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Actually there is a bit more to this -

ONE of the men arrested was already known to the Spanish Governement and they requested "info" from the Germans in 2002 - the germans said "Mohammed who??"

This same person arrived in Darmstadt in October 2003, lived at a friends appartment for a week, and looked into enrolling at the university there. This is the appartment which was searched.

Question 1: why would the Spanish ask for info from the germans in 2002 about a morrocan? They obviously had reason to believe that the Germans "should" know something.

Several other person detained in spain HAVE LIVED in southern Hessen (possibly Frankfurt) for several years are ARE KNOWN to be "violent extremists".

Question 2: why, after 9/11, has germany allowed these known "violent extremists" to wander freely about? Where is the eavesdropping evidence, etc... which would have prevented 3/11?

[Tin Foil On]
a somewhat strange report on FR yesterday stated that the Schroeder was aware of the planning and failed to prevent it (a SMS message being sent in spain) -

If the organizers where known "violent extremists" and they were being monitored (as the Germans have claimed since 9/11) - could that thread from yesterday be true??
[Tin Foil Off]

One last point regarding "vorbereiten" -
According to Cassel's German-English Dictionary:

vorbereiten
(1) v.t. prepare, get or make ready
(2) v.r. prepare o.s., make one's preparations, get ready (Spt. etc.) train, get into training.

So - some of the evidence seems to indicate that the attacks in Madrid (and the 9/11 attacks) where prepared in Germany.

The "Welt" blurb about the suspect being in Germany a week is a bid to get the story off the radar screen, IMHO.

The "FAZ" article above didn't pull any punches. Violent tendencies, connections to radical islam and Hamas, there's more of them, ready to be picked up and not just in Hessen.

"Spiegel'", which I read alot because I think they are good with breaking stories, used vorbereiten yesterday, which I thought was funny. I looked it up in Duden just to be sure there weren't cases where you could use it in the place of planning.

You get ready or prepare for a bombing after you plan it, right? Getting ready means the foot soldiers are collecting materials in Germany, planning means the masterminds are sitting in a safe location (Germany) drawing up ways to kill hundreds of people. When "Spiegel" flat out asked the question today if the attacks were planned in Germany, I concluded that my original theory was right. The press was vigorously investigating if they were planned in Germany, but "Spiegel" didn't have enough yesterday to flat out say it.

I find "Spiegel" to be very careful with their language, and they are good at it, too. I like the idiomatic phrases "Spiegel" writes with. The word vorbereiten rang a bell yesterday for some reason. Planning the attack is a lot harder to reationalize away than preparing for it. The suspect could prepare for the bombing in a week, but probably not plan it.

I have Tin-Foil hat tendencies, too.

I saw that Stoiber mentioned something about the security issue this AM. This would be a Schroeder killer. We'll have to see if it gets spiked or not.

longjack