Spain Announces Five Arrests in Bombings

Reuters, AP | 3/13/04

[thoughtomator]

Admin Moderator update:

Spain Announces Five Arrests in Bombings

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Spain's interior minister Saturday announced the arrest of five suspects in the Madrid bombings, including three Moroccans.

The other two suspects had Indian passports, a ministry spokesman said.

The five were arrested in connection with a cell phone inside an explosives-packed gym bag found on one of the bombed commuter trains.

The suspects ``could be related to Moroccan extremist groups,'' the minister said. ``But we should not rule out anything. Police are still investigating all avenues. This opens an important avenue.''

The 10 bombings on Thursday, which killed 200 people on Madrid commuter trains, amounted to the worst terror attack in Spanish history.

Families began burying their dead Saturday as a cold drizzle fell on Madrid on the eve of parliamentary elections.

In a show of national unity, massive crowds gathered in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and even in Spain's Canary Islands off western Africa on Friday night to protest the attack. State TV said nationwide, more than 11 million marched - one-quarter of Spain's 42 million people.

In Madrid, black bows of mourning dotted the city, on shop windows, on flags draped from balconies, and on lapels.

Madrid's biggest funeral home, Tanatorio Sur, was so overcrowded that some coffins were placed in a room normally used for staff meetings. Outside, hearses carried coffins in and out all morning.

Investigators were focusing on a stolen white van found in the town of Alcala de Henares outside Madrid hours after the blasts. Police found detonators and an Arabic-language cassette tape with Quranic verses inside. Alcala de Henares is the town where three of the four bombed trains originated.

A doorman told police he saw three young men carrying knapsacks toward the station in Alcala de Henares, a senior police official said Saturday on condition of anonymity. Officials have said the bombs used in the train attacks were concealed in knapsacks.

The doorman saw the men get out of the van and ``walk toward the train carrying backpacks and he was struck by the fact that they were wearing ski masks when the weather was not suited for that kind of clothing,'' the official said.

``It is one of the main focuses of the investigation,'' the official said. ``It is very important.''

A London-based Arabic newspaper also received a claim of responsibility in al-Qaida's name that called the attack ``part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America's ally in its war against Islam.''

The attack's lethal coordination and timing - 10 explosions within 15 minutes - suggested al-Qaida. But the compressed dynamite used in the backpack bombs is an explosive favored by the Basque separatist group ETA.

ETA issued an apparently unprecedented denial Friday, saying it had nothing to do with the bombings. It has claimed responsibility for more than 800 deaths since 1968 in its fight for an independent state in the northern Basque region.

Debate on who is behind the attacks could sway voters in Sunday's election.

If ETA is deemed responsible, that could boost support for Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's hand-picked candidate to succeed him as prime minister. Both have supported a crackdown on ETA, ruling out talks and backing a ban on ETA's political wing, Batasuna.

However, if Thursday's bombings are seen by voters as the work of al-Qaida, that could draw their attention to Aznar's vastly unpopular decision to endorse the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and deploy Spanish troops there.

Opinion polls have put Rajoy 3-5 percentage points ahead of Socialist candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. No surveys have been released since the attacks.

Aznar, in power since 1996, is honoring a pledge not to seek a third term, saying he wants renewal in government and his party.

Spanish radio station Cadena Ser broadcast a 12-second recording of an unidentified woman who had called a colleague's voice mail after an initial blast on a train at the Atocha station.

The woman, who survived, was in the process of fleeing as she frantically says: ``I'm in Atocha. There's a bomb on the train! We had to -'' and then two more blasts are heard.

Spain arrests 3 Moroccans, 2 Indians in bomb probe

MADRID, March 13 (Reuters) - Spain's Interior Minister Angel Acebes said on Saturday that three Moroccans and two Indians had been arrested in Madrid as part of the investigation into train bombings that killed 200 people three days ago.

Also, two Spaniards of Indian origin were giving statements to police, Acebes said at a news conference.

Spain Announces Five Arrests in Bombings

[Alberta's Child]

The 1993 WTC attack was not a suicide bombing, but for all intents and purposes it may as well have been -- the planners of that attack had arranged things in such a way that the perpetrators were going to get caught.

Ironically, the morons who carried out the attack didn't even realize this.

[Publius6961]

I hope your "Jews on the train" was some sardonic wit. Jews get killed all the time by these Islamic nihilistic terrrorist.

Lighten up. This was a clear reference to the sandmaggots' usual tactic of blaming the Jews for incidents where Jews are killed, like the World Trade Center, restaurant bombings in Israel, etc. Yes, the muslim/terrorist network-lunatic fringe partnership inevitably blames the Jews themselves, ostensibly as a means to maintain world sympathy. You need to be an idiot or a sandmaggot to buy into that... but I repeat myself...

[empirekin768]

Probably Pakistanis using Indian passports, it's happened before.

[gitmo]

If you can do better, please do so for those of us who can't translate it at all.

[livius]

It's very infuriating. Think our elections, and think Kerry.

[Truth666]

"3 Moroccans, 2 Indians"

That fits plan B - keywords (arab, muslim) avoided

[dennisw]

Thanks!

[Dog]

Turn on CNN

[Catspaw]

Didn't bin Laden use Kashmir (and Chechnya) as a training ground for his terrorists?

[hellinahandcart]

There is still a Baathist regime in place in Syria.

And plenty of non-Muslim Westerners as fellow travelers.

[jiggyboy]

You're right about the Spanish-Muslim conflict. "Matamoros" ("kill Moors", i.e, Muslims) has been a common surname in Spain forever. I would imagine though that it doesn't stir anybody up at an unconscious level any more than "Kilpatrick", for example, does for us.

[Reader of news]

In Spanish, "Indio" usually means "Native American". "Hindú" means "citizen of India" or "member of a religion of India".

[elhombrelibre]

I understand but didn't catch it in the context of the rest of the remarks.

[Crazieman]

[Bobibutu]

Possible al-Qaida Link Found in Attack

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040313/ap_on_re_eu/norway_spain_bombings_2

Sat Mar 13, 9:36 AM ET


MOLDE, Norway - Norwegian researchers have found documents that could link the al-Qaida network to terror bombings that killed 200 people in Madrid, Spain.

Experts from the government's Norwegian Defense Research Establishment said the documents found on an Arabic-language Web site last year suggest Spain as a possible terror target because the country had been part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq (news - web sites).

"We must make maximum use of the proximity to the elections in Spain in March next year. Spain can stand a maximum of two or three attacks before they will withdraw from Iraq," the documents said, according to daily newspaper VG.

A series of bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession Thursday, blowing apart four commuter trains and killing at least 200 people and wounding more than 1,400 in the Spanish capital. The attacks occurred ahead of Sunday's national elections.

Researcher Thomas Hegghammer told the paper the researchers first thought the 42-page document referred to attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.

"But the fact that they specifically mention the election in Spain, makes us have to see this in the light of the action in Madrid, three days before the election," Hegghammer said.

Norwegian Defense Research Establishment spokeswoman Anne-Lisa Hammer told The Associated Press the researchers would not speak to journalists Saturday, but added that the Norwegian reports were accurate.

State broadcaster NRK said the documents do not refer to Thursday's attacks in Madrid but outline a strategy to pressure Spain, described as the weakest link in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, to stop cooperating with the United States.

"The author, who is anonymous, is very well-oriented in Spanish politics. We cannot say for sure that this document stems from al-Qaida. We don't have any reason, either, to believe that it isn't real," researcher Brynjar Lia told VG.

The document suggests attacks on Spain would lead to the collapse of the fragile Iraq coalition set up by the United States if they forced Spain to withdraw.

Spanish officials blame the attacks on Basque separatists from the group ETA, which denied responsibility. An Islamic group linked with suspected al-Qaida links has claimed blame in a statement telefaxed to an Arabic newspaper in London.

[Alberta's Child]

Do they have a goal, or are they simply doing as much damage as they can out of anger and spite?

Maybe they are living a marginal existence in the West right now, and they look upon this as something to justify their existence. Who knows?

[dogbyte12]

My guess is that England is next, before us. They will most likely try something in London if this is Al-Quaida. Poland and Australia to follow. They want to "teach a lesson" to anybody who takes our side.

[freeperfromnj]

Do you give any credence to the letter claiming the U.S. attack is 90% ready to go? and do they have operatives already here and in place? I suspect we'll see code orange once again before Monday.

[Dog]

7 arrested....3 Moroccans 2 Indian.....2 Spaniard's

[traumer]

Indians !?

that doesn't make sense....