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uchiuke123

03-02-2005, 09:51 AM

http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/S/SPAIN_BOMBING?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME

Mar 2, 7:48 AM EST

Report: Bomb Suspect Had N.Y. Rail Sketch

By DANIEL WOOLLS
Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A suspect in the Madrid train bombings was found to possess a sketch and technical details about Grand Central Terminal in New York, a report said Wednesday.

The sketch and data were on a computer disk seized about two weeks after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people last year, the newspaper El Mundo said.

Spanish police turned the disk over to the U.S. agents from the FBI and CIA in December once they understood the scope of the technical data, the report said.

A U.S. Embassy official confirmed that American law enforcement authorities received information related to Grand Central Terminal from Spanish authorities in December. The official declined to go into detail.

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However, a Spanish police official said Spanish and U.S. authorities don't lend much credibility to the sketch, saying it is not even clear it is supposed to be a picture of Grand Central Terminal.

The police official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, confirmed that the sketch was found in the home of Mouhannad Almallah, a Syrian who was arrested in Madrid on March 24 but later released, although he is still considered a suspect.

Almallah was questioned over his alleged ties to two suspects jailed in connection with the attack after witnesses placed them aboard trains targeted in the string of 10 bombs, El Mundo said.

A total of 24 people are in jail over the attack, although at least 40 more who were arrested and released are still considered suspects.

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Petronas

03-22-2005, 09:13 PM

Spaniard of Syrian Origin Remanded in Custody for Madrid Bombings
Beirut, Updated 22 Mar 05, 11:12

A Spanish court on Monday remanded into custody a Spaniard of Syrian origin who was arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in the Madrid train bombings, officials said Monday. Mohannah Almallah Dabas is suspected of membership of a terrorist organization that carried out the attacks that killed 191 people and wounded nearly 2,000 on four suburban trains in March last year. The interior ministry had said after his arrest Friday that Dabas' activities were "linked to the recruitment of young radical Islamists in Spain to send them to other countries". He was first arrested in March last year but later released. New evidence led to his re-arrest.

He was reportedly helped by Basel Ghayoun, who is already being detained in Spain and suspected of being one of the March 11 bombers. Dabas' brother Moutaz Almallah, 39, was arrested Saturday in southwest England on a Spanish extradition request. The Spanish interior ministry said the two brothers not only recruited young radical Islamists but also provided protection, accommodation and company for unidentified people in transit.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&2C1D6E01EB0FB03DC2256FCC0031B71D

Casey

04-02-2005, 08:43 AM

Police arrest 12 'linked' to Madrid train bombings
MAR ROMAN
IN MADRID

SPANISH police yesterday arrested 12 people in connection with last year’s Madrid train bombings. Six Moroccans, three Syrians, one Egyptian, one Palestinian and one Algerian were held in Madrid.

Four of those arrested - Moroccan brothers whose family name is Haddad - had close links to Youssef Belhadj, a Moroccan suspected of being the al-Qaeda spokesman in whose name the Madrid bombings were claimed. He was extradited from Belgium to Spain yesterday.

A police spokesman said the Haddad brothers gave Belhadj accommodation in Madrid during a visit in 2003.

The spokesman said the 12 were not suspected of direct involvement in carrying out the attacks, but in preparations months before. The bombings of four commuter trains, on 11 March, 2004, killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500.

Among the newly detained is 33-year-old Mahamad Tiazounie, of Syrian origin, who is considered the personal assistant of a Tunisian named Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, one of seven key suspects in the bombings who killed themselves in a suicide blast on 3 April as police moved in to arrest them.

More than 20 people, mostly Moroccans, have been jailed on charges in connection with the Madrid bombings. More than 50 others are still considered suspects.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=348502005

Petronas

04-25-2005, 10:53 PM

Al-Qaida's Suspected Leader in Spain Denies Founding Cell That Helped in Sept. 11 Attacks
Monday, April 25

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Al-Qaida's suspected leader in Spain denied Monday that he founded a radical Muslim cell accused of helping plot the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. Imad Yarkas, a 42-year-old Syrian, said he had never heard of a group called Soldiers of Allah until he was arrested in November 2001 and read about the group in Spanish news reports. "It is an invention," Yarkas said as he took the stand in the trial of 24 suspected al-Qaida members. "I have never heard of it, only in this investigation."

Yarkas is accused of directing a terrorist cell that allegedly provided logistical cover for Sept. 11 plotters, including Mohamed Atta, who is believed to have piloted one of the two hijacked planes that destroyed the World Trade Center towers. Two alleged accomplices of Yarkas also face charges of helping plot Sept. 11, and prosecutors are seeking jail terms of nearly 75,000 years for the trio - 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks.

Judge Baltasar Garzon has said the group was formed at a Madrid mosque in 1995, was led by Yarkas and affiliated itself with al-Qaida, eventually helping organize the suicide airliner attacks in the United States. Yarkas was peppered with questions from prosecutor Pedro Rubira about his contacts with other defendants in the trial and suspected militants abroad. Yarkas insisted he knew them only as acquaintances who attended the same mosques. One man he said he knew in the 1990s in Madrid is Mustafa Setmariam, a fugitive Syrian believed to be a senior al-Qaida operative and who was indicted in Spain along with Yarkas in September 2003. Yarkas said he lost track of Setmariam when the latter moved from Spain to Britain and then to either Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Yarkas looked relaxed and spoke in Spanish. He wore blue jeans and a navy blue suit jacket. Asked whether he knew a cleric named Abu Qutada in London and if the man was engaged in "radical" activities, Yarkas said, "What does radical mean? I don't know what it means." Rubira asked detailed questions about Yarkas' dealings with other suspects and financial dealings but did not ask directly whether he had anything to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.

The proceedings have made Spain only the second country after Germany to try suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks. The only man charged in the United States, Zacarias Moussaoui, pleaded guilty Friday to helping al-Qaida carry out the attacks. One of Yarkas's alleged accomplices, Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, took detailed videos of the World Trade Center and other landmarks during a visit to the United States in 1997. Garzon says this footage was passed on to al-Qaida and became the "preliminary information" on the Sept. 11 attacks. Yarkas on Monday denied any knowledge of these tapes or Ghalyoun's trip to America.

Earlier, the lone native-born Spaniard among 24 men accused depicted himself as a peace-loving Muslim who rejected terrorism and once participated in a rally denouncing the 2001 attacks. Luis Jose Galan, a Madrid native who converted to Islam more than a decade ago, denied prosecutors' allegations that he received terrorism training at an Indonesian camp after a 2001 recruiting visit to that country by Yarkas. Galan said he never saw or heard of such a camp when he visited the Indonesian city of Poso, would have been too old for military training anyway and rejected terrorism. "It is not my way of approaching life. I have other values," Galan, 39, said.

Galan and 20 others are accused of illegal weapons possession and belonging to al-Qaida, but are not accused of helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks. Galan said neither Yarkas nor any of the defendants had ever approached him about engaging in radical Islamic activities. "If they had, I would have gone away. I have another mind-set," he said. Defense attorney Nieves Fernandez cited a photo that is part of the trial's 100,000 pages of police documents which shows Galan appearing at a Madrid rally in the autumn of 2001, protesting against the Sept. 11 attacks. "I condemn not just the death of 3,000 people but the death of a single person," Galan said.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBSYKYRY7E.html

Petronas

05-15-2005, 02:06 PM

Three hurt in Basque bomb blasts
Sunday, 15 May, 2005, 16:55 GMT 17:55 UK

Four small bombs have exploded at industrial sites in Spain's Basque region, injuring three people. Two policemen and a security guard were treated after inhaling toxic fumes at a chemical plant hit by one of the blasts, Spain's interior ministry said. Local officials blamed the armed Basque separatist group, Eta, for the blasts. The attacks came four days after Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged Eta to disband in his state of the nation address

The four devices went off in the space of about an hour starting at 0300 local time (0100 GMT) in the towns of Beasain, Bergara, Elgoibar and Soraluze, police said. They said the blasts targeted two chemical plants, a paint factory and a metalworks facility. Spain's anti-terrorism officials said no warning had been given about the attacks.

The Basque regional government said "all the data and the composition of the explosives point to Eta as being responsible", without giving further details. Eta has been blamed for more than 800 deaths in its four-decade armed campaign for an independent homeland in northern Spain and south-western France.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4549379.stm

1001

05-23-2005, 03:30 PM

Spain’s Ejido Nightmare for Moroccan Immigrants

By Al-Amin Al-Andalusi, IOL Correspondent

RABAT, May 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – In theory, they are living in Europe, the far-fetched dream of many of their peers in North African countries daydreaming about a luxurious living of standard and prosperous future for their children.

In practice, more than 10,000 Moroccan immigrants have been crushed by the harsh reality they are forced to cope with, living in the southeastern Spanish town of El Ejido.

At first glance, a visitor may, if not will, reckon that the town with its ghetto-like nature, plastic-capped cottages, vast swathes of arid land and rigorous terrains is not at all part of Europe, but rather one of Africa’s Safari areas.

Moroccan immigrants are being treated as second, or even third, class people in El Ejido and the province of Almeria.

Being illegal workers with no residence papers and often hunted down by police, they are willing to do anything for a living, facing exploitation by opportunist employers.

Failing to find even low-paying jobs, many immigrants hang out in marijuana-filled cafes to escape reality.

Paradox

Moroccan immigrants live in cartoon-capped cottages below the poverty line in El Ejido.

It is, indeed, paradoxical that El Ejido is one of the poorest and richest areas in Europe at the same time.

On the one extreme, one stands speechless to admire the breathtaking scenery with deluxe hotels, villas and chalets, making the city a key tourist destination.

El Ejido, with banks almost everywhere, also occupies a distinguished place on Spain’s industrial map with dozens of processed food factories, capitalizing on the thriving vegetable and fruit cultivation.

Mushrooming greenhouses have also made the town one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, according to European Union estimates.

On the other extreme, Moroccan immigrants suffer appalling living conditions with wages with less than 20 euros a day, the lowest in Spain, if not Europe.

Immigrants are crammed like sardines in cartoon- and –plastic-capped cottages that barely provide them with shelter from the elements.

Up to 95 percent of them are living below the poverty line, according to estimates released by a society defending Moroccan immigrant workers.

Back in 2000, police cracked down on Moroccan immigrants in bloody racist raids unprecedented in the country’s recent history, which were labeled by some newspapers as the “new Spanish Inquisition.”

At that time, immigrants’ properties were looted and ransacked, forcing hundreds of them into a panicky flight into neighboring farmlands.

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-05/23/article05.shtml

Alli

05-25-2005, 12:42 PM

Car Bomb Explodes in Madrid
MADRID, Spain — A powerful car bomb exploded in Madrid Wednesday after a warning call from the armed Basque separatist group ETA (search), police said, in the latest of a string of attacks since Spain's prime minister offered talks with the group if it renounces violence.

Eighteen people were slightly injured, said Beatriz Martin, the city's emergency medical department spokeswoman. The explosion occurred around 9:30 a.m. in a working-class district north of the Spanish capital.

Police cordoned off the area where the bomb went off after an anonymous caller to the Basque newspaper Gara, which often serves as a mouthpiece for ETA, said a bomb would explode inside a Renault van.

Television images showed a large column of black smoke rising from the area of the explosion.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (search), speaking in a previously scheduled Senate session shortly after the explosion, insisted that "the only fate that the terrorist group ETA has is to lay down weapons and dissolve."

Police estimated the bomb contained 40 to 44 pounds of explosives, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told reporters. "The explosion was really a big one," he said.

Alonso said ETA remains "alive, active and operative" despite the arrest of more than 200 suspected members in recent years.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157593,00.html

Petronas

05-26-2005, 01:11 AM

May 25, 2005

ALICANTE — An aeronautical engineer has been arrested for allegedly designing missiles for the Palestinian terrorist organisations Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Marwan Ismail Dahman, who was born in Gaza, in Palestine but is a naturalised Spaniard, was arrested in Benidorm in the Alicante province, the Spanish daily El Pais reported.
He allegedly offered to design a new type of Qasam missile which can potentially be used for attacks on Israel.
Police sources said plans for the missile design, which had been sent by fax to the two Palestinian terrorist organisations were found in Dahman's house.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006335.php

Petronas

05-28-2005, 01:00 AM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): On 27 May 2005, a home-made bomb exploded at a train station in Barakaldo, located approximately 6 mi/10 km from Bilbao in Spain's Basque region. The blast damaged a ticket office and the roof of the station, but there were no reports of injuries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the town mayor blamed youths affiliated with the Basque separatist group ETA. Spain is on heightened alert due to an intensification of violence by ETA.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS - 5/27/2005

Petronas

06-09-2005, 01:51 AM

Terror on trial
Sunday, June 5, 2005

MADRID, Spain -- Two dozen men sit behind bulletproof glass in a new courtroom built to hold the biggest al-Qaida trial Europe has yet seen. In proceedings that began in April, the Spanish National Court is considering whether the accused men belonged to a terrorist cell that helped kill nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. Key testimony hinges on whether central figures in the alleged Madrid cell arranged a meeting in Spain two months before the attacks between hijacker Mohammed Atta and planner Ramzi Binalshibh.

Prosecutors also claim the group's leaders funneled money to the hijackers and to other terrorists in Europe, and that one man made videotapes of the World Trade Center and passed them to other al-Qaida members to plan the attacks. Prosecutors have asked for 62,000-year sentences for the group's three central figures. But in reality, the three could face no more than 30 each. That's the longest anyone can be jailed in Spain. In addition, the country has no death penalty.

Accused cell member Yusuf Galan is not one of the major players. Galan, a Spaniard who converted to Islam, faces only 18 years for being part of the cell, visiting an Islamic militant training camp in Indonesia in 2001, and having illegal guns and knives in his home when he was arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks. He also had militant literature, a map of London with a church and synagogue circled, and a map of Hannover, Germany.

And he had a map of Pittsburgh. The map is a mystery. It is at least 40 years old. The Point Bridge, closed in 1959 and demolished thereafter, is still shown as a traffic artery across the Monongahela River, while the "proposed" Fort Duquesne Bridge, built in the 1960s, is just dotted lines. A sequence of numbers -- 71, 73, 75, 76, 5, 64, 67, 68 -- is scrawled in one margin. Crestview Road, a hilly residential street in Banksville, is circled.

Residents of Crestview Road say they have not noticed any suspicious behavior on their small street, which is lined with middle-class brick houses in a neighborhood popular with city workers. Pittsburgh FBI special agent in charge Chris Briese declined to comment on the map. The map raises the question: Why was Pittsburgh on the radar of an alleged Islamic terrorist in Spain?

One possibility: In the 1990s, a group of Saudi students in Pittsburgh published an Arabic-language magazine, Assirat Al-Mustaqeem, that often featured jihadist rhetoric. For example, one 1998 editorial called the United States a "strategic target" and wished for its destruction. The magazine was distributed to hard-line mosques in Europe and elsewhere until it ceased publication in 2000. The magazine's publisher, Bandar Al-Mashary, and editor, Mohsen Al-Mohsen, headed an Islamic foundation based in Banksville and prayed at a temporary mosque in a Banksville hotel, both about a mile from Crestview Road. Both men returned to Saudi Arabia after getting doctorates at the University of Pittsburgh.

The lead prosecutor in the Spanish case, Pedro Rubiro, said the map is of little interest to his case. Galan has not been asked about it, and the government barred a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter from interviewing him. Spanish authorities do not say Galan or any of the others on trial visited Pittsburgh.

While observers on both sides of the Atlantic are watching the trial closely, a future Spanish courtroom battle looms larger -- that of the Madrid train bombers. Cell phone-triggered backpack bombs exploded in Madrid's main train station and two other stops on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people. The political aftermath of those bombings ultimately toppled Spain's conservative government.

More than two dozen suspects, mostly Moroccan, have been jailed in the investigation, and dozens more have been released but are considered suspects. Authorities say at least one of the alleged al-Qaida ringleaders now on trial in Madrid also helped plan the train bombings.

In Spain, accused terrorists can wait up to four years in jail while the case against them is assembled, but a top official in the Spanish prosecutor's office said he expects the bomb trial to begin next year. Jail time can be cut short, as prosecutor Rubiro knows well.

His boss, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Jesus Santos, boasted that Rubiro was the first person in Spain to win a conviction against an Islamic terrorist group. That was in 1997. One man Santos put away, an Algerian named Allekema Lamari, was released after an appeal.

Weeks after the Madrid attack, police tracked seven suspects to an apartment in the suburbs and surrounded it. The men inside chanted prayers, then blew themselves up. DNA tests of the remains showed Lamari was one of them. Asked how he felt when he heard the news that a man he had once put away might well have been one of the train bombers, Rubiro looked at the floor. "I can't answer that," he said.

Spain's legislature has created a 3/11 commission to examine what went wrong and to look for ways to improve security. It plans to publish its findings this month. Meanwhile, the government has added 300 intelligence personnel to handle terrorism and has tightened regulations on mining explosives, which were used in the bombings.

But the commission is frequently bogged down in strident partisanship, said Josep Guinart, a commission member and legislator who is aligned with the ruling socialist coalition. "One of the problems of this commission is we are only politicians, so sometimes it means the commission is less a place for investigating what happened on the 11th of March, and more a place where the (political) parties have a fight," Guinart said.

The bombings took place three days before national elections. In the immediate aftermath, former President Jose Maria Aznar and other leaders from the then-ruling conservative party announced Basque terrorists were the likely culprits. As facts emerged pointing to Islamic terrorism, protesters massed in the streets of Madrid to accuse the government of lying. Aznar, they said, was trying to obscure the real reason Spain was targeted -- its participation in the war in Iraq. The conservatives lost, and the troops were withdrawn soon after.

Conservative Senator Ignacio Cosido said blaming ETA, the Basque terrorist group, for 3/11 was a mistake. But he said ETA has killed more than 800 Spaniards in hundreds of attacks -- an ETA car bomb in Madrid injured five last month -- so investigators had good reason for their suspicions. Cosido said his biggest worry is that the Spanish public will assume it is no longer targeted by Islamic terrorists now that its soldiers have left Iraq. "My perception is that Spanish society doesn't have an understanding of the magnitude of this threat. They do not understand that we are not free of this threat," he said.

Spanish investigators announced last fall they had broken up a new Madrid bomb plot, this time with multiple targets, including a skyscraper, a soccer stadium and the Atocha train station again. But some are skeptical, such as documentary filmmaker Miguel Angel Nieto, of Madrid. "The police need to (prove) to public opinion that 3/11 was not because of the war in Iraq. So I think there were no plans to attack anything more," he said.

Nieto is one of a group of filmmakers who produced a collection of documentary short features called "Todos Ibamos en Ese Tren" ("We Were All on That Train") after the attacks. Proceeds went to the victims' families. The documentary has been shown in several film festivals, including Chicago.

Angel Nieto's segment is called "Victim Zero." In it, a wife, a mother, a friend and a daughter talk about the man they thought they had lost in the explosion, until someone spotted him on the news carrying a wounded man. The man himself refused to talk -- many of the victims of the train attacks have asked for privacy -- but Angel Nieto says in the end it was better that way. "My idea was there were a lot of anonymous people who were helping at that moment. This is one of them. It's not important, his identity. He is one of many," he said.

The piles of candles, floral bouquets and handwritten notes that once cluttered the floor of Atocha station have been cleaned up. In their place are two computer terminals where a passersby can scan a handprint -- a frequent image in anti-terror protests here -- and type testimonials to victims. Loudspeakers play a short loop of somber piano music. "Life has to go on, but this is one way we can always remember that day," said Susana Calzado, 31, an accountant from Madrid who paused at the memorial for a quiet moment before walking to her train

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_341051.html

Petronas

06-10-2005, 09:20 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): At least two low-level grenades exploded on the runway near the aircraft parking area of Zaragoza Airport (LEZG/ZAZ) in northeastern Spain at approximately 1200 local time on 10 June 2005. The passengers' terminal, located approximately 300 yd/275 m from the site of the explosion, was evacuated. Relatively few passengers were at the airport, as the first flight was scheduled to arrive at 1305 and the first departure was scheduled for 1330. A Basque newspaper received a warning call one hour prior to the blasts from the separatist group ETA stating that there would be an attack on the airport. There were no reports of injuries or damage. After the explosions, police officials established a security perimeter around the airport, and discovered at least three grenade launchers, one of which was loaded. Media reports state that the airport closed as a result of the incident, and flights will remain suspended for the rest of the day.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/10/2005

Petronas

06-16-2005, 11:56 AM

Spain Makes Terror Arrests
Wednesday, June 15, 2005

MADRID, Spain — Police arrested 16 Islamic terror suspects in raids in several cities, including 11 men accused of having ties to Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's group Al Qaeda in Iraq and recruiting people for attacks there, officials said Wednesday. The 11 were part of a support group for a Syrian-based recruitment network for attacks on U.S. and allied forces, and some of them had said they themselves wanted to become "martyrs for Islam" and were awaiting orders to do so, the Interior Ministry said. It did not specify how Spanish authorities learned of these alleged intentions. Most of the 11 are Moroccan and practically all of them sold drugs and committed robberies to finance the network, the ministry said. They were arrested as part of an investigation that began in 2004. The other five detainees were described as suspects in last year's train bombing in Madrid.

Some 500 Spanish police took part in raids in Barcelona, Valencia, the southern Andalusia region, and Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Morocco. Al-Zarqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq is believed to be responsible for many of the bloodiest terror attacks in the country.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said the 11 detainees belonged to a terrorist network that was established in Spain and linked to Ansar al-Islam, believed to have ties with the group run by al-Zarqawi. It said the apparent leader of the Spanish group's recruitment activities was a 28-year-old Moroccan named Samir Tahtah, arrested near Barcelona. He coordinated communications with overseas leaders of the network and the sending of recruits to Iraq for terrorist attacks, the statement said. "Basically, what the police accuse them of is raising money and recruiting people to do activities abroad related with the international jihad," or holy war, said Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso.

Some of the other five detainees had close ties to ringleaders of last year's commuter train bombing in Madrid, which killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500. They were arrested Tuesday in Madrid and Barcelona, the statement said. Mohamed Afalah, a fugitive suspect in the bombings, was believed killed in a bomb attack in Iraq between May 12-19, the statement said, without citing a source. It said the target of the alleged attack was not known.

The arrests were ordered by a judge at the National Court, the Madrid-based tribunal that is the hub of Spain's investigations of Islamic terror cases, including the train bombings and an Al Qaeda (search) cell on trial in Madrid. Three of the 24 defendants are charged with helping plot the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. A total of 26 people have been jailed in the train bombings, and more than 70 others have been questioned and released but are still considered suspects.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159609,00.html

Petronas

06-27-2005, 11:28 AM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A car bomb exploded outside a sports stadium in the Spanish capital, Madrid, on 25 June 2005 after a warning was given in the name of the Basque separatist group ETA. No injuries were reported as a result of the explosion outside the Peineta sports stadium, a facility that is under construction as part of Madrid's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/27/2005

Casey

09-17-2005, 09:15 AM

Published: 17/9/2005, 10:30 (UAE)

Al Jazeera reporter re-arrested

Agencies

Granada: An Al Jazeera television reporter, Taysir Alouni, who was arrested in Spain in 2003 for suspected links to terrorism has been taken back into custody over fears he may flee before his September 26 court date.
Alouni, and another suspect in the trial, Jamal Hussein, were bailed last March because of severe health problems, and placed under mandatory house arrest.

Both Alouni and Hussein face nine years in prison if convicted of being part of a terrorist group. Both say they are innocent.

The key figure in the trial is Syrian-born Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, also known as Abu Dahdah, who is accused of helping the September 11 hijackers plan the attacks on US cities in 2001.

Barakat Yarkas, accused of being Al Qaida's leader in Spain, faces a jail sentence of more than 74,000 years if convicted.

The prosecution says Alouni had an "intense and continuous" relationship with Barakat Yarkas.

Prosecutors accuse him of carrying money intended for Al Qaida members during visits he made to Afghanistan for his journalistic work.

Alouni denies using a posting in Afghanistan to distribute money to Al Qaida.

"The trial is highly politicised and in the full glare of the media. The prosecutor who ordered me re-arrested alleging I would escape never presented any evidence to support his claim," Alouni said the last time he was released.

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=182258

Petronas

10-04-2005, 01:30 AM

Morocco (Country threat level - 3): Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono announced on 29 September 2005 that Spain will deploy soldiers to support civilian forces patrolling the fences that separate the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco. Hundreds of Africans attempted to storm the settlement of Ceuta on the early morning of 29 September, marking the latest attempt by would-be immigrants to gain access to Spanish territory. Five Africans died and 50 others were injured while trying to climb the fence surrounding Ceuta. Bono also announced that Spain is working on a project to double the height of the Melilla fence to 20 ft/6 m along the six-mile border with Morocco. This project will be completed by early 2006 and is part of Spain's initiative to stop illegal border crossings from Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 9/29/2005

Ceuta looks like a giant refugee camp, as do parts of the Spanish capital, Madrid, where the illegals periodically are transported to and released when Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands no longer can hold them.

Petronas

10-04-2005, 11:49 AM

Spain Plans 3rd Fence in Melilla Enclave
October 04, 2005 9:14 AM EDT

MELILLA, Spain - Spain will build a third high-security fence between its Melilla enclave and Morocco after undocumented immigrants repeatedly stormed two existing barriers, an Interior Ministry official said Tuesday. Speaking on Spanish National Radio, Interior Ministry official Jose Fernandez Chacon said the new fence "would be built with urgency" and was part of a plan that last week saw the deployment of troops and a speeding up of work to heighten one of the other two barriers.

Hundreds of poor sub-Saharan African immigrants gathered in northern Morocco have stormed the fences repeatedly in the past two weeks in a bid to enter Europe. Five immigrants were killed in a similar charge last week at Ceuta, Spain's other enclave on the northern Moroccan coast. Both city enclaves already have twin 10-foot razor-wire fences spanning their perimeters.

Fernandez Chacon's comments came a day after some 650 Africans ripped through a section of the Melilla barrier and clashed with police in the latest and biggest border rush. About 135 immigrants were injured Monday, as were seven police officers. Some of the Africans threw rocks at police, the Interior Ministry said. Monday's surge occurred at a spot where the fence had already been raised.

Last week, two groups, estimated at 500 men each, tried to cross the fences at their northern and southern tips - areas where that construction has yet to begin. About 300 got in.

After scaling a first fence topped with razor wire, the immigrants clambered up the newly elevated second fence. The two are separated by a short strip of land. Police said the sheer weight of so many men hanging on at once brought down two 60-feet strips of the upper half of the fence, also covered with razor wire, leaving gaping holes. Pieces of ripped clothing could be seen strewn across parts of the barrier that remained intact. Those who made it across were detained and moved to an already overflowing holding center while authorities figured out what to do next.

Many of the Africans arriving in Melilla have trekked for more than two years, working their way north from some of the continent's poorest countries, to then spend months in the bush in Morocco while waiting to cross into Spain. "We were just tired of living in the forest. There was nothing to eat, there was nothing to drink," said Sega Sow, a 19-year-old from Guinea Bissau who took part in Monday's surge.

Spain's private Telecinco channel broadcast excerpts from a documentary showing a Spanish Civil Guard brutally kicking an immigrant who, along with some 20 others, had just scaled the fence. The scenes were shot in July 2004. The documentary traces the lengthy journey of two Cameroonians and their stay in Morocco before trying to enter Spain. In the video, shot from the Moroccan side of the barrier, a Civil Guard can be seen pointing a stick and shouting, "Hey black man, get back or I'm going to give you a whack on the head."

In the excerpt, the lone Civil Guard then tries to repel the charge, using a baton to try to detain the Africans as they scramble over. Shortly after, a Civil Guard vehicle arrives and one officer jumps out and immediately begins kicking the immigrant on the ground while immigrants on the other side plead for him to be left alone. The bodies of the five immigrants who died last week all had bullet wounds. News reports cited Spanish and Moroccan police accusing each other of firing at the immigrants. A joint government investigation has been ordered.

Immigrants first tried mass assaults to cross the Melilla fence in 1997, and the number has been growing. There have been about 25 so far this year, with 10 since August. Most were much smaller than the ones last week here and in Ceuta. Every year, thousands of people, mostly sub-Saharan Africans and Moroccans, also try to enter Europe by clandestinely crossing in boats from Morocco to Spain.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20051004/4341fe40_3ca6_1552620051004-483881939

Petronas

10-06-2005, 12:40 AM

'How to beat your wife' imam must study equality
(Filed: 29/09/2005)

An imam who wrote a book on how to beat your wife without leaving marks on her body has been ordered by a judge in Spain to study the country's constitution. The judge told Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, imam of a mosque in the southern resort of Fuengirola, to spend six months studying three articles of the constitution and the universal declaration of human rights.

Mr Kamal was sentenced to 15 months in jail and fined £1,500 last year after being found guilty of inciting violence against women. However, despite objections from Spain's socialist government, a judge released him after 22 days in jail on condition that he undertake a re-education course. A commission recommends that imams should speak Spanish and have a basic knowledge of human rights and Spanish law.

In his book Women in Islam, published four years ago, Kamal wrote that according to Islamic law, a disobedient wife could be beaten. "The blows should be concentrated on the hands and feet using a rod that is thin and light so that it does not leave scars or bruises on the body,'' he wrote.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/29/wimam29.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/29/ixworld.html

Petronas

10-30-2005, 01:11 AM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Bombs exploded outside of courthouses in four Spanish towns on 25 October 2005, causing damage to the buildings but no injuries. Explosions occurred in Guernica, Ordizia and Amurrio in the Basque country; a fourth bomb detonated in Berriozar, located in the neighboring region of Navarre. Police officials suspect that the Basque separatist group ETA perpetrated the attacks.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS - 10/25/2005

Petronas

11-05-2005, 07:06 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A small bomb exploded near the headquarters of Spain's ruling Socialist Party in the Basque city of Bilbao at approximately 0110 local time (0010 GMT) on 4 November 2005. The blast damaged the building's windows but caused no injuries. Police officials believe the device was made from a canister of camping gas or a bottle of inflammable liquid. An investigation continues into the incident.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 11/4/2005

Petronas

11-18-2005, 01:12 AM

Now that would be terrible, if a terrorist were actually confined to his cell...

Madrid bombing suspect extradited to Spain from UK
17 November 2005

LONDON — A man suspected of involvement in the Madrid bombings is to be extradited to Spain from Britain. Moutaz Almallah Dabas, 39, will go in the next 10 days, a district judge at Bow Street magistrates court in London said. The 2004 attacks on rush-hour trains in Madrid left 191 dead, and dozens of suspected Islamist extremists have been detained in Spain since, the BBC reported. A Moroccan cell with al-Qaeda links claimed responsibility, and most arrests have been of Moroccans.

Dabas, a Spaniard, was arrested in Slough, Berkshire, in March on a European extradition warrant. The arrest came a day after police in Spain held his brother Mohannad, a Syrian.

The Spanish interior ministry accuses the pair of involvement in the running of a flat where extremists were recruited. Investigators allege some of those behind the bombings were present at meetings. In a written copy of the judgment, District Judge Anthony Evans said: "The alleged facts are that between 2000 and 12 March 2004 the defendant was responsible for providing support and accommodation in Madrid for Islamic terrorist. Some of the people whom he assisted were responsible for the Madrid bombings of 11 March 2004, in particular, a close associate of the defendant Sarhene Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet committed suicide along with six others when cornered by the police in April 2004."

Dabas' legal team had said that his human rights could be breached by the extradition, arguing it was possible he could be held in a subterranean cell with no natural light, not be allowed to bathe and be completely confined to his cell. They also said it was possible he could be expelled from Spain to Syria where he could be mistreated. But Evans said there was no proof that his rights would be breached. He added: "In any event he will have the right to apply to the Spanish Constitution Court and ultimately to Strasbourg. No complaint appears to have been made in respect of his co-suspects that their rights have been violated."

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=25433&name=Madrid+bombing+suspect+extradited+to+Spain+fr om+UK

Petronas

11-21-2005, 11:50 PM

Spain begins landmark Eta trial
Monday, 21 November 2005, 10:14 GMT

The largest ever trial related to the Basque separatist organisation Eta has opened in Madrid. Fifty-six people face charges of belonging to the group or collaborating with it and more than 300 witnesses are expected to be called. Those on trial include members of Basque organisations banned by the anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzon.

Eta, which wants an independent Basque nation, has been blamed for more than 800 killings in the past four decades. Basque nationalists say the trial can only hinder prospects for a political settlement. The current Spanish Socialist government has offered to hold talks with Eta if it renounces violence. The militants' planned Basque homeland encompasses areas of northern Spain and south-western France. Over the past two years, it has carried out several small attacks without causing any deaths.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4455892.stm

Petronas

11-22-2005, 12:04 AM

Madrid terror suspect had details of London Tube
21 November 2005

MADRID — Police find maps of Spanish trains, the London Underground and Montreal’s rail system on the computer of a man questioned over the Madrid bombings. The Spanish daily El Pais reported Abdelhak Chergui, a 32-year-old Moroccan who studies telecommunications in Spain, was arrested in May along with his brother Abdelkhalak in connection with the investigation of the bombings in March last year that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500 people.

At the time, police said the two were suspected of helping to finance the attacks and providing weapons to people accused of carrying them out. Del Olmo released them for lack of evidence, however, after ordering them to surrender their passports.

The investigation continued and an examination of Chergui's computer found detailed information on the Madrid, London and Montreal train systems, El Pais said, quoting a police report submitted to the judge in September. Police have declined to comment on the report.

El Pais did not say if Spanish police suspected Chergui of any role in the London bombings which killed 56 people in July. The Madrid attacks were claimed by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda. A total of 26 people are in jail in connection with the Madrid bombings, but about 80 more who were questioned and released are still considered suspects. The first trial of these suspects is expected next year.

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=25502&name=Madrid+terror+s

Vancouver

11-23-2005, 10:20 PM

10 more arrests. See e.g.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4464080.stm

Petronas

12-02-2005, 11:07 AM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A bomb exploded at the headquarters of a transport company located in the Basque country during the early morning hours on 1 December 2005. Reports did not identify the location more precisely. The blast caused damage to the facility but there were no reports of injuries. Police officials suspect that the Basque separatist group ETA perpetrated the bombing.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/1/2005

Petronas

12-03-2005, 11:51 AM

Vitoria is in the Basque country and Logroño adjacent to it. Coincidence or could there be any links to ETA? After all, ETA supposedly also had links with the IRA and the Colombian FARC...

Security forces believe that there are two Islamic cells in Spain
Fri, 02 Dec 2005, 08:31

The State Security Forces are on maximum alert. According to today’s El Mundo newspaper, the recent detention of men who are alleged to be linked to Al Qaeda and who were trying to exchange drugs for Goma 2 explosives, could have been related to what the Spanish Secret Service, the CNI, believe are two sleeping Islamist cells based in Logroño and Vitoria. The security services think the groups could be merely waiting for instructions. The security services have called for a planned Islamic Centre not to be built in La Rioja.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_1149.shtml

Petronas

12-03-2005, 11:51 AM

Three police injured in incidents on the Ceuta border
Fri, 02 Dec 2005, 17:28

Three National Police have been injured and a car stoned in incidents which have taken place at a frontier post between the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta and Morocco today. It happened as more than 500 people tried to cross the border at the commercial border point at the same time.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_1159.shtml

Petronas

12-07-2005, 11:44 AM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Five small bombs exploded on highways outside of Madrid at approximately 1500 local time (1400 UTC) on 6 December 2005 following a warning call by the Basque separatist group ETA. There were no reports of injuries, but major traffic disruptions are being reported due to police blockades. Highways affected by the bombings include the A-6 highway toward northwestern Spain, the A-2 highway toward Barcelona and the three ringroad highways, the M-40, M-45 and M-50.

Spanish authorities evacuated Santander Airport (LEXJ/SDR) in northern Spain after receiving a call from ETA warning that one or more explosive devices would detonate at the facility between 1200 and 1400 local time (1100 and 1300 UTC). An investigation into the incident is currently underway, but there are no reports of explosions or devices being recovered.

In a separate incident, a small bomb exploded at a post office in the village of Alsasua (located approximately 30 mi/50 km northwest of Pamplona in the province of Navarre) at approximately 0300 local time (0200 UTC) on 6 December 2005. The blast damaged the facility, but there were no reports of injuries.

These incidents occurred on the day Spain celebrates the 27th anniversary of its constitution, which some separatists consider an impediment to achieving greater self-rule in the Basque region. On the holiday last year, seven low-powered bombs exploded in cities spread geographically from northern Spain to the country's southern coast, injuring 15 people. The latest bombings and threats appear to be aimed at demonstrating the group's continuing presence in the country rather than causing extensive damage or injuries. The most recent fatal attack attributed to ETA occurred in May 2003.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/6/2005

Petronas

12-09-2005, 12:09 PM

Spain Arrests 7 Suspected of Terror Links
December 09, 2005 10:58 AM EST

MADRID, Spain - Police have arrested at least seven people suspected of financing and giving logistical support to an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida, officials said Friday. Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said police who made the arrests late Thursday and early Friday in the Costa del Sol region had turned up no evidence that the detainees were planning an imminent attack in Spain. Alonso said the detainees were suspected of aiding an Algeria-based Islamic extremist organization, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.

Police made the arrests in apartments in the cities of Malaga, Marbella and Torremolinos and continued to carry out searches Friday, news reports said. Alonso did not specify the nationalities of the detainees but news reports said the seven were Algerian and included one woman.

On Nov. 23, Spanish police arrested 11 Algerians suspected of providing financing and logistical support to the same Algerian group, which is also known as GSPC. The arrests were in the eastern cities of Alicante and Murcia and in Granada in the south. A week later, a judge charged four of the suspects with belonging to a terror cell but released the other seven on the condition that they surrender their passports and check in with the court weekly.

Suspected Islamic extremists claiming allegiance to al-Qaida detonated 10 bombs on Madrid commuter trains in March 2004, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,500. They said they acted on al-Qaida's behalf in revenge for the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq. The soldiers had been sent by a conservative government that was voted out of office in elections three days after the Madrid attacks, losing to Socialists who opposed the Iraq war and quickly brought the 1,300 troops home.

A total of 26 people have been jailed in the case on provisional charges that include terrorism and mass murder. Dozens more have been jailed and released but are still considered suspects.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20051209/43990f50_3ca6_1552620051209-1553150480

Petronas

12-13-2005, 01:30 AM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A small bomb exploded outside of a post office in the town of Igorre, located near Bilbao in the northern Basque region, on 11 December 2005, causing substantial damage but no injuries. Authorities suspect that members of the Basque separatist group ETA carried out the attack.

In a separate incident, Spanish security forces found two grenade launchers located near Santander Airport (LEXJ/SDR) on 10 December 2005 after a Basque newspaper received an anonymous call specifying their location. The grenade launchers were discovered approximately 765 yds/700 m from the airport's runway. Spanish authorities evacuated the airport on 6 December after receiving a warning call from ETA that explosive devices would detonate at the facility.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/12/2005

NYer

12-14-2005, 06:36 PM

Spain arrests Chechens linked to Van Gogh Murder (http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/13/vangogh.shtml)

Petronas

12-19-2005, 04:35 PM

Spain Arrests 15 on Terror Charges
December 19, 2005 10:39 AM EST

MADRID, Spain - Spanish police arrested 15 people Monday on suspicion of recruiting and indoctrinating fighters for Iraq's insurgency, officials said. The cell was in close contact with al-Qaida members in Iraq and had two people ready to be sent there to wage "holy war," Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told a news conference. The arrests stemmed from a probe that began in January and the cell sent "several" people to fight in Iraq, the minister said without giving a precise figure.

More than 100 police officers staged raids that led to the arrests in the regions of Catalonia and Andalusia as well as in Spain's Balaeric Islands, he said. Police agents specializing in Islamic terrorism, explosives or scientific investigation made the arrests in the cities of Lerida, Malaga, Nerja, Seville and Palma on the island of Mallorca. Alonso did not give the nationality of the suspects, although the news agency Efe said they included Moroccans, Ethiopians, a person from Ghana and one Spaniard.

Monday's arrests marked the fourth time in less than a month that Spanish police have arrested people suspected of Islamic extremist activities. In a series of arrests beginning in late November, 19 people were arrested on suspicion of belonging to or collaborating with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Algerian-based extremist group that has declared allegiance to al-Qaida. Seven were jailed on preliminary charges of belonging to a terror cell, one still has to go before a judge and the others were released.

Spain has arrested nearly 200 Islamic terror suspects since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, which investigators say were planned in part in Spain. About half of them were arrested in connection with the Madrid train bombings of last year, in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,500 wounded. Of these suspects, 26 have been jailed, although dozens more who were questioned and released are still considered suspects.

http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20051219/43a63e50_3421_1334520051219-2099266718

Casey

12-20-2005, 02:37 PM

Translated from Russian article below.

14:11 20.12.2005
Permanent news address: http://www.regnum.ru/english/562845.html
Byelorussian chemical weapons specialist turned out to be Al-Qaeda member

One of the 16 members of Al-Qaeda terrorist cell, arrested in Spain, is a native Byelorussian, expert in chemical weapon.

According to Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso, 30-year-old Sergey Malyshev participated in militants’ operations in Chechnya, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was born in Minsk, recently adopted Islam and took the name of Amin al-Ansari.

Among persons arrested are also citizens of Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Ghana, France and one Spaniard. They have been arrested during the last night in different towns of Spain, including Seville and Malaga. The police seized carried lots of chemicals that can be used for production of explosives.

Leader of the cell, Iraqi Hijag Maan, alias Abu Sufian, has been also reportedly detained. RSN notes, the group occupied itself with recruiting new terrorists and their ideological training. Provided with fake IDs, they were transferred in Istanbul, and then to Iraq, where they trained to be suicide bombers.

Белорусский специалист по химическому оружию оказался членом "Аль-Каиды"

Один из 16 членов ячейки международной террористической организации "Аль-Каида", задержанных в Испании, является уроженцем Белоруссии - эксперт по химическому оружию.

По словам главы МВД Испании Хосе Антонио Алонсо, 30-летний Сергей Малышев участвовал в операциях боевиков в Чечне, Пакистане, Афганистане. Он родился в Минске, некоторое время назад принял ислам и взял имя Амин аль-Ансари.

Среди задержанных - также граждане Марокко, Египта, Ирака, Ганы, Франции и один испанец. Задержания проводились в течение минувшей ночи в разных городах Испании, в том числе, в Севилье, Малаге, Лериде, на Балеарских островах. Изъято большое количество химических веществ, пригодных для изготовления взрывчатки.

Предполагаемым главарем этой организации считается входящий в число задержанных иракец Хийяг Маан, известный по кличке Абу Суфийян. РСН отмечает, что эта группа занималась вербовкой будущих боевиков и их идеологической обработкой. Затем, снабдив поддельными документами, их переправляли в Стамбул. Оттуда эмиссары иракского отделения "Аль-Каиды" доставляли людей, готовых стать смертниками, в Ирак.

Постоянный адрес новости: www.regnum.ru/news/562845.html
10:57 20.12.2005

Petronas

12-22-2005, 01:44 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A small bomb exploded outside a nightclub in the northern town of Santesteban (located 30 mi/50 km from Pamplona in the region of Navarre) at approximately 2200 local time (2100 UTC) on 21 December 2005. The bomb was reportedly left in a van parked behind the Bordatxo nightclub. The blast caused no injuries, as the club was closed at the time of the explosion and police officers had evacuated the area. A Basque newspaper, as well as the highway authority, received a warning call in the name of the Basque separatist group ETA ahead of the explosion.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 12/22/2005

Petronas

01-05-2006, 02:15 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Two small bombs exploded at a hotel in the village of Sos del Rey Catolico at approximately 0800 local time (0700 UTC) on 5 January 2006, causing only minor damage and no injuries. The state-run Parador Nacional, which is located approximately 45 mi/75 km south of Zaragoza, was closed to the public at the time of the attack. Authorities received a warning call from the Basque separatist group ETA prior to the explosions.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 1/5/2006

Petronas

01-11-2006, 07:53 PM

SPAIN: ALGERIAN SUICIDE BOMBER LINKED TO CELL
Madrid, 10 Jan.

The recruiters of an Algerian suicide bomber who investigators believe is one of those responsible for an attack in Iraq in 2003 that killed 19 Italians were among 20 people arrested on Monday in Spain on suspicion of enlisting Islamist fighters for Iraq. Spanish and Italian security forces had worked together to provide the forensic evidence linking the late Bellil Belgacem to the 2003 attack on an Italian military barracks in Nasiriya, southern Iraq, Spain's interior minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in a statement.

The police sweep - carried out on Tuesday in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, the capital, Madrid, and Lasarte in the Basque region - netted 15 Moroccan, three Spanish, a Turkish, and an Algerian suspect, believed to belong to al-Qaeda linked cells, the interior ministry said.

The alleged Barcelona cell members are accused of having recruited Belgacem. Investigators still need to clarify whether he set off to Iraq from Spain, or from another country. One of those arrested in the Barcelona area is believed to be the imam of Barcelona's Villanova and Geltru district mosques, who may be the head of the alleged Barcelona cell, according to sources close to the investigation.

The suspects' mission was to recruit and provide financial and logistical support to fighters sent to Iraq. They had connections in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, Alonso said.

Last month, Spanish police arrested 16 people accused of recruiting Islamist militants and a further two gave themselves up. As a result of the probe, which focused on a mosque in the southern city of Malaga, six people were jailed on suspicion of recruiting suicide bombers or insurgents to Iraq, Chechnya and Kashmir. The other 12 were released pending further investigation. Operations against suspected Islamist militants in Spain have continued since the al-Qaeda linked train bombings that killed 191 people on 11 March, 2004.

The attack on an Italian military base at Nasiriya in 12 November 2003, killed 19 Italians, most of them members of the carabinieri paramilitary police, and nine Iraqis. It was the most devastating attack on Italian forces since World War Two and produced an outcry in Italy.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.247677138&par=0

Petronas

01-18-2006, 10:53 AM

7 in Spain Accused of Aiding Insurgents
January 14, 2006 9:43 PM EST

MADRID, Spain - A Spanish judge has jailed seven people accused of recruiting fighters for the Iraqi insurgency, judicial officials said. The recruits allegedly included an Algerian believed to have killed 19 Italians in a suicide attack against a military base in November 2003. Investigative magistrate Fernando Andreu of the National Court filed preliminary charges against the seven Moroccans he jailed, accusing them of belonging to a terrorist organization. This stops short of a formal indictment but allows authorities to keep the suspects in prison for up to three years while they continue investigating.

The seven were arrested in raids this week, marking the third time since June that Spain has arrested people suspected of aiding the Iraqi insurgency by recruiting and sending people to fight U.S.-led forces, either as guerrillas or suicide attackers. A total of 48 people have been arrested.

Spanish authorities say one of two cells broken up this week recruited an Algerian named Belgacem Bellil, identified as the suicide attacker involved in the bombing that killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis at an Italian military base in the southern city of Nasariyah in November 2003.

Police and Judge Andreu said this cell was led by one of the seven people now in jail, Mohamed Mrabet Fahsi, who was among 16 people arrested Tuesday in the Catalan town of Vilanova i la Geltru. Another of the seven jailed late Friday was the imam of the town, Mohamed Samadi.

The Interior Ministry has said both the cell that recruited the suicide bomber and another cell broken up this week were led by Omar Nakhcha, a 23-year-old Moroccan who was arrested Thursday in another Catalan town.

The ministry said Nakcha is also suspected of having helped four suspects in the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid flee the country. One of those, Mohamed Afalah, is alleged to have carried out a suicide attack in Iraq in May 2005.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20060114/43c88550_3ca6_1552620060114769376559

Petronas

01-26-2006, 12:06 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Two bombs detonated in the Basque region on 26 January 2006, one outside a post office and the other outside a court building. The first blast, which occurred shortly after midnight local time, damaged the front of a post office and a nearby house in the town of Murguia. The second blast occurred at approximately 0715 local time (0615 UTC) and damaged the door to a court building and a shop nearby in the town of Balmaseda. No one was injured in either incident. While no one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, regional officials have blamed the separatist group ETA. No further information is available.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 1/26/2006

Vancouver

01-27-2006, 08:14 AM

A couple more members of the old-fashioned bomb-throwing club ETA were picked up in France:
http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/eitb24-politics-french-police-arrest-two-eta-suspects?itemId=D7786&cl=%2Feitb24%2Fpolitica&idioma=en
A few mo':
http://www.guardiacivil.org/terrorismo/grupos/terromasbusca.jsp

Petronas

01-31-2006, 03:18 PM

Rucksack bomb injures a policeman in Bilbao
30 January 2006

MADRID – A rucksack packed with explosives in Bilbao injured a policeman, it was revealed on Monday. According to the Basque Country's interior ministry, at around 1.20am on Sunday a neighbour phoned the police to report a suspicious parcel next to the job centre INEM in Santutxu. Police arrived and cordoned off the area. At around 2am the rucksack exploded, slightly injuring one of the officers. He was treated at the scene and did not need to be taken to hospital.

The explosion damaged the INEM office and the entrance to a garage, several vehicles parked on the street and it also blew out glass in several windows and doors of nearby homes. A spokesman for the interior ministry said the contraption in the rucksack was made up of three-and-a-half kilograms of explosives, which shared similar characteristics to those which exploded last week at Balmaseda court house and the post office in Murguia.

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=27205&name=Rucksack+bomb+i

Petronas

02-02-2006, 06:43 PM

Thursday, February 2 2006

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A bomb detonated outside the regional post office headquarters on the outskirts of the city of Bilbao, located in the Basque region, at approximately 2250 local time (2150 UTC) on 1 February 2006. The blast caused material damage, but there were no reports of injuries, as authorities had evacuated the building and cordoned off the surrounding area after receiving a warning call. The bomb, which weighed between 22-33 lb/10-15 kg, was reportedly left in a bag with a note reading "caution, bomb" attached to it. Authorities are investigating the incident, which they have attributed to the Basque separatist group ETA.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

Petronas

02-27-2006, 11:06 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Two people were injured in Vitoria, the capital of Spain's Basque Country, on 25 February 2006 when an explosive device was detonated at an ATM. Spain's interior minister identified the Basque separatist group ETA as being responsible for the attack. The incident occurred only hours after massive protests took place in Madrid, the capital, against perceived moves by the Spanish government to negotiate with the ETA.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

As many as 1.4 million people demonstrated against the government opening negotiations with the ETA terrorists.

Petronas

03-10-2006, 11:44 PM

Madrid bombing probe finds no al-Qaida link

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.” Both men spoke on condition of anonymity, the first because Spanish security officials are not allowed to discuss details of an ongoing investigation, the second due to the sensitive nature of his job. The attack has been frequently described as al-Qaida-linked since a man who identified himself as Abu Dujan al-Afghani and said he was al-Qaida’s “European military spokesman,” claimed responsibility in a video released two days later.

Ahead of Saturday’s anniversary of the March 11, 2004 blasts — which killed 191 people and wounded 1,500 — victims’ groups have been clamoring for more progress in the investigation. Gabriel Moris, whose 30-year-old son died in the bombings, said: “These past two years have done nothing to clear up what happened. My questions are simple: Who ordered the massacre? Who killed my son and the other innocent victims?”

The intelligence official said authorities know more than they have revealed, including the suspected ideological and operational masterminds of the attack. “We haven’t explained it well enough to the victims because we can’t reveal judicial secrets,” he said, adding the investigation is nearly complete.

Authorities believe the ideological mastermind was Serhan Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian who blew himself up along with six other suspects when police surrounded their apartment three weeks after the bombings, and that Jamal Ahmidan, a Moroccan who also died that day, was the “military planner.” Law enforcement had focused on another man, Allekema Lamari, as the head of the group. But the official said evidence, particularly from wiretapped phone conversations, indicated it was Ahmidan who gave the military orders. Lamari also died in the apartment blast in a Madrid suburb as authorities closed in.

Some 116 people have been arrested in the bombings, and 24 remain jailed. At least three others — Said Berraj, Mohammed Belhadj and Daoud Ouhane — are sought by authorities, though all are believed to have fled Spain long ago. The intelligence official said the top planners are all either dead or in jail.

While the plotters of the Madrid attack were likely motivated by bin Laden’s October 2003 call for attacks on European countries that supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there is no evidence they were in contact with the al-Qaida leader’s inner circle, the intelligence official said. Most of the plotters were Moroccan and Syrian immigrants, many with criminal records in Spain for drug trafficking and other crimes. They paid for explosives used in the attack with hashish. That is a far cry from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States — allegedly planned by al-Qaida leaders like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, and funded directly by the terror network through international wire transfers and Islamic banking schemes.

Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, said the model used in Madrid, and likely for the July 7 London transport bombings fits in well with al-Qaida’s business plan. “Al-Qaida is not and never was a topdown organization that did everything in terms of attacks around the world. They have a key role in ideological terms ... but they rely on local cells and those that are inspired to carry out these attacks,” he said. After the fact, bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri are happy to claim responsibility because they recognize the carnage as inspired by their movement.

Still, Wilkinson cautioned that just because no direct link has been established between the Madrid plotters and al-Qaida, it doesn’t mean none exists. “If security officials knew everything that was going on, we would have caught Osama bin Laden by now,” he said.

Both the Spanish intelligence chief and the Western official said there is reason for concern despite the lack of a direct al-Qaida connection. “There were a lot of moving parts to the March 11 plot, but we were still not able to detect it, and that is scary because a similar thing could happen again,” said the Western counterterrorism official. “Since March 11, there have been plans for other significant attacks that the Spanish have disrupted.”

Those plans include a scheme in late 2004 to bomb buildings in Barcelona, including the 1992 Olympic village and office towers known as the city’s World Trade Center complex. Police also thwarted a 2004 plot by Moroccan and Algerian militants to level Madrid’s National Court — a hub for anti-terrorism investigations — with a 1,100-pound truck bomb. And agents specializing in Islamic terrorism have arrested dozens of suspects — all allegedly working to recruit potential suicide bombers for the Iraq insurgency.

At least two Spanish citizens — including March 11 suspect Mohammed Afalah — are believed to have blown themselves up in Iraq, and an investigation by the respected El Pais daily revealed some 80 others have traveled to the country in recent months intending to do the same.

The intelligence official said the March 11 attacks were a wakeup call, and authorities are much better prepared now to stop Islamic terrorism. But he said the bombings show how easy it is for those bent on terrorism to carry out attacks. He said authorities believe the Madrid bombers learned how to construct the bombs — all connected to Mitsubishi Trium T110 mobile phones — from Internet sites linked to radical Islamic groups. The devices were similar to ones used in the 2002 Bali bombing, he said, evidence that militants in both countries got information on the same radical Web sites.

Spanish authorities were monitoring several of the bombers in the months before the attack — and actually stopped Ahmidan’s car on a highway in late February, unaware he was leading a caravan of other terrorists transporting the explosives used in the blasts. The intelligence official said authorities had never imagined a group of petty drug traffickers were capable of planning such a massive attack. “Had we been told a day before (the bombing) that this is what was going on, we would have dismissed it,” he said.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11753547/

Petronas

03-14-2006, 02:04 AM

TERRORISM: MADRID TRAIN BOMBERS "WERE PLANNING FURTHER ATTACKS"
14-Mar-2006 07:43

Almost two years to the day since al-Qaeda linked bombers killed 191 passengers and injured almost 1,000 in devastating train bombings the Spanish capital on 11 March, 2004, it has emerged that the bombers had planned to carry out further attacks in Spain, according to disclosures published on Friday in the Spanish daily, ABC.

A particuarly disturbing relevation in the ABC report is that other terrorist attacks were planned on Spanish soil. Investigators reportedly found details of planned attacks by the Madrid cell on the computer of one of the bombing suspects, Jamal Ahmidan, known as 'the Chinaman'. Among the cell's possible future targets were an English school in Madrid, and the Avila and Toledo synagogues, ABC reported.

Investigators found a kind of manual on how to organise a terrorist group that Ahmidan had downloaded onto his computer one week after the deadly attacks from an 'online al-Battar training camp' based in Saudi Arabia. The 'instructions' received by Ahmidan included how to form a terror command structure in a large city.

The manual contains information on the composition of an al-Qaeda cell. This needs to be made up of five groups: the leadership, information and logistics staff, operatives who carry out attacks, and financial officers. Only the leadership of a cell can know the objective of an attacks, according to the manual.

Just a few days after Ahmidan downloaded the manual, police found 12 kilogrammes of explosives near Toledo, on the tracks of the high-speed Madrid-Seville express train. Ahmidan and several other Madrid train bombing suspects blew themselves up in a flat in a Madrid suburb when police moved in to arrest them three weeks after the bombings. A police special operations officer was killed and 18 police officers were injured in the blast.

The second anniversary of the Madrid train bombings will be marked in a low-key climate, with little pomp and ceremony - at the request of relations of the victims. More than 200 of the attacks still need medical assistance, and a further 264 need psychological help. On Friday night prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero and King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia will attend a memorial concert for victims of the Madrid attacks and the 7 July 2005 bombings of the British capital London's transport system that killed 54 and injured 700.

No bombing suspect has yet stood trial. Judge Juan del Olmo is expected to present his first indictments in the complex investigation by 10 April: some 30 people out of 116 suspects, many of whom are Moroccan, are expected to be charged.

Del Olmo and the National Court have been warned that unless the investigation is stepped up, some of the 25 defendants currently detained might have to be released from custody before any trial ends. Spain's 11th March Association of Terrorism Victims president, Pilar Manjon said on Thursday she was starting legal action against del Olmo. Manjon is angry that del Olmo has so far asked only 10 of the hundreds of victims of the deadly attacks to testify before him.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.274473231&par=0

Petronas

03-18-2006, 08:58 PM

Man shoots blanks at Spanish Supreme Court
Fri Mar 17, 8:26 AM ET

MADRID (Reuters) - A man in a security guard's uniform fired several blank shots inside the Spanish Supreme Court building in Madrid on Friday and was immediately arrested, court workers and police sources said. Although security guards found one gun in a bag as it passed through a security scanner, the man, who was wearing the uniform of a private security firm, was carrying another gun, which he fired after triggering a walk-through alarm system.

"The security machines detected two guns ... and he was able to use one of those to fire six shots. He was then apprehended by security guards," court spokesman Agustin Zurita Pinilla told reporters. "Of course, there were no injuries as they were blank shots." The man was held in a nearby office and later bundled away amid chaotic scenes in the lobby of Spain's highest court, which was not in session on Friday. Police sources said the man had a criminal history but declined to give further details on his motives.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060317/wl_nm/spain_shooting_dc;_ylt=AvomytCjZUw1UAaHL6AvkXpm.3Q A;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Petronas

04-05-2006, 12:08 AM

TERRORISM: SPANISH COURT GIVES ALGERIAN WEBMASTER 10-YEAR JAIL SENTENCE
Apr-04-06 18:38

A three judge panel has handed down a 10-year prison sentence to an Algerian man for trying to launch an al-Qaida website to recruit extremists and distribute calls to carry out terrorist attacks, Spain's National Court announced. The magistrates believe Ahmed Brahim, 60, occupied a senior position within al-Qaeda. The court issued the conviction and sentenced Brahim last Friday, although it did not make this public until Monday.

Before he was arrested, Brahim had begun setting up a webpage to "spread the most radical and extremist ideas of Islam, those which promote Jihad as part of the war against those who do not share their beliefs," according to a statement by the court. Brahim, an Algerian citizen with residency papers, who with his wife had a business buying and selling yachts in Spain, was arrested in April, 2002. At that time, police found at his home in Sant Joan Despi, Catalonia, all the necessary materials to set up a "terrorist website." They also established that Brahim had contacts with "important radical extremists" close to al-Qaeda.

The al-Qaeda operatives included Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, a Tunisian who would later be implicated in the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded 1,740. Fakhet blew himself up in an apartment in Madrid during a standoff with police two years ago, together with six other alleged members of an al-Qaeda cell suspected of involvement in the Madrid train bombings.

Brahim received from other Islamic extremists 22 CDs compiled by Salman al-Ouda, close aide to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The CDs urged "war against the United States and the Jews," the National Court stated. The website Brahim wanted to set up was intended to take forward his plan "to spread jihadist ideology," the National Court said. It added that Brahim wanted to distribute the website in French so that it would reach a wider audience of Muslims who read French better than Arabic.

"The project aimed to permit any Muslim access to the most radical preachers of holy war, the court said. All terror attacks carried out to date by Islamic terrorist organisations have always been based on a fatwa, the Spanish magistrates pointed out.

According to the National Court, Brahim on more than one occasion met senior al-Qaeda operative Mahmoud Mahmoun Salim (also known as Abu Hajer) on the island of Palma di Mallorca in 1998, where Brahim was living at the time. The two men discussed "projects to spread Jihad," the court said. Salim was arrested in Germany soon afterwards and extradited to the United States, where he was tried for links to the terrorist attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. Salim was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison for attempted murder.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.283767252&par=0

Petronas

04-05-2006, 11:03 AM

Spain sticks a knife in the back of Western civilization

Look what Spain has decided to do, right on the anniversary of the train bombing that caused them to capitulate to Al-Qaeda and elect a terrorist-friendly government. This is from the Gulf Times Newspaper of Qatar:

Spain, Pakistan agree to work for religious harmony
Published: Wednesday, 8 March, 2006, 11:26 AM Doha Time

ISLAMABAD: Spain agreed yesterday to work with Pakistan towards drafting a resolution at the UN against the defamation of religions and religious symbols, in the wake of the publication of caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad deemed insulting to Islam.

“We understand and respect the sufferings of Muslims and the Islamic countries after the publication of the cartoons,” Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters after meeting his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri in Islamabad at the end of his two-day visit to the country.

Editor’s note: The sufferings? Well, over 163 people died in riots after the cartoons were published, but somehow I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about. The article continues:

The cartoons, first published by a Danish newspaper in September 2005, provoked global outrage among Muslims after many Western media outlets reprinted them in a show of support for freedom of speech. While supporting freedom of expression, the Spanish foreign minister emphasised that it has to be observed with responsibility.

Editor’s note: In what way, then, did he support freedom of expression? You either do, or you don’t, and he doesn’t. Continuing on:

Minister Kasuri said Pakistan has proposed to host a meeting of the so-called “Alliance of civilisation” initiative, co-sponsored by Spain and Turkey, to promote understanding among different cultures and beliefs. Moratinos said his country would support Pakistan’s efforts to hold the meeting.

And to think that we named our blog after Spain’s national motto… Disgusting. I spit upon you, Miguel Angel Moratinos. You are supporting the very people who would have us extradited to Pakistan and executed for publishing cartoons, or would have Pakistani citizens executed for looking at websites. I don’t think that the Spanish can sink any lower than this, but we’ll see.

http://dragonkeypress.com/blog/?p=1003

Petronas

04-13-2006, 12:55 PM

Spain to free 1,500 illegal immigrants into Europe
12/04/2006

At least 1,500 illegal immigrants who have sailed to the Canary Islands from Africa in recent weeks are to be set free by the Spanish authorities. The sub-Saharan migrants will be flown to the mainland before being released and most hope to make their way to Britain, France, and Italy, officials told El Pais newspaper yesterday.

Some 3,800 illegal immigrants, mostly young men from Mali and Senegal, have arrived in the Canary Islands in small boats since the start of the year. The Spanish Red Cross estimates that a further 1,300 have drowned during the perilous 500 mile voyage from Mauritania. Thousands have risked the journey in small open boats after migration routes via Morocco were closed off by its improved co-operation with Spain. About 2,500 sub-Saharan migrants are crammed into detention centres and military camps on the Canary Islands.

Spain has been repatriating small groups to Mauritania by chartered aircraft. But, under its liberal immigration laws, illegal migrants can be held for a maximum of 40 days. If officials then fail to establish their nationality, or discover that they come from a country such as Mali which has no repatriation agreement with Spain, they must be released. Most illegal arrivals will therefore have to be set free, officials said.

Once released on the Spanish mainland, the migrants can make their way through continental Europe because of the border-free Schengen zone. Britain is not part of the Schengen zone and maintains border controls with the rest of the European Union.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/12/wspain12.xml

Petronas

07-29-2006, 12:45 AM

Wiesenthal Centre to Spanish Prime Minister: Donning the "Hamas Scarf" and Obstructing the Blockage of Hezbollah TV in Spain Encourage Terrorism
Paris, 25 July 2006

In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed shock at Spain's leader wearing the so-called "Palestinian scarf" at last week's Socialist Youth Movement Assembly.

Samuels noted that "This scarf is not a symbol of religious respect, as in the donning of a skullcap on entering a synagogue or a hijab or removing shoes at the door of a mosque."... "This apparent sympathy for those most
hostile to peace and most extreme in incitement to hate goes beyond the Middle East context."

Samuels stated further that "We are advised that, following the French closure of EUTELSAT's transmission of Al Manar Hezbollah television due to its calls for the murder of Christians and Jews, our Centre's efforts for a similar shutdown of such hate programming via HISPASAT to Latin America, were obstructed by your administration." The Centre urged the Prime Minister "to publicly clarify these positions."

The letter concluded: "Whether these are based on a naive misreading by your advisors or a conscious policy of appeasement, such acts - if accurate - can only encourage further assaults by the terrorist forces associated
with the perpetrators of the 11 March 2005 atrocities in the railway stations of Madrid. Undoubtedly, they would disqualify Spain from a role in the Middle East peace process."

http://www.juedische.at/TCgi/_v2/TCgi.cgi?target=home&Param_Kat=16&Param_RB=&Param_Red=6141

Petronas

09-10-2006, 08:06 PM

3 Spanish Muslims Recruited for Jihad Every Month
September 9, 2006 01:08 PM

Today the Spanish newspaper El Periodico published an interesting report based on extensive interviews with Spanish counterterrorism officials. According to the report, each month an average of 3 Spanish Muslims are recruited by jihadi networks either for suicide bombings in Iraq or for training in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen and Somalia.

The pattern is not new and similar to those reported in other European countries. Over the last few years Spain has dismantled various recruting networks, located mostly in the the southern regions and in the greater Barcelona area, some of them linked either to Zarqawi or to various Pakistani jihadist groups. And in May 2005, Mohammed Afalah, a member of the Madrid cell that carried out the March 11 train bombings, reportedly died in a suicide attack in Iraq.

What has changed over the last few months is the profile of the average recruits. While in the past they were mostly recent immigrants to Spain (immigration is indeed a recent phenomenon to Spain, having started on a large scale only in the early 1990s, coinciding with the economic boom), today's recruits tend to be mostly second-generation immigrants (mainly of Moroccan descent) and as young as 13. This confirms the trend seen in most European countries, where, unlike 5 years ago, the majority of individuals involved in jihadist activities are European-born.

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/09/report_3_spanish_muslims_recru.php

Petronas

10-25-2006, 03:18 PM

Catholic publishing house under fire for new Islamic text deal
Madrid, Oct. 20, 2006

The Spanish daily La Razon is denouncing a Catholic publishing company that has agreed to publish text books for Islamic religion classes that will be offered in public schools in Spain.

The Santa Maria Foundation, which is operated by the Marianist religious order, has assumed the project of publishing Islamic text books through its publishing group “SM,” with the support of the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE – Spanish abbreviation). The first textbook, which has been released to reporters, is called, “Discovering Islam.”

SM, says the purpose of their decision to publish Muslim texts “is to foster intercultural encounter and religious dialogue, with the integration of Islamic values in the socio-cultural context of Spain,” La Razon, however, argues the deal is really about getting Muslim business.

According to the Spanish newspaper, the UCIDE will sell the books at the same price as books on the Catholic religion published by the Marianists. The first printing of the books should thus bring over $275,000 in revenue. SM says the profits will be used to finance future editions, and if the UCIDE is able to sell 15,000 copies each of all seven volumes of the series, it will earn some $1.5 million in profits.

According to reporter Alex Navajas of La Razon, “In countries like Saudi Arabia or the Sudan, if you are caught with a Bible, you are sentenced to death…Surely the Islamists in Spain are not as fanatical as the Saudis or the Sudanese. But that’s not what this is about. The problem is that SM, whose ‘identity is inspired by Christian values’,” has fallen prey to “the most severe form of relativism and syncretism.”

“That is, there is no difference between promoting the Christian faith or the Islamic faith because, in the end, all religious are equal since all of them lead to God. So, let them publish the Book of Mormon, which is just nonsense, or come to an agreement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who own one of the most powerful publishing companies in the world,” Navajas said.

http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=4068

Petronas

11-03-2006, 02:33 PM

ISLAM: VEIL A NON-ISSUE FOR MUSLIM FEMINISTS
Nov-03-06 18:35

Barcelona, 3 Nov. (AKI) - The right to wear the face-veil - which has in recent weeks caused growing controversy in Europe - is not the most important issue facing female Muslims. Discrimination against women within the social and legal fabric of a country, is a far more serious problem, Abdennur Prado, director of an international conference on Islamic Feminism told Adnkronos International (AKI). Shariah law and its influence on Muslim countries' legal systems is the focus of this year's conference taking place in the northern Spanish city of Barcelona on Friday through Sunday, Prado said

"Undoutedly, the country where discrimination against women is worst is Saudi Arabia. Then there are countries such as Iran, where women are forces to observe certain dress codes and endure physical punishments," Prado said.

"Another country where discrimination against women is rife is Pakistan, but some North African countries such as Algeria are also guilty," she added. The congress will take a clsoer look at the legal and social position of women in these countries, as well as in Senegal, Sudan, Indonesia and Tunisia.

While some North African countries, most recently Morocco, have undertaken important reforms of their family law in favour of women, other such as Algeria, have yet to overhaul theirs, Prado noted. "There are those who justify discrimination against women in the name of Islam," she said.

The conference in Barcelona will focus on Sharia (Islamic) law and Muslim countries' laws. "It is one thing for sexism to exist in a country on a social level - as it does in Spain and Italy - and quite another to approve discriminatory laws against women that forbid them to go out and condemn them to harsh punishments such as whipping if they disobey," Prado underlined.

Besides the Shariah, the 400 delegates at the congress will also look at other issues affecting Muslim women such as divorce, sexuality, family planning and poligamy. "The conference aims to be a tool for women to get closer, for dialogue and understanding between secular, Muslim and Christian feminists. The fight against discrimination must be global," Prado stressed.

The conference, is being attended by some of the most prominent Muslim women intellectuals and women's rights activists, and will also look at the role played by female leaders.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.356572748&par=0

Petronas

11-06-2006, 09:15 PM

Bin Laden message led to Madrid train bombings
6 November 2006

A message from Osama Bin-Laden was the 'detonator' which led to the Madrid bombings by Islamic terrorists. The Spanish daily El Mundo reported on Monday Bin-Laden's message, broadcast on Al-Jazeera television five months before the attacks in March 2004, led to the terrorist atrocity which claimed 191 lives.

Bin-Laden called for the return of Al-Andalus, the Muslim name for the kingdom ruled by the Moors in Spain during the Middle Ages. The newspaper said Javier Zaragoza, national court prosecutor, claimed this sparked the terrorist group to launch the attacks.

In another newspaper, El Pais, it was reported Zaragoza would ask for a total of 40,000 years in jail for each of the seven principle suspects if convicted. They are Jamal Zougam, Basel Ghalyoun, Abdelmajid Bouchar, Rabei Osman, Youssef Belhadj, Hassan el Haski and José Emilio Suárez Trashorras.

Zaragoza is to ask for 30 years in jail for each of the 191 people murdered plus 18 years for each of the attempted murders of the 1,820 injured. Suárez Trashorras is to face a new charge of associating with an illicit group of alleged terrorists. The other 22 accused, who are due to stand trial next February, face between 30 and four years behind bars if found guilty.

In Spain, though prosecutors ask for thousands of years in jail for the convicted, the maximum they can serve is 30.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=34161

Petronas

12-02-2006, 02:46 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Two small bombs detonated at bank ATMs in the towns of Logrono and Albeda -- both in the La Rioja region -- on the night of 30 November 2006. The first homemade device exploded at a Longrono branch of Caja Laboral located at the intersection of Vara de Rey and Miguel Villanueva at approximately 2145 local time; reports indicate that the blast caused significant damage. The second blast occurred at approximately 2200 local time at an Albeda branch of Ibercaja bank, causing minor damage. Graffiti reading, "Allah es Grande," or God is Great, was also found at the attack sites; however, officials suspect that petty criminals were responsible for the blasts and that they were not related to Islamic militancy.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

12-02-2006, 03:04 PM

Four police arrested 'for trafficking explosives'
1 December 2006

Six people, including four police officers, were arrested on Friday for allegedly trafficking explosives. The officers were arrested and taken to a police station in Mostoles, a suburb of Madrid.

The arrests follows a series of reports in the Spanish daily El Mundo which has claimed police have been also involved in drug dealing and the murder of a career criminal. The newspaper also said the explosives involved were Goma 2 Eco – the same type as was used in the Madrid computer train bombing in which 191 people died.

Judge Juan del Olmo is heading the investigation into alleged trafficking of explosives by police. Del Olmo is also leading the investigation into the Madrid bombings.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=34774

Petronas

12-19-2006, 11:22 PM

They may be focusing specifically on the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa.

Mujahedin fighters return to Spain from Iraq: report
17 December 2006

Mujahedin fighters have returned to bases in Spain after gaining combat experience in Iraq and are now a potential threat to European security, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. According to El Pais the fighters worked alongside cells controlled by late Al Qaeda senior leader and Jordanian extremist Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, killed in June.

‘They are the new Trojan horse of Al Qaeda and its satellites on our territory and they are already preparing themselves,’ deputy director of the European police network Europol, Mariano Simancas, told El Pais. ‘They represent a serious threat for the countries of the European Union,’ Simancas added.

El Pais quoted anti-terrorist sources as saying that an unspecified number of formerly Spanish-based Algerians and Moroccans who had gained experience in handling arms and explosives in Iraq had now returned. ‘But they are doing nothing for the moment. They are biding their time, which complicates things when it comes to making arrests,’ one unnamed expert told El Pais.

Two years ago, Simancas told a parliamentary investigation into the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings that Islamic terrorism was an ongoing major security threat and that it was not possible to know ‘100 percent’ where radical groups might strike.

In midweek Spain arrested 11 suspected Islamist militants in Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta on suspicion they were planning attacks ‘of a terrorist nature.’

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/December/focusoniraq_December92.xml&section=focusoniraq

Petronas

12-23-2006, 12:46 AM

More on Ceuta and Melilla as targets.

The Jihadist Dream to Liberate Spain
December 22, 2006

Earlier this year a jihadist document calling for the liberation of so-called occupied territories and issued by the al-Qaeda-linked group Nadim al-Magrebi was posted on the Islamic extremist website Alansar. In most European capitals, where the cult of Palestinianism reins supreme, such demands are often met with approval since the occupied land in question is usually Israeli. But this time the statement addressed Spain—not Israel. It warned of a “holy war against the infidel Spanish state which has occupied the two cities.”

The two cities in question are Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish enclaves on the North African coast which Spain gained control of nearly 500 years ago. Melilla, with a population of 64,400, is home to 26,400 Muslims; Ceuta’s Muslims number 27,000 out of a population of 71,500. The Spanish newspaper El Pais reports that Muslims will become the majority in the next decade.

Demographics, however, don’t pose the only threat to Spain’s future. This month 11 Islamist radicals, ten Spaniards and a Moroccan, were arrested in Ceuta for planning to stage terrorist attacks in the country. (Two of the brothers of Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, the one-time Guantanamo prisoner who was eventually exonerated by a Spanish court, were among those arrested.) The seven suspects later detained by Judge Baltasar Garzon were charged with belonging to the Salafia Yihadia terrorist group which forms part of the al-Qaeda network in North Africa. In a statement Garzon said that the group had considered stealing weapons and explosives from a military base and carrying out an attack during Ceuta's annual fiesta. Sources claim that at least one member had already written a suicide note. The investigation of the group which began in March of 2005 also revealed that the individuals detained were in contact with two Spanish soldiers of Moroccan origin from whom they hoped to obtain explosives and strategic information.

While the revelation of the terrorists’ plans was shocking, the fact that such planning took place in the border town of Principe Alfonso was not surprising in the least. The fact is that Principe has become a veritable caldron of Islamic extremism over the years. In their paper titled “Favorable situations for the jihadist recruitment: The neighborhood of Principe Alfonso (Ceuta, Spain),” Drs. Javier Jordan and Humberto Trujillo of the University of Granada detail the full extent of jihadist activity in the town.

Resembling the combustible suburbs of Paris, Principe is basically off-limits to the National Police and Guardia Civil except in emergency situations or raids because of the risk officers face when entering the town. Recently the local police office and its lone police car were burned. Not only are ambushes of police cars common in Principe, but emergency calls are frequently made in order to trap police officers. The resulting chaos has led to a situation where even the city buses can’t run safely.

The only authority in Principe comes from Islamic extremists who are intent on imposing their Salafist interpretation of Islamic law. For example, boys are routinely castigated for playing games with girls on the street. Jordan and Trujillo suspect that ‘moral squads’ which intimidate or attack girls who don’t wear the veil or men who drink alcohol in public may already exist.

Many Muslims in Principe blame its poverty on the Catholic dominion of the city. Such rhetoric incites hatred for Spain and its Catholic traditions and helps explain why shouts referring to the ‘Intifada of Ceuta’ are often heard during the ambushes of police cars.

It might be easier to conclude that this disturbing scenario is inevitable in a ghetto close to Morocco’s border—but unlikely in the rest of Spain—if the quest to reconquer all of historic Al-Ándalus were not continuing full-speed ahead. Not willing to accept the bargain that the Spanish electorate thought they were making by electing the appeasing Socialists to power in the aftermath of the Madrid bombings, Islamists remain determined to attack the entire country. Since 2004 at least eight terrorist attacks have been thwarted, while in 2006 alone there have been more than 50 terrorism related arrests. And now Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who assured voters that the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq would make their country safer, must explain to his countrymen why another group of fighters from Iraq are back in Spain.

A story appearing this month in the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that jihadists who gained combat experience in Iraq are returning to Spain to prepare attacks in Europe. In Iraq these holy warriors worked with the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the one-time al Qaeda leader in Iraq and a central figure in the Madrid bombings. Mariano Simancas, deputy director of Europol, issued this warning: “They are the new Trojan horse of Al Qaeda and its satellites on our territory and they are already preparing themselves.”

The question is whether Spaniards are preparing themselves for the inevitable struggle against Islamic extremism that faces them. Years of looking the other way while terrorists attacked Israel definitely haven’t helped prepare them for the fight ahead. Spaniards could do worse than heed the words of former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, who warned that if by any chance Israel were to fall and be defeated, the next in line would definitely be Spain.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26142

Petronas

12-23-2006, 12:48 AM

And here is the link for the mentioned English translation of the paper “Favorable situations for the jihadist recruitment: The neighborhood of Principe Alfonso":

http://www.ugr.es/~terris/Ceuta2.pdf

Petronas

01-25-2007, 05:54 PM

Interesting, given that Prime Minister Aznar's pro-USA government largely fell because of its initial claim that ETA was implicated in the bombings.

Man arrested for links to Islamic terrorism
24 January 2007

BARCELONA — A Moroccan man was arrested on Wednesday for alleged links to an Islamic terrorist organisation. Abdellatif Nekkavi alleged sent cash to help the 'yihad' in Iraq. The operation, which is ongoing, has involved raids on a number of addresses in the Badalona area of Barcelona.

It is the latest arrest in an operation against alleged sympathisers who are sending money and false documenation to help the insurgency against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The arrest was ordered by the Audiencia Nacional, which usually deals with terrorist cases.

Meanwhile, the court on Tuesday set 15 February as the date for the start of the trial of those charged in the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,750 others. Court sources said that the tribunal had also agreed to have experts perform a new study on the explosives used in the nearly simultaneous 11 March attacks, the results of which must be delivered before the start of the trial.

The National Court said that it would call as witnesses three members of the Basque terrorist organization ETA - Henri Parot, Gorka Vidal and Izkur Badillo, the latter two of whom were apprehended with an explosives-packed van 11 days before the train massacre in the Spanish capital.

Court sources said that Parot had been called to testify because a note with his name on it turned up in the cell of Islamist Abdelkrim Bensmail, who is not being placed on trial for the train bombings.

The testimony of Vidal and Badillo, who were arrested on 29 February 2004, was requested for the defence of Jamal Zougam, who is alleged to have been one of the masterminds behind the Madrid attacks.

Participating in the new study of the explosives evidence will be experts from the police and the Civil Guard, as well as other specialists proposed by the prosecution and the defence. There are 29 people going on trial for the train attacks. The accused are implicated to differing degrees in placing about a dozen backpack bombs that were detonated in four commuter trains filled with passengers during the morning rush hour.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=35758

Petronas

01-30-2007, 07:44 PM

Terror suspect 'planned America's Cup attack'
Tuesday January 30, 2007

A suspected member of the Basque separatist group Eta arrested in Spain was planning an attack on the America's Cup, Spanish media have reported.

Iker Aguirre Bernadal, 26, was travelling on a train between Perpignan, in France, and Barcelona when he was taken into custody. Spanish media said he was carrying bomb-making plans, 3,000 euros and documents with false identities. They quoted police sources as saying Bernadal had been sent to plan an attack on the yachting competition. ...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421501

Petronas

02-02-2007, 10:03 PM

Spain's Muslim soldiers "with double loyalties" spark debate Thursday February 1, 2007

Muslim soldiers serving in the Spanish army in the
enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are sparking controversy among security
experts. Some doubt their loyalty to Spain and fear they could side with
neighbouring Morocco in case of a conflict between the two countries.

Located on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla have
belonged to Spain for centuries, but Rabat continues to claim
sovereignty over them. About a third of the enclaves' population of some 70,000 each is estimated to be Muslim, a proportion corresponding to their number among the total 8,000 soldiers stationed in the two strategically
important military outposts. Officially, Ceuta and Melilla are presented as models of a
harmonious coexistence between Catholics, Muslims and the smaller
Jewish and Hindu communities, but the reality is less rosy.

If a conflict erupted with Morocco over sovereignty or some other
issue, "I'm not certain the Muslim soldiers would obey me," one
commander said. Recently, the Ceuta command refused to renew the contracts of
about 15 Muslim soldiers on the basis of confidential information,
angering Muslims and creating tension between them and the Christians
in the enclave. "This has given rise to suspicions and rumours," complains lawyer
Mohammed Ali, leader of the Muslim party Ceuta Democratic Union.

Muslim soldiers are Spanish citizens, but they, their parents,
grandparents or greatgrandparents were usually born in Morocco, where
they retain family ties. They are schooled in the Muslim faith by Moroccan imams, who often
pass to them a reverence for King Mohammed VI, regarded as the
spiritual leader of Moroccan Muslims.

Spain and Morocco barely avoided a military conflict over the
islet of Perejil - also known as Leilah - in 2002. If a conflict did break out, possibly over Ceuta or Melilla -
security experts wonder, would the Muslim soldiers act like Spanish
patriots, or would they turn their weapons against their Christian
comrades-in-arms?

Because of their higher birth rate, Muslims are expected to become
the majority in Ceuta and Melilla in a little over a decade. Their presence especially in the army could endanger Spain's
ownership of the autonomous cities, the secret service CNI and the
army warned in reports leaked to the press in 2005.

Muslims have a higher failure rate in the Spanish-language
educational system and a higher unemployment, for which reason many
of them seek job opportunities in the army, which offers them pork-
free menus and a less stringent schedule during Ramadan. About 40 per cent of the Ceuta Muslims feel pro-Spanish, while 10
per cent are "clearly" pro-Moroccan, according to the CNI.

The Ceuta command did not renew the contracts of some Muslim
soldiers on the basis of confidential information, which is thought
to have expressed doubts about their loyalty to Spain. The army denied any discrimination, saying an even larger number of Christian soldiers did not get new contracts. But many Ceuta residents linked the army's decision to the recent
detention of a group of Islamists suspected of attempting to persuade
Muslim soldiers to steal explosives from the army.

The 2004 Madrid train bombings, in which mainly Moroccan Islamists
killed 191 people, and a wave of fundamentalism in Morocco have made
many Christians suspicious of Muslims. Moroccan diplomats have categorically denied suggestions that
Rabat was "infiltrating" the Spanish army or trying to influence its
Muslim elements.

Fears that Muslim soldiers have divided loyalties are "totally
unjustified," Ali told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone
interview. "There are no symptoms of a pro-Moroccan attitude in Ceuta," he
added. "For the Muslims here, Morocco is little more than a place to
go to the beach." Many analysts in Ceuta and Melilla stress that local Muslims have
no interest in the enclaves becoming Moroccan, because that would
lower their living standards.

Ali admits that Moroccan imams influence the local Muslims, but
blames that on the Spanish authorities, who do not supply home-
grown imams and do not promote Islam as a part of Spanish culture. "Spain fears that Arabic-language education would open the door to
Morocco" to claim the outposts, whereas in fact the opposite would be
the case, Ali argues. "My ancestors came from the (Moroccan) Rif mountains, but I would
not hesitate a minute to defend my country," said Yamal, a Muslim
soldier in Melilla.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Spain_s_Muslim_soldiers_with_double_02012007.html

Ono

02-02-2007, 10:07 PM

Smart doubt to have.

Petronas

02-05-2007, 02:48 PM

Explosion rips through train station at Lutxana, in Basque Country
02/05/2007

The Basque Interior Ministry said the attack was the work of pro-independence street bands, not of the armed group ETA. Attack on Lutxana stationAn explosion ripped through a train station at Lutxana in the Basque Country in the early hours of Monday, blowing out doors and windows but injuring no one, police said.

The Basque Interior Ministry said investigators specializing in explosives have determined the attack was the latest in a wave of street violence waged in recent months by pro-independence street bands, but not the work of the armed group ETA. The ministry said that Monday's explosion came from a homemade explosive device of the kind habitually used in the street violence waged by pro-independence youths.

http://www.eitb24.com/new/en/B24_33220/politics/ATTACK-IN-BARAKALDO-Explosion-rips-through-train-station-at/

Petronas

02-16-2007, 12:11 PM

The Threat of Grassroots Jihadi Networks: A Case Study from Ceuta, Spain
February 15, 2007

On December 12, 2006, Spanish police executed a spectacular counter-terrorism operation in the neighborhood of "Príncipe Alfonso" in Ceuta (a Spanish city located in North Africa, just south of Gibraltar). Those arrested belonged to a grassroots jihadi group planning attacks on local targets in the Spanish enclave. The following analysis emphasizes the principal characteristics of this former jihadi network and explores two issues of particular importance: 1) the relationship between the network's members and Spanish soldiers garrisoned in Ceuta, and 2) the inclusion and importance of the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla in jihadi rhetoric as Muslim territories that must be liberated from their infidel occupation.

The jihadi group in Ceuta was composed of at least 11 individuals and constitutes another good example of the emergence of grassroots jihadi networks in European countries. "Grassroots jihadis" refers to groups that sympathize with and relate to the global jihadi movement, sharing common strategic objectives, but have little or no formal connections to al-Qaeda or any other associated organizations. They could, however, eventually secure relationships with some established operatives.

The group's origins stem from meetings in a small mosque called Darkawia that was dominated by a radical imam and located in the Príncipe Alfonso district—a disadvantaged area of Ceuta, where around 12,000 Muslims live. At the time of the raids, the area was practically considered a conflict zone by local police and residents, with high rates of unemployment and delinquency. In the months preceding the December 12 operation, the local police had resigned from patrolling the neighborhood due to various threats, especially from ambushes by local organized delinquent groups [1].

The majority of the group's members were born in Ceuta and lived in the Príncipe Alfonso district, with all but one having Spanish nationality. Many of the group's members also had criminal records. The principal leader of the jihadi network, Karin Abdelselam Mohamed, became radicalized while serving time in prison for minor crimes. Within the group, the members justified these illegal activities by claiming that they were done in support of jihad, a seemingly common occurrence among jihadis.

In terms of linkages with external jihadi groups, their primary connection was Karin's relationship with Tarik Hamed, who has been incarcerated in Spain since June 2005 for his involvement in a network established to recruit and facilitate travel for recruits heading to the jihad in Iraq. The group's radicalization, however, was largely independent of external mentoring, with its two leaders Karin and Mohamed Fuad Mohamed driving the process. The group's "gatherings," which were held in the mosque outside of normal praying hours and in the homes of its members, played a very important role in the development of the group's radicalization. Another apparent contributing element in this path was the incorporation of jihadi propaganda distributed via CDs containing videos, songs and text archives.

A common characteristic of grassroots networks is that they direct their aggression against targets of close proximity [2]. In the case of the Ceuta network, that hostility underwent several stages of escalation. In the first stage, the network started to spread rumors of possible attacks in the city and painted threatening graffiti around town. The next step consisted of destroying a morabito—a small building that lodges the tomb of people considered holy by Muslims in the Maghreb [3].

The third stage was aborted by the police. At the time of their arrests, the members of the group had already started to plan a high-casualty attack in Ceuta using explosives. They had discussed several targets: a shopping mall, a fairground during a time of festivities and a fuel depository. During their investigations, police found a will of a jihadi and evidence that some of them had expressed their willingness to die as martyrs (El Mundo, December 17, 2006; El País, December 16, 2006).

What has been described, so far, resembles other grassroots networks dismantled in Spain and Europe during the past few years and underlines the vitality of the third jihadi generation (if we follow the terminology used by the strategist Abu Mus'ab al-Suri) [4]. There are two aspects of the Ceuta case, however, that merit special attention.

First, the network tried to recruit Spanish soldiers of Muslim origin born in Ceuta. Approximately 30% of the troops in the Ceuta and Melilla garrisons have Muslim backgrounds. Each of the cities has on paper the equivalent of a light brigade. For many young Muslims born in Spanish territory, the military is an attractive employment opportunity, as many of them encounter difficulties securing jobs in the civil sector. The military provides an acceptable salary and offers the opportunity to learn a profession, while opening the door to other jobs such as occupations in the national and local police services. A significant portion of young soldiers also end up finding stable jobs in the public security domain.

The network's leader, Karin, succeeded in attracting several young soldiers garrisoned in Ceuta to his private meetings. Karin's jihadi group wanted the soldiers to facilitate access to a military deposit of arms and explosives with which to perpetrate further terrorist attacks. The soldiers, however, were not persuaded. Despite the group's overall failure, news of the group's military contacts and the fact that one of the apprehended had been an infantry soldier in Ceuta (and as a consequence had been taught the use of light weapons) produced alarm about the possible infiltration of jihadis in the Muslim ranks of the garrisons.

In addition, this news coincided with the non-renewal of the contracts of more than 15 soldiers of Muslim backgrounds in the Ceuta garrison due to the findings of internal intelligence reports. In fact, the worry over possible infiltration of radical Salafism in the military began much earlier than this recent operation. It was already explicitly mentioned in a military intelligence report leaked to the press in September 2005, which led to the non-renewal of at least three soldiers in the previous months (El País, September 12, 2005; El País, November 5, 2006). The most recent news of non-renewal, however, has helped precipitate an antagonistic climate among the associations and the opinion leaders of the Muslim community, a problem that has been politicized rapidly. La Unión Democrática Ceutí—the political party in Ceuta that receives most of the Muslim vote—has started a protest campaign that has included the distribution of thousands of leaflets at the entryways of mosques denouncing the "persecution of the Spanish soldiers of the Muslim faith" (El País, January 21).

The tension has increased even more with a police union requesting to control Muslim candidates' access to vacancies in the national police coming from Ceuta and Melilla in order to avoid potential infiltration by radicals (there were 434 Ceuta/Melilla Muslim applicants for the most recent entrance examination). This request has also been harshly criticized by Muslim collectives in Ceuta and throughout Spain (EFE, January 25).

It is quite possible that this frictional dynamic will continue or worsen in the future if the two factors evident in this case study continue to be present: a) that grassroots jihadi networks remain resolute in their campaign to attract members of the security services; and b) that thousands of qualified second generation Muslims continue to apply for vacancies in the army and police forces.

In facing this situation, the Spanish government will have to find the appropriate balance between protecting the constitutional right to non-discrimination regardless of ethnicity or religion and necessary counter-intelligence activities. It is an equation which will require discretion and an acute sense of the social climate from policymakers in the military and police intelligence units to avoid additional polarization and the permissive conditions that could further recruitment and radicalization in local communities.

Another salient aspect of this case is its implications for future networks to operate in the region based on the grievances emerging from local interests (i.e. perceived discrimination in the military), and those emanating from exogenous jihadi propaganda. The Ceuta counter-terrorist operation overlapped with an increase in global jihadi rhetoric concerning the rightful ownership of the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Although there is apparently no relationship between this most recent network's activities and these claims, such rhetoric cannot be overlooked when considering the future of jihadi activity in the region.

In May 2006, a direct threat to Spanish interests appeared in the radical al-Ansar forum, in which the fight for the liberation of Ceuta and Melilla was compared with those of Iraq, Chechnya and Kashmir. The communiqué was posted by a group calling itself Nadim al- Magrebi, which is the name occasionally used by an Algeria-based jihadist network (El País, November 5, 2006).

The communiqué quite naturally caused alarm throughout Spanish counter-terrorism agencies. Even more worrying, however, was the reference to Ceuta and Melilla as occupied cities in the December 20, 2006 diatribe of Ayman al-Zawahiri. These types of proclamations have the potential to pressure or motivate groups acting in the Maghreb or in Spanish territory to plot new attacks on Spanish interests.

This threat could be compounded further by the recent partnering initiatives of groups operating in the Maghreb (i.e. the GSPC's tactic of changing its name to "Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb"). These more established groups are in part attempting to harness the potential of such local grievances and grassroots groups to further their agenda of reinvigorating their beleaguered movements.

Notes

1. Javier Jordan & Humberto Trujillo, Favourable situations for the jihadist recruitment: The neighbourhood of Principe Alfonso (Ceuta, Spain), Jihad Monitor Occasional Paper No. 3, November 27, 2006.
2. This hostility can also be observed in other European networks such as the Hofstad Group that assassinated Theo Van Gogh, the network that authored the Madrid attacks, as well as other Spanish-based groups arising after the March 11, 2004 attacks.
3. Their construction and veneration constitutes a habitual practice in the north of Morocco; nevertheless, it is considered abominable by Salafis.
4. Brynjar Lia, "Al-Suri's Doctrines for Decentralized Jihadi Training," Part 1 and 2, Terrorism Monitor, January 18 and February 1.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370249

Petronas

02-16-2007, 01:08 PM

Spanish court convicts 5 Algerians of terrorism
POSTED: 1354 GMT (2154 HKT), February 9, 2007

The National Court in Spain on Friday convicted five Algerian men on Islamic terrorism charges and sentenced them to 13 years each in prison, according to a copy of the court sentence viewed by CNN. The three-judge panel acquitted a sixth defendant, also an Algerian man.

The court convicted each of the five men for membership in a terrorist organization and for document forgery for terrorist purposes, the sentence said. But the court also acquitted the five men on the more serious charges of conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack and possession of explosives.

One of the five, Mohamed Tahraoui, 24, had been charged in an alleged plot on the military base, Rota, where U.S. and Spanish troops are based, near the Strait of Gibraltar. But that charge was not proven in court. Instead he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for membership in a terrorist group and document forgery.

A lawyer involved in the defense of the five told CNN the defense team will appeal the sentence. "Yes we will appeal. There are a lot of grounds for appeal," said lawyer Sebastian Salellas, who along with his son, Benet Salellas, also an attorney, represented all six defendants, including the one fully acquitted. The latter is already out of prison.

The defendants were among 16 suspected Islamic extremists arrested in January 2003 near Barcelona. All of them were released after an initial analysis determined that the material they possessed was not bomb-making material, but cleaning detergent.

But after further investigation -- including an FBI analysis that the seized materials could be made into "homemade napalm" -- six of the 16 were re-arrested in 2004 and indicted, according to previous court documents viewed by CNN.

The trial was held last autumn. The presiding judge, Javer Gomez Bermudez, will also be the presiding judge in the separate Madrid train bombing trial, with 29 defendants, due to start next Thursday, February 15.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/09/spain.terror.jail/

Petronas

02-21-2007, 02:17 PM

Violence, Islamism, and Terror in the Sahel
February 21, 2007

...last week the Spanish daily El País reported that one Mbar El Jaafari, a Moroccan militant, had been arrested in the port city of Tarragona, south of Barcelona, for sending some thirty-five young recruits from Spain for weapons training, including the use of ground-to-air missiles and explosives, at GSPC-run camps in the Sahel with the aim of establishing al-Qaeda “sleeper cells” upon their return. ...

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/global.php?id=751499

Petronas

03-10-2007, 02:51 PM

Spain fears Islamists reclaiming 'al-Andalus'
Mar 7, 2007, 12:28 GMT

While the international spotlight is on 29 suspects on trial for the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spanish police are working behind the scenes to counter a growing threat of new attacks. Radicals inspired by al-Qaeda have stepped up propaganda and recruitment activities in Spain, a country they claim as a part of the Islamic world because of its Muslim past, according to police experts. Extremists present in Spain no longer come just from North Africa, but also from Pakistan.

Spain has become one of the main bases for the recruitment of suicide bombers, some of whom are trained at new al-Qaeda bases in Africa's Sahel zone before they are sent to Iraq.

The ongoing Madrid bombings trial has given a face to Islamist terrorism as Spaniards have watched one suspect after another take the stand, from bearded fundamentalists to young men with an apparently Western lifestyle. After questioning the suspects, the court is currently hearing police experts and other witnesses. Ten bombs that exploded on four Madrid commuter trains killed 191 and injured nearly 2,000 people in March 2004, suddenly placing Islamists on top of the security agenda, ahead of the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

Two groups are suspected of involvement in the attacks: the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM) and the extremely radical Tafkir Wal Hijra, which is of Egyptian origin. Such groups do not form part of a hierarchical structure, but heed messages emanating from al-Qaeda and act on their own. Arab activists are believed to cooperate with Pakistanis making money transfers on their behalf.

Pakistani radicals are active especially in the north-eastern Catalonia region, where police have detected the presence of Asian groups such as the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET). The JEM has been implicated in the 2005 bombings in the London transport network, while the LET is linked with attacks in India.

Police are investigating whether the Arabs and Pakistanis have contacts with Chechen Muslims, large numbers of whom reportedly arrived in Spain in 2006.

Islamist radicals proselytize at an estimated 10 per cent of Spain's hundreds of unofficial mosques, which operate in garages, basements and the like.

Fighters recruited in Spain are no longer trained only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Sahel countries such as Mali, Niger and Mauritania, where al-Qaeda and its allies teach them to handle weapons, explosives and even poisons, according to the daily El Pais. The young men then travel to conflict zones such as Iraq, where one of the Madrid train bombers is believed to have died in a suicide attack in 2005. Those who are not killed in Iraq or are unable to enter the country sometimes return to Spain, where they constitute one of the potentially most dangerous groups, according to police sources.

The Madrid bombers targeted Spain partly to punish the then government for its participation in the Iraq war. Spain has changed its Atlanticist foreign policy since then, but the presence of its troops in Afghanistan and its judicial crackdowns on Islamists keep it on al-Qaeda-inspired hit lists.

Islamist websites have also long called for a reconquest of al- Andalus, a Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled by Muslims for nearly eight centuries until 1492. Recently, some websites have also begun campaigning for the 'liberation' of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the Moroccan coast, causing concern among police experts.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/features/article_1273978.php/Spain_fears_Islamists_reclaiming_al-Andalus

NYer

03-10-2007, 06:24 PM

Massive rally against terrorism (http://www.libertaddigital.com/noticias/noticia_1276300804.html) in Madrid.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_L6pDyjqqsvY/RfMBz0p7FUI/AAAAAAAACR0/Ya6bl9P5Ev4/s1600/madrid.jpg

2.1 million!

Apparently, they're fed up with Zapatero's Surrender Policy. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070310/wl_nm/spain_eta_protest_dc_1)

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators protested at an opposition rally in Madrid on Saturday to vent their rage at what they say is the Spanish government's "surrender" to Basque separatists ETA.

Angry at a government decision to grant house arrest to a multiple killer from ETA after he fell dangerously ill on hunger strike, protesters waved red and yellow Spanish flags as they marched up Madrid's main 12-lane avenue, shouting for Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to resign.

"This is the last straw. We're fed up with this man trying to dismantle Spain," business consultant Asuncion Casanova, 50 told Reuters. "I used to think Zapatero was an exciting character, with purpose and ideas, but now, no way."

Hat tip to Gateway Pundit.

Petronas

03-12-2007, 11:45 PM

Islamist financing suspect arrested in Spain
Mon Mar 12, 3:31 PM ET

Spanish police have arrested a Canadian man suspected of helping finance Islamist military operations, the interior ministry said on Monday. The 61-year-old man, named as Brian David Anderson, is wanted by U.S. authorities for fraud amounting to more than $20 million and is believed to have helped finance a training camp in Afghanistan, the ministry said in a statement. It said Anderson was thought to be linked to Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, a New York businessman who has been indicted on terrorism charges in the United States and is also accused of funding Afghan military projects.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070312/ts_nm/spain_arrest_dc

Petronas

03-31-2007, 01:15 PM

Al-Qaeda video threating Spanish troops ‘genuine’
30 March 2007

Spain's CNI intelligence service confirmed the authenticity of a videotape purportedly from Al Qaeda that threatens attacks against Spanish troops serving in Afghanistan. Defence minister Jose Antonio Alonso said the government "does not discount any threat or pressure" coming from international terrorists and especially when linked to Al Qaeda.

Regarding the latest violent incident experienced by Spanish troops in Afghanistan, which occurred on March 15 but was revealed on Wednesday in Parliament, the minister commented that "it is thought" that two men were using a motorcycle to transport the bomb that exploded prematurely were going to attack Spanish troops and/or another military contingent. He said that the motorcycle approached a Spanish convoy but exploded while still about 200 metres (yards) away, a blast which did not injure any of the troops.

Alonso said that the 550 troops Spain has in Afghanistan will remain in the country on the same terms as in the past, "within the strict framework" of the U.N., helping to create security and allow the reconstruction of the country as per the aim of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Meanwhile, a poll released on Thursday shows that almost half of the Spanish public supports their country's continued troop presence in Afghanistan, even though nine out of 10 view the military mission as dangerous. The polling conclusions were drawn from the Real Instituto Elcano telephone survey of 1,200 people nationwide.

At the press conference at which the polling results were announced, Elcano's main researcher, Javier Noya, said that 44 percent of Spaniards feel the Afghanistan mission is "rather dangerous" but the percentage believing that it is "very dangerous" has risen from 34 to 46 percent of those surveyed. Nevertheless, 49 percent of those polled said that the Spanish troops should continue to carry out their mission, 4 percent said that Madrid's troop contingent should be increased in the Central Asian country and 45 percent said they should be withdrawn.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=38267

Petronas

04-01-2007, 12:29 AM

TERRORISM: TWO ALLEGED JIHADI WEBMASTERS ARRESTED IN SPAIN
Mar-14-07 12:16

A Spanish man has been arrested in the northeastern town of Zaragoza on suspicion of promoting terrorism on the Internet. A Moroccan citizen was also arrested Wednesday in an unspecified Spanish location during an ongoing anti-terror operation by the Civil Guard which says it may lead to further arrests. The 31-year-old Spaniard and the 23-year-old Moroccan - both male - are allegedly the webmasters of the Spanish jihadist website Al-Andalus Islamiya which publishes messages supporting and justifying Islamist terrorism.

The Spaniard, a web designer who converted to Islam, is alleged to have posted videos to the Al-Andalus Islamiya website containing calls to Jihad and martyrdom. The man, who always used pseudonyms to conceal his identity, spoke of a "front" and posted messages to the website that spoke of a "front" to fight back against "Zionist and/or Islamophobic aggression."

The Moroccan was born in Oujda but is resident in Huelva province in the southern Spanish region of Andalucia. Anti-terrorism experts in Spain have recently stepped up Internet checks, hunting for prosletising messages on radical Islamist websites.

Three years on from the deadly 11 March 2004 attacks on commuter trains at Madrid's Atocha station, the risk of a fresh terror attack in Spain is now higher than ever, according to several terrorism experts quoted last week by El Pais daily.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.394928458&par=0

NYer

04-12-2007, 09:00 AM

Alarm over AQ Call for Reconquista. (http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=6283)

The emergence of a new al-Qaeda-linked organization in Northern Africa is alarming Spain, which is concerned about Islamists' calls for the reconquest of the country they regard as a lost part of the Muslim world.

"We will not be in peace until we set our foot again in our beloved al-Andalus," al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on claiming responsibility for an attack which killed at least 24 people in Algiers on Wednesday.

Al-Andalus is the Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled by Muslims for about eight centuries until the last Moorish bastion, Granada, succumbed to the Christian Reconquest in 1492.

The terrorists will undoubtedly attempt to extend their offensive from Northern Africa to European soil, anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon warned, cautioning that Spain was at a "very high risk" of suffering an Islamist attack.

I guess Zapatero's appeasement efforts were somewhat less than satisfactory to those ungrateful Islamists.

Vancouver

07-12-2007, 04:27 AM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/12/wferry112.xml
[
Spanish police have foiled a plot by Eta terrorists to blow up a ferry carrying thousands of British tourists, officials said yesterday.

They said the Pont-Aven, which sails twice a week between Plymouth and the northern Spanish port of Santander, was one of three possible targets.

If the bomb had exploded at sea a major disaster could have occurred on the vessel which carries up to 2,400 passengers and 183 crew.

...

Two Eta vehicle bombs have recently been intercepted on their way to Spain; one from Portugal and one from France.

A spokesman for the Spanish interior ministry said that the ferry plot was foiled when police arrested a young Eta terrorist at Santander bus station on Tuesday.

Aritz Arginzonic Zubiaurre, 22, was carrying a rucksack containing a Smith & Wesson pistol, a detonator usually used by Eta for car bombs and false identity documents.
]

Petronas

08-25-2007, 12:10 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): A car bomb detonated in a parking lot outside a barracks of the paramilitary Guardia Civil in the city of Durango, located in Spain's Basque country, at approximately 0330 local time (0130 UTC) on 24 August 2007. The blast injured two officers and severely damaged adjacent buildings. Police officers later discovered a burned-out car that is believed to have been used by the bombers. Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, authorities suspect that members of the Basque separatist group ETA carried out the attack.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

10-14-2007, 02:14 AM

Spanish police foil bomb attack by French Muslim
Friday, October 12, 2007

Spanish police say they have foiled a planned suicide bomb attack by a French Muslim. The 30-year-old man, who is of Moroccan origin, was stopped at a routine motorway checkpoint on Sunday after crossing the border from France. His car contained a samurai sword and two butane gas canisters fitted with large fireworks. The man claimed to be a suicidal jilted lover, but the police say he had two Arabic-language letters praising jihad and saying goodbye to his family.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/europe/article3053933.ece

American_Jihad

10-15-2007, 04:23 PM

Islamic extremists 'planned to blow up top court'
15 October 2007

MADRID- (AFP) - The trial of 30 Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic extremists who allegedly planned to detonate a truck packed with explosives outside Spain's high court in Madrid and other buildings began Monday.

Public prosecutors are demanding prison sentences of between two and 46 years for the mostly Algerian defendants, charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack and forgery.

The suspected ringleader -- Abderrahman Tahiri, alias Mohamed Achraf -- is believed to have set up four cells since 2000, known as the "Martyrs for Morocco", to stage attacks in Spain, often with recruits he met while in jail.

Prosecutors believe Tahiri planned to crash a truck loaded with 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives against the Audencia Nacional, Spain's national high court and nerve centre for investigating terrorism.

Spain's supreme court, a central Madrid train station and the headquarters of the conservative Popular Party -- in power when the group was uncovered in 2004 -- were among other possible targets.

Tahiri, an Algerian born in the United Arab Emirates, was in jail between 1999 and 2002 for credit card fraud.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=44940

30 Suspected Islamic Terrorists Heard In Courthouse They Attempted To Blast (http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008829910)

Petronas

10-19-2007, 01:35 PM

Spain (Country threat level - 3): Protesters clashed with police officers in the Canada Real Galiana shantytown in Madrid on 18 October 2007, in an effort to prevent local authorities from bulldozing homes built illegally on public land. Participants -- primarily immigrants from Morocco and Romania -- hurled rocks at officers, who fired tear gas and used baton charges to disperse the crowd. At least eight people sustained injuries in the clashes, which continued for approximately one hour.

http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp

Petronas

10-23-2007, 12:35 AM

ETA 'plans attack on high speed train link'
22 October 2007

The armed separatist group ETA plans to strike a high-speed railway under construction in Spain's northern Basque region, the Spanish daily ABC reported Monday. The newspaper cited a document seized from a recently detained ETA member.

The railway, which will link Bilbao, the Basque region's financial centre, with its regional capital Vitoria and San Sebastian near the French border, is scheduled to be completed in 2013. The project has the backing of the moderate nationalist PNV party that governs the Basque region.

ETA believes that "putting pressure" on the project will win the group support among ecologists, who have a strong following in the Basque Country, according to the document seized by police following the arrest in July in France of ETA's alleged logistics chief, Juan Cruz Maiza Artola.

"It is a major project ordered by Madrid, with the green light of the autonomists of the PNV, that goes directly against the independence project," ABC quoted the document as saying.

ETA, which has killed 819 people during almost four decades of fighting for Basque independence, has taken aim at major construction projects that are seen as hurting the enviroment in the past as a means of gaining support.

The group targeted workers involved in the construction of a nuclear power plant at Lemoiz which was eventually dropped, and it opposed the construction of a highway through the Leizaran Valley.

The Basque regional government recently pushed back the completion date for the high-speed railway to 2013 from 2010. The high-speed railway is also opposed by Batasuna, ETA's outlawed political wing, according to documents seized from the members of the party who were recently arrested, ABC reported.

Earlier this month Spanish police detained 23 Batasuna leaders or collaborators, 17 of whom have been jailed.

In recent months there have been repeated acts of sabotage of railway tracks in the Basque region which have been blamed on young Basque radicals. Anti-terrorism experts do not exclude the possibility that these acts of sabotage are trials of techniques to be applied later on the high-speed railway, the newspaper reported.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=45195

Petronas

10-24-2007, 03:40 PM

Police seize 'world jihad' team
updated 6:46 a.m. EDT, Wed October 24, 2007

Six suspected Islamic militants were Wednesday arrested in northern Spain on suspicion of using the Internet to recruit for and plot a 'world jihad,' a Ministry of Interior statement said. The arrests came in Burgos province, a few hours' drive north of Madrid. The six, allegedly linked to international Islamic terrorist activity, were seized in an operation involving U.S., Danish and Swedish intelligence agencies, the statement said.

"A large part of the activity was carried out on restricted Internet 'chats' and forums, which shows that the cell arrested was the first one detected and dismantled in Spain that promoted 'world jihad' through the Internet," the statement said.

Police were searching the homes of the six suspects and also a butcher shop run by one of them. Documents and computers were seized, the statement said. Some of the money raised by the group allegedly was sent to Islamic terrorist convicts or suspects in prison, it said.

The alleged ringleader is Abdelkader Ayachine, an Algerian, and his top aide, Wissan Lotfi, a Moroccan. They were allegedly preaching violent jihadi ideology to promote an international "holy war," especially in Iraq, the statement said.

Spain has detained 250 suspected Islamic terrorists since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 others. Spain's defense minister recently told radio network SER. But most of those arrests have been in Madrid, Barcelona, and coastal areas. A verdict in the Madrid bombing trial is expected next week. The trial earlier this year involved 28 defendants, mostly Islamic terrorist suspects.

Last week in Madrid, another terrorism trial began with 30 defendants, mostly Algerians, charged in what prosecutors said was a failed suicide truck bombing plot against the National Court in central Madrid.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/24/spain.arrests/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Vancouver

01-09-2008, 05:10 PM

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/01/09/spain.eta/index.html

[
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Two ETA members arrested over the weekend were responsible for a fatal bombing at a Madrid airport in 2006, an attack which effectively ended the group's cease-fire, Spain's interior minister [Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba] said Wednesday.
...
Rubalcaba said two other people connected to the airport attack are on the run. He said police searched their house in the northern region of Navarra, which borders Basque country, and found two tiny rooms filled with a total of 151 kilos (333 lbs) of explosives.
]

Vancouver

01-24-2008, 09:44 AM

Of the 14 rounded up around Barcelona last weekend, 4 have been released, and there are a few details now about the other 10:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/23/terror/main3745140.shtml
Excerpt:
The judge identified the three alleged suicide bombers as Mohamed Shoaib, Mehmooh Khalib and Imran Cheema. He said they had arrived in Barcelona from Pakistan some time between October and mid-January. The judge said it was common for suicide attackers to arrive at their targeted site shortly before a planned attack.

Vancouver

01-26-2008, 09:37 PM

International manhunt for three affiliates of the Barcelona subway cell:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4191953&page=1
Begins:
ABC News has learned that the manhunt that began in Spain for suspected terror cell members has now extended to France and other European Union countries.
The attorney general in Spain said today that there are three cell members they are urgently searching for and that the missing members could be suicidal terrorists with a mission to attack somewhere outside of Spain.
Investigative sources tell ABC News the cell members are Spanish residents, including both nationals and foreigners. They are believed to have recently traveled to Spain from Waziristan ...
(continues)

Vancouver

01-27-2008, 03:28 AM

According to El País, one of the Pakistanis has been talking to the Spanish police and says
-- attacks were planned against Spain (3), Germany (1), France (3), Portugal (2), and the UK.
-- Beitullah Mehsud was in charge and would claim the attacks after they occurred.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/atacamos/metro/Barcelona/servicios/urgencia/pueden/llegar/elpepiesp/20080126elpepinac_1/Tes

rehash in English:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2650359520080126?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

NYer

01-27-2008, 11:54 AM

I guess Zapatero's strategy of leaving Iraq placated the Islamists.

Vancouver

01-28-2008, 12:12 AM

CNN picks up the remarkably detailed El País story:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/01/27/spain.europe.terror.plot/index.html

American_Jihad

02-14-2008, 05:04 PM

Spain arrests Islamist suspects
Feb 14, 2008

MADRID, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Spanish police arrested three people suspected of trying to promote radical Islam on Thursday in the northern city of Vitoria, local police said.

The three distributed CDs and MP3 files calling for a "jihad" or holy war among the city's Muslim community, local police said.

The arrests come just over three weeks before a general election. Three days before Spain's last vote in 2004, Islamic militants killed 191 commuters in Madrid train bombings that are widely thought to have swung the election for Socialist party.

A month ago, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Islamic militants may have been plotting attacks on Barcelona's metro system. Police have since released four of the 14 South Asians arrested and have acknowledged they found few explosives.

"Our unfortunate, very recent experience tells us that a cell's decision to move from shouts to violent acts can be very quick," Rubalcaba said in a radio interview on Thursday.

"That is the window police have to try and stop these kind of plots, so it is delicate and difficult."

Police began investigating the Vitoria cell in December and moved to arrest the three following an order from Spain's High Court.

Vitoria, the capital of the Basque region, is more used to security threats from guerrilla group ETA, which is fighting for an independent Basque state. (Reporting by Raquel Castillo; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL14758074

purple unicorn

02-12-2012, 10:51 AM

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2012/February/Under-Siege-Spain-Resists-Islamic-Invasion-/

Under Siege? Spain Resists Islamic 'Invasion'
By Dale Hurd
CBN News Sr. Reporter
Saturday, February 11, 2012

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BARCELONA, Spain -- Bullfighting is now illegal in the Spanish province of Catalonia. Some arenas have been converted into business spaces.

But Muslims want to turn the most famous arena, the Coliseum, into a giant mosque.

In fact, some cities in Spain now look more like the Middle East. Muslims, who once ruled most of nation, are returning in large numbers.

In the city of Salt, parents have come to pick up their children from school. Muslims already make up 40 percent of city residents and will soon be the majority.

But the city government has pushed back, placing a one-year hold on a large mosque project funded by radical Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia.

For good measure, someone cursed the ground at the building site with a pig head that was still there when CBN News arrived. Islamic law forbids the building of a mosque on ground soiled by pigs.

But the number of Muslims in Salt is increasing so rapidly, it is now only a matter of time before Muslims will be running the city.

"When the first Muslim political party presents itself, all the Muslims will vote for it, and we'll all end up wearing headscarves. We're in a really big problem," Salt city councilwoman Maria Osuna told CBN News.

Immigration or Invasion?

In the 7th century, Muslim armies conquered most of Spain, calling it Al-Andulus. They would not be completely expelled for 700 years, the year Columbus discovered the new world.

Now Muslims are returning, and polls suggest they are not returning to be Spaniards. A Pew survey found that 7 out of 10 Muslims in Spain think of themselves as Muslim rather than Spaniards.

"Plataforma x Catalunya," or Platform for Catalonia, was the first political party to take the Muslim surge seriously. But in politically correct Spain, which celebrated the 1,300-year anniversary of the Muslim invasion as a good thing, Platform for Catalonia is denounced as racist and xenophobic.

Platform leader Joseph Anglada said his party is not against immigrants. They're against uncontrolled immigration and what they say are immigrants who do not want to be a part of Spain.

"Muslim immigrants are not here to adapt," Anglada said. "They're here to conquer."

"First the husband comes as the head of the family," he explained. "Then the wife and children, and later he comes with his parents, in-laws,and grandparents, and it has turned into an invasion."

'Mysterious' Dog Poisonings

In the city of Lleida, someone is poisoning dogs. Police don't know who has been doing it, but the suspicion is that Muslims were the culprits.

Before the poisonings, Muslims were trying to get city government to ban dogs from public transport and public areas because they consider dogs unclean.

"What happened was, all of a sudden, one day, 12 to 14 animals showed up dead. They had eaten something or been given something. We don't know," Josep Ortiz I Llleida told CBN News.

Lleida, which is about one-quarter Muslim, was the first Spanish city to ban the burqa. Then the mayor shut down the city's mosque because it was overflowing with Friday worshippers.

CBN News went to see where the Muslim men are praying now, and it is a large open air pavilion. Filming with a hidden camera, we saw more than 500 men listening to a sermon in Arabic.

"We don't know what the Muslim leaders are telling their people," Moises Font with Platform for Catalonia said. "Are they encouraging Muslims to assimilate or to stay separate?"

Spaniards Disappearing

There are reportedly more than 100 radical Wahhabi mosques in Spain. And two radical Muslim TV channels from the Middle East are now broadcasting into Spain.

And just as Muslim immigration is surging, the native Spanish are slowly disappearing. Their birth rate is below the replacement number.

Also, large numbers of college age Spaniards are fleeing the country to escape a 50 percent unemployment rate for young people.

Meanwhile, the Muslim birthrate is at least twice the native birthrate, and the number of Muslims has increased tenfold in the last 20 years.

A secret report by Spanish intelligence leaked to the media found that radical groups from the Middle East are pouring large sums of money into Spain to control the nation's Muslims.

"The greatest threat for Spain, Catalonia, and Europe is Muslim immigration," Anglada told CBN News.

"We know they are coming here to conquer what, according to Muslims, used to belong to them," he said. "We have a moral duty so that in the future they can say that at least there was someone, one party, that was not willing to surrender the West to Islamization."

*Published Feb. 6, 2012.