Police Arrest Three Al-Qaida Suspects With Videos Of WTC (Spain)

Ananova ^ | 7-16-2002

[blam]

Police arrest three al-Qaida suspects with videos of WTC

Spanish police have arrested three suspected members of al-Qaida who were in possession of videos of buildings and monuments in the US.

Two of the suspects were arrested in Madrid and the other in the eastern town of Castellon.

They were identified as Ghasoub Al-Abrash Ghalyoun, Abdalrahman Alarnaot Abu-Aljer and Mohamen Khair Al Saqq.

The ministry statement said Ghalyoun belonged to the radical Muslim Brotherhood and had been arrested in Spain in April but later released.

At the time of his first arrest, police confiscated many videos including five shot by Ghalyoun during a trip to the United States in 1997.

"The form and type of recording go beyond touristic curiosity as shown by two of the tapes, which are entirely of different angles from different distances of the Twin Towers in New York," the statement said.

It added that there were similar recordings of New York's Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears tower in Chicago, Disneyland and Universal studios in California.

Other videos showed Islamic fighters training in camps and during combat scenes in Chechnya, the statement said.

The arrests were ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzon as part of an operation that began last year with the detention of more than a dozen people across the country between November and April. The judge has accused those arrested then of recruiting members for al-Qaida, financing the group and taking part in preparations for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Story filed: 14:46 Tuesday 16th July 2002

[Travis McGee]

Radical Islam is an insane murder cult, "moderate" Islam is its Trojan Horse in the West.

I wonder if the Spanish have any ancestral memory of the Mohammedans and the Reconquista and their final expulsion in 1492?

[Ciexyz]

The world is in a fight for life against radical Islam. And "moderate" Islam is the cheering squad.

[Travis McGee]

More than the cheering squad, they are the support infrastructure of safehouses etc.

[Prodigal Son]

Disneyland and Universal Studios. Interesting target list. As silly as this might sound, the last thing they would want to do is get Hollywood on their bad side. They've got Hollywood in their pocket right now. Tom Clancy writes a brilliant book about Muslim terrorists detonating a nuke and Hollywood twists it around and turns the skin of those bad guys from swarthy to lily white. Why would they want to mess with their propaganda wing? If Hollywood really wanted to make anti-Islamic propaganda they could have the American public calling for the total destruction of their religion- so as long as they were more or less on my side (from al Qaeda's perspective) I'd leave that forumla alone.

[Steve_Seattle]

If they really want to cause economic disruption - which is one of their main purposes - they would target the shipping industry, and particularly the major seaports. A few dirty bombs in the waterfronts of major ports could shut down those ports for months or even years, with very detrimental effects on the economy.

[Prodigal Son]

Yeah, when you think about ports it gives you a queasy feeling knowing how vulnerable they are. I can easily imagine them sinking a huge freighter in a port mouth. It would accomplish the same thing and allow them to save their dirty nuke (which would no doubt be a precious weapon for them) on another target- Disneyland for example.

[TomGuy]

We should send about 2 dozen Americans to take photos and videos from various angles and locations of the Black Rock in Mecca. Wonder if that would cause any concern with the Saudi Prince?

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[dennisw]

We need to send some guys to take videos of Kabba stone, Mecca, Medina, Qum etc.

[dennisw]

The world is in a fight for life against radical Islam. And "moderate" Islam is the cheering squad.

---> All all Muslims get to partipate in the slow motion Jihad of demographic warfare.

[dennisw]

More than the cheering squad, they are the support infrastructure of safehouses etc.

----> The guerilla (terrorist)finds safety by swimming in a sea of his own people.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[PoisedWoman]

http://www.jamiat.org.za/isinfo/kaaba.html

Won't do any good to destroy the Kaaba. They say they do not worship the stone, it is the "direction" of the stone they worship. Hmmmmmm Not clear whether they think that energies of all people worshiping Allah while thinking about Mecca come together at the Kaaba and make it a highly energized place.

In literature of the sufis, the mystics of Islam, thought forms are the beginnings of reality. (I've vastly oversimplified.) For a good read on the subject, try "Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi" by Henry Corbin, Princeton U Press.

The shape of the Kaaba is not dissimilar to WTC. Perhaps in their furtive little minds, the Islamists were destroying the center of capitalist worship, a holy place, whose destruction would destroy the minds and hearts of its worshipers. But the "direction" of NY remains.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

the last thing they would want to do is get Hollywood on their bad side.

I think it would take an awful lot to get Hollyweird on their bad side. After all, Hollyweird and the Islamofascists are allies--both hate America vehemently. I think Hollyweird would just spin an Islamofascist attack on them as an unfortunate case of friendly fire.

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Disneyland and Universal Studios. Interesting target list."

FOLKS, THIS IS NOTHING NEW.

The Japanese mass murder-cult terrorist group AUM SHINRIKYO, which had already been developing botulism, sarin and VX gas, dispatched assassins to Disneyland California to case the joint, make a study and figure out ways to deliver a WMD there about seven years ago. They were pre-empted and made their move instead against residences in Matsuyama, individual attacks in Yokohama and Osaka, culminating in their earth-shattering attack in Tokyo.

In fact, just about everything AUM SHINRIKYO (which sarin-attacked the Tokyo Subway system) has done is being copied by al-Qaeda, including development of weapons systems and terrorist training in rural isolated areas (Japan: Kamikuishi Village in Yamanashi, and Oregon: South Central Oregon).

Nothing new. We can almost track al-Qaeda's capabilities and strategies by studying what the Japan terror cult actually DID in the early 1990s.

[AmericanInTokyo]

More:

"April 1995: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult plan a nerve-gas attack on Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The group plans to attack during a fireworks celebration at which attendance at the park would reach maximum capacity. Tipped off by Japanese police, U.S. authorities apprehend members of the group at the Los Angeles airport before they can launch the attack. The plan also called for an attack on petrochemical facilities in Los Angeles.The Aum Shinrikyo cult has assets of at least $1.2 billion and the capability to produce sarin and VX gas--agents that cause anthrax and botulism--and radiological weapons. This cult is still active"

[Republic of Texas]

Given a choice, I would prefer to go a summer without movies, than another 40% drop in the Market due to a terrorist attack on business America. At least business people, as a rule, don't hate the free America I want to live in.

[isthisnickcool]

We should send about 2 dozen Americans to take photos and videos from various angles and locations of the Black Rock in Mecca.

There is a "pet rock" joke here somewhere....

[Prodigal Son]

True... True...