Posted on 03/11/2004 3:54:21 PM PST by knighthawk
Two months before the Sept. 11 attacks, the man who would be the lead suicide bomber traveled to Spain for last-minute meetings with al Qaeda operatives there.
It was not the first time Mohammed Atta huddled with his Islamic extremist allies in a quiet northeast corner of that south European nation, where authorities say al Qaeda sleeper cells had been in place since as early as 1997.
One of Spain's foremost judges said upon indicting 35 suspected terrorists last September, the country had become "a place or base for resting, preparation, indoctrinating, support and financing" of al Qaeda operatives and operations.
While Spanish authorities initially fingered ETA, a tiny Basque separatist group, as the outfit behind a string of 10 deadly train and station bombings Thursday, scrutiny turned as well to al Qaeda after Spanish police reported the discovery of a van containing explosives detonators and an Arabic-language tape of Koranic verses.
Late Thursday, an Arabic newspaper reported that it had received a claim of responsibility for the attacks from an al Qaeda affiliate. An ETA leader said his group was not involved and cited "Arab terrorists" as the culprits.
Terrorism experts said the bombings in Madrid _ which killed at least 190 and wounded an estimated 1,200 _ bore the characteristics of the sorts of showy attacks al Qaeda specializes in: multiple, coordinated explosions in a public place with a high body count of innocent victims.
In contrast, the separatist group ETA, which has battled for more than 30 years to carve out an independent territory along Spain's border with France, is a low-budget operation that staged small, isolated attacks that were not aimed at ordinary people. In recent months, Spain has declared the group largely dead after successful prosecutions of many of its leaders.
While ETA in the past had collaborated with the Irish Republican Army and has had links with militant Marxist groups, it has never been known as an ally of al Qaeda.
"ETA's secular nationalist agenda has nothing to do with the Islamist fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, and there is no credible evidence of any systematic cooperation between ETA and al Qaeda," the Council on Foreign Relations concluded in a recent report on ETA.
But al Qaeda has reason to bear a grudge against Spain, where more than 50 suspected terrorist operatives have been jailed since the Sept. 11 attacks. Spain's outgoing President Jose Maria Aznar has been one of President Bush's most stalwart supporters on the war in Iraq, despite widespread public opposition.
Spain has been one of the most aggressive European countries in cracking al Qaeda cells, beginning shortly after the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters. Two months after those attacks, Spanish police arrested eight Syrian and Algerian men on suspicion of planning bombings and recruiting young men to train at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
Over the years, investigators have pieced together a chilling picture they say shows how Spain served as a terrorist organizing spot for laundering money, forging documents, assembling gear for attacks and recruiting fellow travelers from among the North African and Arab communities there.
The earliest connection comes from a 1997 videotape of the World Trade Center towers and the area surrounding them, which authorities now believe was a surveillance tool used for planning the attacks. The tapes were found when Spain arrested a Syrian national in 2002 and charged him with being a logistics specialist with al Qaeda.
Others arrested in Spain have been key al Qaeda financial backers, explosives experts and couriers who provided terrorists with food and lodging. Spain also arrested Tayseer Allouni, a reporter for the Arab-language TV network Al Jazeera and a permanent resident of Spain, and accused him of carrying money and messages to bin Laden's cadre.
Other members of a Spain-based terror cell were arrested in September in Spain in connection with the five nearly simultaneous bomb attacks in Casablanca, Morocco, in May 2003. Including 12 terrorists, 45 people died in those bombings.
At least four Spanish nationals are now being held at the U.S. detention camp for alleged terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
And then they bite the hand that feeds them.
Canada, beware...
Now how did he know that, unless he was privy?
Becki
Granada's cathedral is small and unimposing compared to, say, Sevilla. But well worth a visit if you are in the area.
Granada is a fascinating city if you are interested in the Moors and the Reconquest era.
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