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ON THE NET...

http://www.spainherald.com

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Spain&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

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ON THE NET...

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369921

Volume 4, Issue 5 (March 9, 2006) | Download PDF Version

"The Madrid Attacks: Results of Investigations Two Years Later"
By Javier Jordán, Robert Wesley

ARTICLE SNIPPET:

"On Thursday, March 11, 2004, 10 rucksacks packed with explosives detonated in and around Madrid, causing the death of 191 people and injuring 1,800 more. Two days later, the police had detained the first suspects, and within three weeks had broken up the nucleus of the network that planned the attacks. Seven of the members decided to commit suicide rather than surrender to the police forces closing in on the group's hideout. At least five members were lucky enough to elude capture and exited the country. One of the escapees, Mohamed Afallah, met his end in a May 2005 suicide operation in Iraq (El País, June 16, 2005).

Two years after these events, enough information is available through police investigations to allow for a clear deconstruction of the jihadist network. This analysis will focus on three aspects of this network: 1) origins of the network and its relations with al-Qaeda in Europe; 2) profiles of its members; and 3) operational characteristics of the network.

Origins of the Network

There are essentially six important stages and features concerning the emergence and evolution of this network:"

ADDING TO POST NO. 29...

Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/03/010540print.html

March 10, 2006

Madrid bombing probe finds no al-Qaida link

Another blow for those who think our struggle is against a group called Al-Qaeda, and that if we neutralize Al-Qaeda, everything will be all right. Europe -- and America in the years to come -- will have to get used to the concept of home-grown mujahedin. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

MADRID, Spain - A two-year probe into the Madrid train bombings concludes the Islamic terrorists who carried out the blasts were homegrown radicals acting on their own rather than at the behest of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, two senior intelligence officials said.
Spain still remains home to a web of radical Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian groups bent on carrying out attacks — and aiding the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq — a Spanish intelligence chief and a Western official intimately involved in counterterrorism measures in Spain told The Associated Press.

The intelligence chief said there were no phone calls between the Madrid bombers and al-Qaida and no money transfers. The Western official said the plotters had links to other Islamic radicals in Western Europe, but the plan was hatched and organized in Spain. “This was not an al-Qaida operation,” he said. “It was homegrown.”

Posted at March 10, 2006 03:28 AM