Posted on 03/12/2004 6:21:05 AM PST by livius
In Spain: ETA and Al-Qaeda Forge New Anti-EU Alliance NCM Online, By Paolo Pontoniere, October 1, 2001
The Basque terrorist organization ETA and bin Laden's al-Qaeda cells have joined forces. Their shared goal: to organize and carry out an attack on the EU meeting scheduled for March 2002 in Barcelona, according to two Spanish publications, Tiempo and El Mundo.
According to the reports, which have been confirmed by Italian and French media, representatives of the two terrorist organizations have already met together three times in Brussels in December 2000; in Malaga, Spain in February 2001; and in Barcelona last July.
According to the European reports, the terrorists have planned a suicide attack on the meeting that would entail the use of five car bombs provided by ETA, and delivered by five al-Qaeda suicide drivers. European authorities consider this news credible, and have disclosed that Mohammed Atta--one of the terrorists responsible for the early September attack on the World Trade Center--may have also attended the July meeting between ETA and al-Qaeda in Barcelona.
In its report, Tiempo revealed that, thanks to a tip-off by US Navy intelligence, Spanish authorities were able to prevent another al-Qaeda attack last December. This one would have involved striking American aircraft carriers with suicide vessels filled with the deadly explosive C-4. The attack--like the assault on the USS Cole in a Yemeni port--was scheduled to take place as the two aircraft carriers would have readied to moor at NATO's Rota navy base near Cadiz. The suicide motor boats would have departed from the nearby coast of Morocco, a country with a significant Muslim population.
Spain, because of its proximity to Morocco and Algeria, has experienced a significant influx of Muslim immigrants. According to authorities, there are now about 500,000 Muslim immigrants living in Spain. Experts estimate that, among these emigres, are about 100 al-Qaeda agents ready at any moment to hit a Spanish or American target.
Since 1996, the Spanish police have formed a special unit dedicated to investigating the activities of these terrorists. In addition, Spanish prime minister José-Maria Azanar has pledged troops to any American-led coalition to fight international terrorism. Azanar has also allowed the US to use NATO navy bases in Rota and Moron to carry out air strikes against terrorist targets.
Although enjoying broad-based support at home for his commitment to the US, Azanar may find that his position could cause troubles for Spain abroad. In fact, neighboring Morocco, separated from Spain by the narrow strait of Gibraltar, is home to 4.5 million Islamic fundamentalists, who may become angered at Spain's generous support of America.
Such a development could push young Moroccan king Mohammed VI into the fray, forcing him to face Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, as in neighboring Algeria. There, the government has been embroiled in a bloody and protracted war with indigenous Islamic terrorists for years.
Also, it looks like ETA's entry into Mexico was aided by every one of dem Rats' friend Danny Ortega's Marxist Sandinistas. Thank you, Jim Wright.
Morocco, separated from Spain by the narrow strait of Gibraltar, is home to 4.5 million Islamic fundamentalists, who may become angered at Spain's generous support of America.
Interesting. I've read articles about how Spanish citizens object to the presence of these ILLEGAL immigrants, sometimes violently. The ILLEGALS are feeling the pressure and are heartened by President Bush's "willing worker" plan. They look forward to being invited to America.
" Bin Laden's Terror Networks in Europe (Long but informative) The Mackenzie Institute ^ | May 26, 2002 | Emerson Vermaat
[SNIP]
4. Spain, Italy and the Balkans
The closeness of Spain and Portugal to North Africa make them important targets for illegal migrants seeking entry into the European Union. Spain accuses the Moroccan police of cooperating with migrant traffickers who pay corrupt officials to turn a blind eye. Spanish authorities now speak of an invasion. [ 66 ] Moroccan criminal networks in Spain are involved in money-laundering, and trafficking in drugs and human beings.
Increasingly, Spain faces the problem of young North African and Arab immigrants using its territory as a meeting place for staging terrorist attacks elsewhere. Spain is considered a safe haven for terrorists where the risks of police interference are minimal. Spanish police estimate that about two hundred Islamic extremists with ties to eighteen terrorist groups entered Spain in 2000. [ 67 ] While French security and intelligence services have gathered detailed information on Islamist terrorist networks for more than two decades, the Spanish services are still poorly equipped to face a problem that is relatively new to them. For years, their focus has been on the homegrown terrorism of the Basque separatist movement ETA.
Spanish authorities now fear that the Islamist and Basque radicals have formed an alliance of sorts. Some ETA terrorists visited the same Middle Eastern training camps as a number of Islamic extremists.
Representatives from ETA and Osama Bin Laden reportedly met in Brussels, but there were frictions after the Islamic fundamentalists refused to continue the meeting in the presence of a Basque woman who preferred to stay.
Spanish sources claim that Mohammed Atta, the suicide pilot from Hamburg who was the first to fly into the World Trade Center in New York, also tried to forge links between al-Qaeda and ETA terrorists. [ 68 ] Just before Christmas 1999, ETA planned an attack on the Picasso Tower in Madrid. The American architect of the Picasso Tower was Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan; but it is not clear whether ETA got the idea from Muslim extremists. [ 69 ] What is known is that al-Qaeda cells in Europe, the United States and Canada planned terrorist attacks around Christmas 1999 and the subsequent Millennium celebrations.
Atta in Spain
[BIG SNIP--see original link for much more info on Al Qaeda in Spain]"
http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/eta.html
Does ETA have ties to al Qaeda?
No. ETA’s secular nationalist agenda has nothing to do with the Islamist fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, and there is no credible evidence of any systematic cooperation between ETA and al Qaeda, experts say. But Qaeda cells have been discovered in Spain. In November 2001, Spanish authorities arrested eight men suspected of being Qaeda operatives involved in the September 11 attacks. One of these men reportedly had past links with ETA’s unofficial political wing, Batasuna, which the Spanish Supreme Court banned in March 2003. In September 2003, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said the September 11 attacks were partially planned in Spain.
So they don't have ties to Al Qaeda but they arrested an Al Qaeda guy with an ETA past. Yeah, that makes sense.
suicide vessels filled with the deadly explosive C-4
Hm. They really ought to use non-deadly explosives...
RADICAL ISLAMIC SECT TARGETS CHIAPAS
... Most of the converts apparently live in the community of La Esperanza outside San Cristobal, and were introduced to Islam by Spanish missionaries from the Morocco-based Murabitun World Movement. One of the missionaries, Aureliano Perez, was reportedly deported by Mexican immigration authorities in 1998 for his links to both the Zapatistas and the Basque separatist group ETA. Perez denied the charges. (EFE, May 26, 2001) The Murabitun take their name from the medieval Berber dynasty in Spain, and their web site (www.murabitun.org) reads: "Throughout a post-Christian West of unprecedented darkness, the Murabitun are springing up like the dragon's teeth and have established communities centered around Ribats, or outposts, at highly significant points throughout the world...
All these things seem like wheels within wheels.
This, actually, was not even the report I was looking for - I was seeking a report on some radical Muslims who were deported from Mexico last summer or fall for their activities. In the course of the article, it mentioned that the head of ETA in Mexico (not sure if this would be Perez or not) had converted to Islam. I still can't find the details on that one, though.
But there do appear to be connections.
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