Amazing isn't it? How they uncover so many of these devices but they are never usable, operable, ignitable, viable or connected to terrorism in any way.
SPAIN JUDGE LINKS QAEDA SUSPECTS TO IRAQ INSURGENCY
May 19, 2004 — By Daniel Trotta
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish judge accused three Algerians of belonging to al Qaeda and forming part of a network that recruited Islamists across Europe to go fight the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, court records said Wednesday.
High Court Judge Baltasar Garzon said the mobilizing of insurgents was directed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of a U.S. hostage and the assassination of the head of the Iraqi Governing Council.
Jordanian-born Zarqawi has emerged, through a series of attacks and a barrage of recent propaganda tapes and messages, as the most prominent al Qaeda operative fighting the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
The three Algerians, along with a Spaniard accused of collaborating with them, were arrested in various parts of Spain last Friday and jailed on Garzon's orders, pending further investigation.
The judge also drew links between the Algerians and the Hamburg cell that plotted the Sept. 11 attacks.
Garzon accused one of the Algerians, Samir Mahdjoub, of helping others "distribute money to finance the sending of mujahideen to Iraq, using the infrastructure of Ansar al-Islam in other countries like Italy and Syria." Garzon accused Mahdjoub and the other two Algerians, Redouane Zenimi and Mohamed Ayat, of leading a Spanish al Qaeda cell.
The three Algerians had as their main task "lending economic financing to the rest of the European network," Garzon said. They also were alleged to have had "close ties" with Ansar al-Islam, an al Qaeda-linked group operating in Iraq.
Garzon, an investigating magistrate on Spain's special crimes court, has been probing suspected al Qaeda cells in Spain since before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
His investigation is separate from that of another judge into the March 11 train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid.
Last year Garzon charged 35 people including Osama bin Laden for belonging to al Qaeda. Eleven of those were charged with playing a role in 9/11, which he said was planned from Spain during in the summer of 2001.
LINK TO HAMBURG CELL, RICIN PLOT
Garzon said the Spanish al Qaeda cell included Heidi Ben Youssef Boudhiba, who is in jail in Britain.
Garzon said Boudhiba formed part of a network that was attempting to attack London with the deadly toxin ricin in January 2003. He has asked British authorities to hand over Boudhiba to the Spanish courts.
Garzon also linked Boudhiba to members of the cell based in Hamburg, Germany, which supplied three of the suicide pilots for the September 11 attacks.
He said that eight days before the attacks, Boudhiba traveled from Hamburg to Istanbul with Ahmed Taleb, who Garzon said was a member of the Hamburg cell that included Egyptian Mohamed Atta and Yemeni Ramzi bin al-Shaibah.
While in Istanbul they shared a hotel with two other men who Garzon has charged with belonging to al Qaeda.
Garzon previously said Atta, a 9/11 hijacker, and bin al-Shaibah met in northeastern Spain to determine the exact date of the Sept. 11 attacks. Bin al-Shaibah was captured in Pakistan in 2002 and is in U.S. custody at an undisclosed location.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040519_120.html
SMALL POX????
Can't alarm the peasants, can we?