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Spain Announces Five Arrests in Bombings
Reuters, AP | 3/13/04

Posted on 03/13/2004 11:06:46 AM PST by thoughtomator

Edited on 03/13/2004 12:17:47 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

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


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aliens; captured; madridbombing; spain; vkpac; zotinside
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To: Rams82
Cadena Cope, Spanish radio station.
21 posted on 03/13/2004 11:12:42 AM PST by livius
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Comment #22 Removed by Moderator

To: thoughtomator
On going thought is that the surrenderous left will gain the upper hand, if this was a revenge terrorist act against Spain for helping the cause of freedom and justice. I despise socialist/communist/left-wing/progressive cheese eating surrender monkeys.
23 posted on 03/13/2004 11:13:25 AM PST by FreeAtlanta (never surrender, this is for the kids)
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To: Alberta's Child
That radical, murderous Islam needs no leadership, but in fact is a self-propogating meme?
24 posted on 03/13/2004 11:13:53 AM PST by thoughtomator (When Bush said, "Islam is a religion of peace", it was an order, not a description)
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To: elhombrelibre
He was being sarcastic. That was a reference to one of the idiotic internet lies spread by Islamicists and conspiracy wackos after 911, claiming that Jews had not shown up to work that day, having been warned by the Mossad, who was really behind the attacks. Or variations on such nonsense.
25 posted on 03/13/2004 11:13:54 AM PST by Diddle E. Squat ("I'm Diddle E. Squat, and I approved this tagline")
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To: thoughtomator
Spain has a simple choice to make with this election.... -- Fight or Surrender?

I think they fight.
26 posted on 03/13/2004 11:14:20 AM PST by Lexington Green (Hanoi John - Hanoi John - The Benedict Arnold of Vietnam)
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To: FreeAtlanta; Dog
Over here. (Other thread was a duplicate).

2:10 EST: Fox announces that Spain is ready to have a press conference. Four Muslims have been arrested for the bombings.
27 posted on 03/13/2004 11:14:23 AM PST by Peach (The Clintons have pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: billorites
Reading El Mundo is says that four arabs were found with a prepaid phone card linked to one of the unexploded backpack bombs.

D'oh! Details...

28 posted on 03/13/2004 11:14:27 AM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: Battle Axe
I am baffled on why some people still believe this is ETA. They don't usually attack civilians. There was no warning. They have denied it. The Arabic tapes in the van. The claim of responsibility. ETc..
29 posted on 03/13/2004 11:14:31 AM PST by Rams82
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To: Crazieman

30 posted on 03/13/2004 11:14:35 AM PST by Crazieman
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To: thoughtomator
Bump!
31 posted on 03/13/2004 11:14:49 AM PST by tiamat ("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
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To: billorites
Reading El Mundo is says that four arabs were found with a prepaid phone card linked
to one of the unexploded backpack bombs.


Love those Islamofacists...
smart enough to use the tools of The Great Satan for murder...
too dumb to either invent them or truly understand how they work.

I hope our Spanish brothers-in-arms got the right guys.
Live by the cell-phone, die by the cell-phone, you cowardly murdering heartless thugs!
32 posted on 03/13/2004 11:15:10 AM PST by VOA
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To: Alberta's Child
I'll bet that ETA was connected, but Spain blamed ETA alone initially because it has always been responsible for such things in the past, and because there have been a number of arrests of ETA members transporting bombs and explosive towards Madrid.

The fact that it's AQ is probably going to mean that Spain will capitulate and elect appeasement-oriented Socialists tomorrow. I hope proof of ETA's involvement (and I'm certain there was some) can be turned up quickly.
33 posted on 03/13/2004 11:15:12 AM PST by livius
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Comment #34 Removed by Moderator

To: thoughtomator
Anyone got a vat of bacon grease handy?
35 posted on 03/13/2004 11:15:28 AM PST by tdadams (If there were no problems, politicians would have to invent them... wait, they already do.)
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To: FreeAtlanta
BREAKING NEWS - Spanish Minister Aceves has just announced the arrest of 3 citizens of Morroco and 2 citizens of India.
36 posted on 03/13/2004 11:15:41 AM PST by Reader of news
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To: elhombrelibre; WinOne4TheGipper
hope your "Jews on the train" was some sardonic wit

You didn't hear? All Jews in Spain got a call telling them not to take the train on 3/11. Clearly, the Zonists are hoping to pin this on peace-lovin Muslims.

37 posted on 03/13/2004 11:15:44 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Everyone is stupid! That is why they do all those stupid things! -- H. Simpson.)
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To: thoughtomator
One thing that made me doubt that it was AQ was that there was no immediate news that it was suicide-managed.
38 posted on 03/13/2004 11:16:00 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: elhombrelibre
It was. Supposedly, there are never any Jews murdered in these attacks. Leftist conspiracy kooks always pull that anytime there's an attack. I'm surprised I haven't heard it yet...
39 posted on 03/13/2004 11:16:04 AM PST by WinOne4TheGipper (Wait. So Kerry's the Dem. nominee? When did we start letting the French run for president?)
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To: hellinahandcart
NOt four but TEN Moroccans have been arrested.
40 posted on 03/13/2004 11:16:30 AM PST by livius
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