Free Republic

The Associated Press reported this week that a Saudi cleric, Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, funneled money to an Egyptian, Rabei Osman Ahmed, who is said to be the mastermind of the Madrid train bombings last March. Al-Awdah's name has been repeatedly linked to al-Qaeda and bin Laden, yet since 9-11, he has tempered his rhetoric. The disparity between his public and his covert activity can be explained by a secret agreement between the Saudi regime and al-Adwah's Movement for Islamic Resurgence.Osman Ahmed's Milan apartment was reportedly wiretapped by Italian anti-terrorism police. In one taped conversation he is reported to say that...

Donald Sensing, who points out that the attack on Madrid was planned two and half years before the event. Long before Operation Iraqi Freedom, before Spanish participation in Iraq, bomber Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed was planning to kill people in Spain.

Spain will seek the extradition from Italy of an Egyptian man suspected of planning the March 11 Madrid bomb attacks that killed 191 people, officials say. Italian prosecutors welcomed the request but said the suspect might also stand trial in Italy. Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", was arrested in Milan on Tuesday. Spain called him "one of the masterminds" of the Madrid attacks carried out three days before a general election. "The Cabinet has decided to request the extradition of Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, known as the Egyptian, to whom very important responsibility is assigned...