Posted on 10/31/2004 7:02:07 AM PST by knighthawk
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain is doing everything possible to control Islamic radicalism in its prisons, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said on Sunday, after a top judge said Spanish jails were a recruitment ground for militants.
Spain's foremost investigative judge Baltasar Garzon ordered the arrest last week of 13 suspected members of a radical Muslim group, "the Martyrs of Morocco," formed largely from the fast-growing North African population of Spain's prisons.
In his warrant, Garzon said the group, including 18 others arrested in mid-October, planned to blow up the High Court where Garzon is investigating Islamic militancy and another judge is probing March's train bombs which killed 191 people in Madrid. The majority of the suspects in the March 11 bombings are Moroccan. The attacks forced Spain to scrutinize its relations with its rapidly growing Muslim community.
"I have ordered the head of the prison service to draft a plan to control radical Islamic activity in our prisons," Alonso said in an interview with ABC newspaper published on Sunday.
"We have done everything possible to control radical Islamists," the Socialist minister said, after Garzon said in a ruling that Spanish prisons were spawning militancy.
Alonso declined to comment on the record of the previous conservative government, which lost elections only three days after the March train bombings.
Earlier this week, the prisons authority said it was considering relocating prisoners accused of links to the March 11 attacks and told prison governors to keep watch on leaders emerging within Islamic groups in jail.
According a report by the prison workers union ACAIP published by newspaper El Razon on Sunday, 60 percent of new prisoners in Spain are foreigners, with Moroccans making up almost a third of these.
Separated by less than 20 km (12 miles) from the tip of Morocco, Spain has become the main gateway for illegal immigrants into the European Union, the government says.
"We have several thousand Muslim prisoners, some jailed for ordinary offences and other for terrorism. Among the ordinary prisoners, there are some which could be converted to radical activities or terrorism and others who cannot."
"The figures are not so high and the dispersion of prisoners can be carried out systematically, as we have done in the past with ETA," he said, referring to members of the armed Basque separatist group who are habitually dispersed throughout Spain.
Alonso has floated a proposal to monitor the activity of Islamic clerics in Spain. The Muslim community has welcomed the plan to isolate radical clerics but insisted it must retain control over its own religious leaders.
Ping
Ten bucks says Spain gives-in, just like they did on 3-11.
But, wait, I thought it was Bush's fault for Islamic terrorism. Spain gave in to the Islamics---so why are they having any trouble at all with them?
Today, the prisons! Tomorrow, the countryside! The next day, the battle for Andalusia! Then...
Spain's a perfect example of when the majority stays home and doesn't vote, the socialist minority turns out in record numbers to vote, wins and controls the whole shebang.
They're in for a world of hurt, as are all of Euro-weenieland; us too, if we don't get it *under control*: internment camps, deportations, military tribunals and executions. Simply putting the murderous Islamic filth into prison, ISN'T the solution.
Great Comment!!!!!!
The Muslims found a soft spot and will now leverage their newfound opportunities. Spain will pay a heavy price for its appeasement.
The only good terrorist, or his associates, is a dead terrorist, or dead associate. Till Spain and the rest of the "EU" gets this, their problems will multiply faster than rats.
My ancestoral homeland will soon be taken over by the Islamofascists. We should not help them when they cry for it. We should allow them several years of suffering under these animals to change the mindset in that country.
Morbid humor...but I admit to laughing out loud!
:o
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