Posted on 03/13/2004 5:20:46 AM PST by veronica
MADRID (AFP) - Spain has detained at least 63 suspected Al-Qaeda members since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, amid fears the country was used as a rear base for the Islamic terror network, experts said. About 20 still remain behind bars, several of them as part of an investigation into Osama bin Laden's network being undertaken by anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, prison sources told AFP Friday.
By mid-September Garzon had charged 33 people for "belonging to the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation" of which 10 were suspected of taking part in the attacks in New York and Washington in which some 3,000 people were killed. He has also issued an international arrest warrant against bin Laden as well as 12 other fugitive alleged activists. The charges arose from Operation Date investigating a Spanish Al-Qaeda cell which began in 1995 and in which bin Laden's name had been circulating since 1996, Garzon told the Barcelona newspaper El Periodico in February.
Members of the cell allegedly participated in preparing the US attacks, notably during a visit to Spain by Mohammed Atta, the suspected leader of the September 11 hijackers, in July 2001. Others who face charges include Tayssir Allouni, a reporter from the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera, which has broadcast several tapes purportedly of bin Laden issuing warnings and threats against what he has termed "infidels" and enemies of Islam. Allouni was arrested on September 5 in southern Granada and is on bail for health reasons.
Between November 18, 2001 and January 22, 2002, Abou Dahdah, believed to be the leader of the Al-Qaeda cell in Spain was arrested along with eight other men, according to a court charge sheet. At the beginning of February, a suspected Al-Qaeda member Abdullah Khayata Kattan known as "Abu Ibrahim", was extradited from Jordan to Spain at the Garzon's request as part of his investigations. Two other suspected members of the Islamic network Jaled Ahaled Madalin and Musa Lauar, were detained in southeastern Spain on February 23 accusing of falsifying documents.
At the end of last month Garzon ordered the sole Spaniard held in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay to be transferred from a hospital to a prison in Madrid. Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed was repatriated from Spain on February 13 and is believed to have been recruited by a suspected Al-Qaeda cell in Spain. He had spent more than two years in Guantanamo and had admitted that he had travelled to Afghanistan to join the Islamic hardline Taliban, but denied he had any links to Al-Qaeda.
Yesterday TV played audio of a woman on a cell phone telling a friend about the explosions. Then an explosion hits where she is and she starts screaming. (She lived)
Islamikazi scum must die
I don't pretend to know that much about the Basques or their terror organization but, this doesn't seem to be their MO.
This seems more like right out of the al qaeda terrorist handbook.
Now, I suppose there are rogues in every organization and that's what makes a joint operation between the two very possible, kinda like Patriot Games.
No 'maybe' about it. I luv to see it.
Here's one place where we could use something from the French heritage.
Unfortunately, a basic and integral part of Islam is the establishment of a theocracy--a worldwide theocracy, with the Koran as the only constitution, the shariah as international law, and dhimmitude for non-Muslims.
Not only are the people of the West intent on preserving freedom of religion, but also democracy, and both are in conflict with the ultimate goal of Islam. Furthermore, Westerners are committed to avoiding the horrible religious wars that ravaged Europe in the past.
Thus the West and Islam are in conflict. These two cultures have definitely collided.
The point of view of Muslims cannot adequately be assumed. Evidently it is not monolithic, but the commitment to world domination by at least some Muslims is the only thing that can be assumed.
From the Western point of view, there is only one way to deal with the dilemma:
Westerners must recognize the fact that Islam is both a religion and a political movement and that these two aspects are inseperable.
As a political movement, it is aggressive, imperialist, resolute, and violent, and it is committed to the destruction of the world's democracies and their replacement with Islamic theocracy. This obviously cannot be tolerated, even under the most tolerant guise of religious tolerance.
Inasmuch as the religious and political aspects of Islam cannot be seperated one from the other, the people of the West must consider Islam to be a political movement, rather than a religion, and confront it as such.
It obviously cannot receive the same tolerance accorded to other religions.
The thought of a recrudescence of past religious wars is too horrible for most people even to consider, but facing reality now is the best way to prevent it.
Many of the people of the world are in denial about this, notably American "Liberals" and European leftists, who insist on praising Islam, on considering it just another religion like all others, and hoping that the problem will just go away. It won't. Many of them assume that Islam will become attenuated, secularized, and tolerant and will abandon its political aspects. There is no reason to suppose that it will.
Sooner or later, the people of the world are going to have to face this reality, and the sooner the better, for everyone.
LOL! Very clever, Dennis. May I quote you?
Five arrested in Madrid bombings
The Associated Press
4:14 p.m. ET March 13, 2004
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