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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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 Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:12 am Post subject: Spain Plot Latest Sign of al Qaeda Revival |
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Didn't Spain withdraw its forces from Iraq?
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Spain Plot Latest Sign of al Qaeda Revival
Resurgence in Terrorist Training in Pakistan has Officials on Alert
By PIERRE THOMAS
Jan. 25, 2008�
Law enforcement officials throughout Europe say they are are urgently hunting for members of an al Qaeda terror cell that was allegedly planning to attack the transit system in Barcelona.
Sources tell ABC News those being sought are believed to be bomb makers and suicide killers who were working with a 14-member operation.
While it is unclear whether the Barcelona attacks were imminent, Spanish authorities say they have no doubt that the threat was serious.
The plot was allegedly developed by senior al Qaeda leaders hiding in Pakistan, with members of the cell making their way into Spain in recent days.
"Here we are looking at something different: a well-organized group who were going beyond ideological radicalism to acquiring materials to make explosives and therefore eventually to carry out violent attacks," Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said at a press conference last week.
U.S. officials tell ABC News that in the wake of the thwarted attacks on Barcelona's transit system they are deeply troubled by this latest example of a reconstituted al Qaeda.
The National Intelligence Estimate released last year warned that al Qaeda was training scores of recruits in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
"If this story is true, it means that al Qaeda is alive. It has money. It has people that are trained. It has a network to send people -- large numbers of people -- out as a team and that it has the capability of striking thousands of miles from its base in Pakistan," former government counter-intelligence official and ABC News consultant Richard Clarke said of this latest incident.
The pace of plots directed or inspired by al Qaeda has been intensifying in recent months, with Europe as the focus.
Last September in Germany, three Islamic radicals were accused of targeting U.S. military installations there.
Also in September in Denmark, suspected terrorists were charged with planning a bombing campaign.
Then in December, Belgian authorities arrested 14 men who were allegedly plotting to free an al Qaeda prisoner using guns and explosives.
Now U.S. officials say they are desperately searching to see if the Barcelona cell has ties to any operatives in the United States.
U.S. intelligence has been warning for months that Europe is at risk and could be the gateway to an attack here at home.
Copyright � 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
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http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=4192912
Al Qaeda seeks the Caliphate. |
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Beeyee
Joined: 29 May 2007
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| Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Ah Spain. Another country that thinks its citizens have far too many civil rights. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Beeyee wrote: |
| Ah Spain. Another country that thinks its citizens have far too many civil rights. |
?? |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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postfundie
Joined: 28 May 2004
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| Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| spain has got to get out of that occupied land called Andalucia........end the occupation...... |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:21 pm Post subject: Spain |
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Irony aside:
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| In the year 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain retook the last stronghold in the southern area at Granada. In that same year, the Muslims and Jews were forced to leave Spain. |
(Wiki)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7202393.stm |
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Beeyee
Joined: 29 May 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| Beeyee wrote: |
| Ah Spain. Another country that thinks its citizens have far too many civil rights. |
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Argh look the nasty terrorists are trying to kill you! Trust us, give up your civil liberties and we'll look after you. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:35 am Post subject: |
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| Beeyee wrote: |
| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| Beeyee wrote: |
| Ah Spain. Another country that thinks its citizens have far too many civil rights. |
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Argh look the nasty terrorists are trying to kill you! Trust us, give up your civil liberties and we'll look after you. |
Even with the Patriot act the US is one of the most free and tolerant nations in the world.
And we saw enough on 9-11 , oh by chance aren't you a 9-11 conspiracy theorist?
and you are not even from the US anyway , though if you are in Korea then you are in a nation that has a national security law which is far more harsh than the US patriot act. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:22 am Post subject: |
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Extremists plotted attacks across Europe, Spanish paper says
* Story Highlights
* Informant: Terrorists planned to attack public transport systems in Europe
* El Pais said it had access to informant's testimony to Spanish officials
* 10 suspects were arrested for allegedly plotting attacks
* Informant: Cell consisted of six suicide bombers
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Suspected Islamic extremists arrested last week in Barcelona were planning al Qaeda-style attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Britain and Portugal, according to an informant who "infiltrated" the group, Spain's El Pais newspaper r
eports.
art.barcelona.afp.gi.jpg
"If we attack the metro [subway system in Barcelona], the emergency services can't get there," one of the suspected suicide bombers told the informant, El Pais reported on Saturday. "Our preference is public transport, especially the metro."
El Pais reported that it had access to the informant's testimony to Spanish officials.
CNN has confirmed that authorities have given high importance to an informant's testimony.
The judge who ordered 10 suspects held for allegedly plotting a suicide attack in Barcelona, cited in his rulings the testimony of an informant. CNN has viewed the rulings.
Spain's Interior Minister last Friday said an informant warned of a planned suicide attack against Barcelona's metro on the weekend of January 18 to 20. But he added that, for now, "there is only the testimony of an informant" regarding the timing.
The informant told authorities the cell comprised six suicide bombers, including himself, El Pais reported on Saturday.
Spain's attorney general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, said last week that the cell could have contained six suicide bombers, two explosives experts and two ideologues.
Judge Ismael Moreno, in rulings last Wednesday, wrote that the informant had named three suspected suicide bombers and an explosives expert, all of whom had traveled from Pakistan to Barcelona since last summer. The judge ordered these four men held, out the total of 10 jailed suspects who are from South Asia.
Don't Miss
* Barcelona cell 'prepared to attack'
* Suspects 'planned suicide attack'
They include nine Pakistani nationals and a man from India, who is Muslim.
A court-appointed translator told CNN that all 10 suspects testified during their arraignments that they were innocent.
The cell planned three attacks in Spain, one in Germany and others in France, Britain and Portugal, according to the informant, El Pais reported.
On Sunday, another El Pais story added that the "wave of attacks" was to have been carried out by the Barcelona group and other extremist Pakistani cells were to attack elsewhere in Europe.
The informant told authorities about potential links between the Barcelona group and suspected extremists in other countries, the interior minister said Friday.
The informant had traveled by train from France to Barcelona on January 16, a few days before police made arrests in Barcelona, El Pais reported Saturday. A day earlier, the newspaper reported that the informant worked for French intelligence.
Al Qaeda was planning to take responsibility for the first attack in Barcelona through Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander whom the Pakistani government blames for last month's assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, El Pais reported.
"Only the leadership of the organization knows what requests the emir (Baitullah) will make after the first attack, but if they are not carried out, there will be a second attack in Spain, and a third," a cell leader told the informant, El Pais reported. "And then in Germany, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. There are many people prepared there."
In Barcelona, two pairs of suicide bombers were to attack in separate metro stations, the paper said, citing the informant's testimony. One of the cell leaders said the bombs were supposed to be hidden in backpacks or bags and that other cell members were to detonate them by remote control, the paper added.
Two other pairs of suicide bombers were to strike elsewhere in Spain, while another suicide bomber was to attack in Germany, although the informant said he did not know where or when those attacks were to occur, El Pais reported.
Three other terrorists were assigned to attack in France and two in Portugal, El Pais reported, although it did not mention locations or times for those attacks either.
Civil Guards initially detained 14 people in Barcelona, but released two before arraignments last Wednesday. The judge then released two more, leaving 10 in jail for further investigation. It was not immediately known if the alleged informant may have been among those arrested and released.
"This cell was preparing to attack," Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Friday in an interview with Spanish radio network SER. "It's clear they were going to try, whether last weekend (January 18 to 20) or within 15 days."
But he said police have not found explosives "in sufficient quantity" to have carried out the assault.
"We have found a modest quantity of explosives," Rubalcaba said, adding that they may have been intended for use in training the suspects.
The judge in his rulings wrote that the group "had achieved human operational capacity and were very close to achieving full technical capacity with explosives, with the aim of using those explosives for a jihadi terrorist attack."
Rubalcaba said that, for any such suspected terrorist cell, "the time from getting explosives to carrying out the attack can be very short."
The judge wrote that police had found nitrocellulose and mechanical and electrical elements that could have been used to make one or more bombs.
More than 300 suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in Spain since the Madrid train bombings killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800 on March 11, 2004, Rubalcaba said.
Last October, more than a dozen Islamic extremists were convicted in Madrid for their roles in the train bombings.
The 2004 bombings came just three days before general elections, in which Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero won an upset victory.
The latest arrests in Barcelona come less than two months before the next general elections, to be held March 9, when Zapatero seeks re-election.
Spain remains on "permanent alert" against Islamic terrorism. Al Qaeda communiques regularly make specific references to Spain. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:00 am Post subject: Spain |
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Well that's ingratitude for you. France & Germany both OPPOSED the war in Iraq. I'm not sure of Portugal's position, but suspect it was neutral?
Al Qaeda needs to be stamped out, & fast. |
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