S.

It is possible that one of the Madrid bombers visited Mayfield here in the states and coincidentally received the shopping bag which made the trip back to Spain. The possibilities are numerous if it is Mayfield's print.

So it is just a single print now and a partial one at that. It is sounding like a weak connection now. Good for the feds for being diligent and looking into this though. I've been struggling with why the terrorists in Spain would need the help of a family practice lawyer in Portland. I wonder now what his specialty was in the army - Demolition/Explosives? Now wouldn't that be interesting.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I wonder now what his specialty was in the army - Demolition/Explosives? Now wouldn't that be interesting.

Right ON!

This case isn't going away with the Feds saying, Whoops. They know something about this guy!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[breakem]

possible tracking if the person was stupid enough to use a cell phone or credit card

[ValerieUSA]

I think he is suspected of training terrorists in firearms handling and/or explosives right here in the U.S.

Here's an excerpt from the LA Times story:

....The FBI's interest in Mayfield stems from a fingerprint that turned up on a bag containing detonators and other bomb-related equipment left in the bombers' stolen van found at the Alcala de Henares train station outside Madrid hours after the bombings.
The fingerprint was among the physical evidence that Spanish investigators shared with a special FBI evidence analysis team that traveled to Madrid to assist with the case, according to Spanish and U.S. investigators.
The FBI "document exploitation" team compared the evidence with past terrorism cases and discovered the potential match between one of the numerous fingerprints found in the van and a U.S. citizen with military experience who was already under investigation for suspected terrorist activity.
FBI sources said one of the fingerprints matched Mayfield's. There had been no previous indication that Mayfield had been under investigation for suspected terrorist activity.
The discovery intrigued investigators because of the possible involvement of a U.S. military veteran, a rare figure in Al Qaeda cases, and the suspicion that he could have played a significant role in the plot.
Unlike previous Al Qaeda plots, none of the suspects accused of planting the bombs is known to have trained at the terrorist network's camps in Afghanistan. Spanish police think someone with explosives experience helped the attackers build the bombs at a tumbledown cottage outside Madrid.
The American fits the profile of such a potential lead bomb-maker or trainer, along with two Moroccan fugitives who are hard-core Al Qaeda-trained veterans and potential "field commanders" of the bombing cell, investigators said.
...A senior Spanish investigator told the Los Angeles Times three weeks ago that a fingerprint found in the investigation of the train bombings resembled the fingerprint of a man described as a "U.S. military veteran" wanted by U.S. agents in connection with Islamic terrorism. In subsequent days, two high-ranking Spanish police officials and a U.S. law enforcement official confirmed to The Times that the lead, involving a U.S. veteran connected to Al Qaeda, was being pursued. The veteran was someone who had been under investigation by U.S. agents for some time, the investigators said.
The lead intrigued Spanish investigators because they thought an operative with knowledge of explosives or military expertise helped the team of mostly Moroccan suspects build the remote-control bombs that were used in the March 11 attacks, which killed 191 people aboard four commuter trains and helped bring down the ruling party in national elections three days later.
But as recently as Monday, two Spanish police officials said the lead remained inconclusive. "The American has the profile of an expert who could have supervised the bomb-making," a high-ranking Spanish police official said. "And obviously he's someone the Americans are very concerned about because of his background. But we are told the fingerprint match is not conclusive. We can't say right now that it is the same person."