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INVESTIGATORS OF THE 3/11 TERRORIST ATTACK ON Spain have found that the leader of the radical Islamic cell was a drug dealer who traded a load of hashish for the explosives that killed 191 people. Spanish authorities are finding that the al-Qaeda-related terrorists are also ­tangled up in organized crime, the underworld of robbery, counterfeiting, fraud, drug dealing, and murder. How can that be? A Muslim who steals is to have his hand cut off. Islam forbids the use of drugs. How can there be an alliance between fundamentalist Islam and organized crime? The answer, reports Sebastian Rotella of the...

The body of a police special forces officer who died when Islamic terrorists blew themselves up in Madrid was taken from its grave, mutilated and burnt yesterday. The coffin and body of special agent Francisco Javier Torronteras were pulled from the tomb in Madrid Sur cemetery in Carabanchel and pushed 1,000 yards in a wheelbarrow before being doused with petrol and set alight. The body was found with a pick driven into its head and a spade dug into its chest. Although no motive was immediately apparent, police speculated that it could be the work of sympathisers of the Moroccan...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police are searching for an apartment where Islamist militants may be hiding after a weekend raid on another apartment ended with up to six suspects blowing themselves up, newspapers said on Wednesday. The Spanish government says most of the suspects in the Madrid 11 train bombings which killed 191 people have either been arrested or killed themselves in the weekend siege of an apartment in the Madrid suburb of Leganes. But a prosecutor has asked a judge to issue new arrest warrants in the investigation, news reports say, and police believe between one and three suspects...

Spanish President Aznar will be auxiliar proffesor in Georgetown about European policies and Transatlantic relations. He received the Golden Medal of Georgetown in January. His courses will be held two times every six months.

<p>A bomb containing several detonators has been found on a French rail line linking Paris to Basel, in Switzerland, according to police.</p> <p>The device "strongly resembled" a previous bomb planted by a shadowy group calling itself AZF which has threatened to blow up parts of France's rail network unless it is paid millions of euros, police said.</p>

TARNOW, Poland – Poland vowed Monday to keep troops in Iraq and warned Spain's incoming government that its plan to pull out could be seen as weakness in the face of terror after the Madrid bombings. Poland has 2,400 troops in Iraq and commands a 9,000-strong division of troops from 24 nations, including 1,300 Spanish soldiers, in a central-south zone. "Revising our positions on Iraq after terrorist attacks would be to admit that terrorists are stronger and that they are right," Prime Minister Leszek Miller told a news conference in the Polish town of Tarnow. Spain had been due to...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A group claiming to have links with al Qaeda said Wednesday it was calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new government would withdraw its troops from Iraq (news - web sites), a pan-Arab newspaper said. In a statement sent Wednesday to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed 201 people, also urged its European units to stop all operations. "Because of this decision, the leadership has decided to stop all operations within the Spanish territories... until we know the intentions...

Spain's spies see Muslims behind attack-radio Saturday March 13, 03:36 PM MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's intelligence service is "99 percent certain" that radical Muslims and not the Basque separatist group ETA are responsible for the train bombings that killed 200 people, a Spanish radio station has reported. Private radio SER, whose owners have links to the opposition Socialist Party, said the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) believes the evidence points to an Islamic group, and that 10 to 15 people left bombs on the trains and fled, the radio said on Saturday. The centre-right government, facing an election on Sunday, has...

More than 11 million people they were pronounced in all Spain against the attacks of Madrid MADRID, 12 (EUROPE PRESS) More than eleven million people they have been pronounced today in all the country to put record of its consternation before the attacks happened yesterday in Madrid, according to informed to Europe Press the Main directorate into the Police. This calculation, according to the mentioned sources, has been made on the different ones PUBLICITY manifestations that have taken place this late in all the capitals of province, following the call of the central Government. Only in Madrid, the Delegation...

MADRID, March 11 (Reuters) - Following are some reactions from leaders and experts to the deaths of at least 173 people in bombings in Madrid on Thursday: JOSE MARIA AZNAR, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER The victims were killed "simply for being Spanish... The criminals who have caused so many deaths today will be arrested... We will succeed in finishing off the terrorist band (ETA). GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT The bombings were a "vicious act of terrorism". Bush "condemned this vicious act of terrorism in the strongest possible terms," a White House spokesman said. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT "Terrorism has once...

Border police tightened security Thursday between France and Spain after train bombings in Madrid that killed more than 170 people and wounded hundreds of others. Police stopped people on foot and searched cars and other vehicles, creating traffic jams at several checkpoints between the two countries, including Hendaye and Behobie. At the Biriatou border crossing, heavy trucks were stopped for security checks. The French Basque region has long been a haven for militant Spanish Basques, although it has largely been spared the violence that has scarred the Spanish Basque provinces, just across the border. President Jacques Chirac condemned the Madrid...

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Thursday condemned the Basque separatist group ETA as the perpetrators of the deadly bombings in Spain, although members had no way of determining the veracity of the charge. Despite some hesitations over the resolution, members voted 15-0 to accept the word of the Spanish government, which immediately blamed the ETA for the simultaneous explosions that killed 190 people and injured more than 1,200 on packed trains in Madrid. The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms the bomb attacks in Madrid, Spain, perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA on 11...

"No pasaran" was the message of those defending ballot-box democracy during the Spanish civil war. As the full horror of the Madrid atrocity unfolds, surely the time has come to unite against terrorism - the new fascism of the 21st century, wherever it takes place. On Sunday, millions of Spaniards will vote freely to chose a government. Today we see a monstrous assault on European democracy and all of Europe must stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Spain as they find themselves in the front line against the evil of world terrorism. I learnt my Spanish in San...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush called Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Thursday to express solidarity and sympathy after explosions killed more than 170 people and injured hundreds more in Spain's worst terrorist attack ever. Bush condemned "this vicious attack of terrorism in the strongest possible terms," National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said.</p>

PURVIS, Miss. (AP) - A dam holding back an 1,100 acre lake in southern Mississippi broke on Friday, damaging dozens of homes and several roads in two counties, authorities said. Following the failure of the Big Bay Lake dam, state emergency officials found 43 homes damaged and 12 mobile homes destroyed. Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency for Marion and Lamar counties. Officials had not determined whether anyone was missing or injured, search crews were going door to door in areas below the dam, west of Purvis. Chip Gibson, a local pilot, said when he flew over the...

Attacks. - The terrorists tried to fly the station of Atocha by means of the simultaneous explosion of six pumps MADRID, 11 (EUROPE PRESS) The terrorist authors of the today attacks tried to explode at the same time in the station of Atocha six of the pumps placed in two of the attacked trains, according to judicial sources informed and into the displaced police equipment to the place of the facts. The same sources indicated that, according to the first investigations, the pumps placed in the trains whose explosive charges exploded in the station of Atocha and the neighborhoods...

I just got this in reply to my email I sent to the Spanish Consulate yesterday The Spanish Consulate is organizing a silent demonstration to take place today at 1pm at the Cervantes Institute, located at Amster Yard, 211-215 East 49th Street, New York City. We hope you will convey your solidarity and support to the victims and their families in this demonstration. Sincerely, Consulate General of Spain in New York.

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....

Spain pledged Friday to find those responsible for train bombings that killed at least 198 people. Businesses emptied nationwide for several minutes as Spaniards observed a period of silence to honor the victims of the country's worst terror attack. Spanish officials initially blamed Basque separatists for Thursday's stunningly well-coordinated string of 10 explosions on packed commuter trains, but they also were studying a claim of blame by a shadowy group in the name of al-Qaida. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said no suspects had been ruled out. "We will bring the guilty to justice," Aznar said at a news conference....

For San Francisco Freepers with time on their hands at noon today: ANNOUNCEMENT The Consulate General of Spain wishes to express its profound sorrow for the victims of the barbaric terrorist attack perpetrated today, March 11, 2004, in the capital of Spain, and declares its solidarity with the relatives of the victims. It is necessary once more to manifest absolute repudiation and condemnation of any type of terrorism, as well as the unconditional will to defend the Rule of Law and the Constitution. The Consulate General of Spain invites all those who want to condemn this insane act of violence...

On March 12, 2004, the pro-Saddam pro-bin Laden London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi(1) published the alleged statement by the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades of Al-Qa'ida, in which the brigades claimed to be responsible for the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid. It should be noted that the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades claimed responsibility for the August 2003 blackout in the U.S. (which was a large-scale technical failure), calling it "Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of This Generation."(2) The following is the translation of the statement, followed by commentary: Text of the Statement [The statement begins with the...

Spain (AP) - More than a million demonstrators jammed the streets of Madrid on Friday night, huddling beneath umbrellas in a steady rain to protest the train bombings that killed 199 people in the country's worst terrorist attack. Millions more turned out in Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and other cities - including Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. Spanish officials initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the stunningly well-coordinated series of 10 explosions Thursday during Madrid's rush hour. Later, they said they were studying a claim of responsibility by a shadowy group in the name of...

In the aftermath of the bombings in Madrid, newspapers across Europe on Friday look at what happened the previous day and ask the questions who, and why? The horror and the pity Madrid's El Pais carries accounts by people caught up in the attack. "Those who were able to walk got out and stampeded down the tracks," a 28-year old commuter says. "I stayed to help, to get the wounded out... I held a girl in my arms and we lost her... She died in my arms." "There were wounded and blood everywhere, body parts, and people trapped in the...

Hundreds of transplanted Spaniards and sympathetic New Yorkers gathered on a Manhattan street Friday to observe a moment of silence for the victims of the Madrid terrorist attacks that killed 199 people. Teary-eyed and hugging, people along East 49th Street went silent at exactly 1 p.m., coinciding with a similar observance throughout Spain. "A lot of people here are not Spanish, but we are civilized, and whoever did that is an animal," said Lee Nolan, a Manhattan attorney whose wife is from Barcelona. For security reasons, the moment of silence was observed in front of the Cervantes Institute, a Spanish...

<p>March 12, 2004 -- The civilized world mourns with Spain today, but nowhere is Madrid's agony understood more deeply, more intuitively, than here in New York City. We were there, after all, just 30 short months ago.</p> <p>It now looks like it was indeed radical Islamic terrorists who exploded 10 backpack bombs over a 15-minute period aboard trains and in commuter stations yesterday morning - killing at least 192 and wounding up to 1,400.</p>

<p>March 12, 2004 -- JERUSALEM - Even if it turns out that Basque separatists are responsible for the blood on the tracks in Madrid, European security officials are very concerned about the possibility - one might say inevitability - of a devastating al Qaeda strike in the heart of Europe.</p>

MADRID, March 12 (Reuters) - Bombs killing nearly 200 people have injected a deadly new element into Spain's weekend election and could swing voters depending on whether the attacks were the work of Basque guerrillas or Muslim militants. If the government's initial suspicion that ETA was behind the blasts turns out to be right, this could benefit Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's ruling Popular Party (PP) which has campaigned on its tough line against the Basque separatist group, analysts said. If, however, some indications al Qaeda could have been behind the attacks gain credence, many Spaniards might point a finger...

It is no mystery why Spain was the target of yesterday's terror attacks, which killed nearly 200 people in Madrid. The government of Jose Maria Aznar, the outgoing Prime Minister, is one of the world's staunchest foes of terrorism. On the home front, Mr. Aznar has taken a consistently hard line against ETA, the Basque separatist group that is the government's top suspect in the commuter-train attacks (though it is possible Islamic extremists are to blame). He has refused to negotiate or compromise with ETA until it makes a clean break with violence. On the world stage, he has been...

When the first bomb hit, people were too stunned to move. When the second one went off, people screamed and ran in all directions. "Some even went into the train tunnels without thinking other trains could be coming," said Anibal Altamirano, who was in the Atocha rail center, where seven blasts erupted. "People dropped everything - bags and shoes - and ran, many trampling on others." Terrified commuters banged into each other as they fled in opposite directions and more explosions rocked the station. "I saw many things explode in the air. It was horrible. I saw people with blood...

Death toll in Madrid bombs rises to 198, with 1,430 wounded (Reuters)

MADRID (Reuters) - "I saw a baby torn to bits," said train passenger Ana Maria Mayor, her voice cracking. The blasts that ripped through the heart of Madrid in the morning rush hour on Thursday left pools of blood like in a battlefield. Enrique Sanchez, an ambulance man for 20 years, had never seen anything like it. "There were all kinds of facial wounds, amputations, broken bones," Sanchez said. "There was blood everywhere, so much blood..." Sanchez was in a crew that raced to Atocha station to help the wounded on bombed commuter trains that were ripped open like tuna...

Madrid attacks unlikely to be work of ETA: expert The World Today - Friday, 12 March , 2004 12:22:33 Reporter: Ben Knight HAMISH ROBERTSON: Well while the Spanish authorities might be making an early call on who's responsible, others are more cautious. One Australian expert on terrorism says the Madrid atrocity appears more likely to be the work of al-Qaeda, or a group linked to al-Qaeda, rather than the Basque group, ETA. Dr David Wright-Neville is the Director for the Global Terrorism Project at Monash University. And he's speaking here to our reporter Ben Knight in Melbourne. DAVID WRIGHT-NEVILLE: I'm...

Posted on Thu, Mar. 11, 2004 Report: at least one ETA member was thought to have joined al-Qaida in recent yearsSeries of terrorist blasts kills more than 190 in Spain BY MATTHEW SCHOFIELD Knight Ridder Newspapers MADRID, Spain - (KRT) - More than 190 people were killed and at least another 1,200 injured when a series of terrorist bombs ripped through trains during the Spanish capital's morning rush hour Thursday. It was the bloodiest such attack in Spain's history. Government officials quickly blamed the bombings, three days before national elections, on the Basque separatist group ETA, which has waged a...

The terrorist attacks in Madrid yesterday were a monstrous crime against innocent humanity. They were also a reminder that terrorism is a worldwide threat and that fighting it is not America's problem alone. Combating terrorism effectively requires the fullest possible international cooperation, especially in intelligence, law enforcement and the tracking of terrorist finances. Most of the hard work will be far less dramatic than the successful military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed, each new terrorist act demonstrates that military action alone is not the solution. Terrorism cannot be eradicated simply by driving the Taliban out of Kabul or capturing...

March 12 — MADRID (Reuters) - Practically all of Spain came to a halt at midday Friday to mourn the 198 dead and 1,463 wounded from Thursday's bombings of four packed commuter trains in Madrid. The nationwide silent vigils -- some lasting five minutes, others 15 -- ended with applause. Devastated Spaniards then carried on with their lives following the worst such attack in Europe in 15 years. Traffic stopped and drivers stood beside their cars on Madrid's main boulevard, Paseo de la Castellana. At Gregorio Maranon hospital, where many of the victims were taken, staff stood on the front...

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Commuters sobbed, lit candles and left flowers Friday at Madrid's Atocha station, a normally bustling railway hub turned sadly quiet after the devastating terrorist attacks. Trains had to roll past two of the bombed-out shells of the four trains hit in the attacks Thursday. The wreckage was still on the track just outside the station. ``I came with a lot of fear,'' said a tearful Isabel Galan, 32, who traveled from the suburb of Fuenlabrada. ``I saw the trains and I burst into tears. I felt so helpless, felt such anger.'' As she talked, her makeup...

It was, reported the BBC, "the most deadly terror attack in Europe since Pan-Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky by a bomb above the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, and the worst in Spanish history." The BBC was wrong. It was much worse than that. Thursday morning's carefully planned bomb blasts in and around Madrid, killed nearly 200 people, and wounded some 1,400 others, all — as this headline in El Mundo put it — "merely because they were Spanish." The Spanish government, and many others, at first blamed the ETA, the Basque terrorists, for the...

MADRID, March 12 (Reuters) - Bombs killing nearly 200 people have injected a deadly new element into Spain's weekend election and could swing voters depending on whether the attacks were the work of Basque guerrillas or Muslim militants. If the government's initial suspicion ETA was behind the blasts is right, that could benefit Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's ruling Popular Party (PP) which has campaigned on its tough line against the separatist group, analysts said. If, however, some indications al Qaeda could have been behind the attacks gain credence, many Spaniards might point a finger at the PP for stirring...

The FBI is concerned about cyberterror, but bombs remain a bigger danger than bytes, the agency’s counterterrorism chief told a joint House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on last month’s Northeast blackout. ... He also dismissed a subsequent claim of responsibility for the blackout by an alleged terrorist organization, Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, as “wishful thinking. We have no information confirming the actual existence of this group.”

"On many bodies, we could hear the person's mobile phone ringing as we carted them away," said Beatriz Martin, a doctor who tended to victims amid the carnage at El Pozo station. One of those calling may have been Mari Paz, manager of the nearby La Cenicienta childcare centre, where many parents had left their children before catching the train to work. Seven had yet to contact the nursery. As staff frantically tried to contact the parents, police officers bundled cot mattresses against the windows and walls to protect the children and carers from any further explosions. Atocha station, in...

The train bombs that killed 198 people in the Spanish capital Madrid were set off by mobile phones, according to reports. Meanwhile Spain's prime minister has said police investigating the bombings will follow up every single lead. Jose Maria Aznar vowed the inquiry will "soon bear fruit", and he pledged: "We will bring the guilty to justice." Mr Aznar was speaking as Spain began three days of mourning for the people killed in the blasts. A further 1,400 were injured when 10 bombs exploded in trains and rail stations in the centre of Madrid during the morning rush hour. It...

We’re still not sure exactly who was responsible for the recent atrocity in Madrid. Initial speculation focused on the ETA, a violent Basque separatist group. Now, after a claim of responsibility by an affiliated group, most people are looking towards al-Qaeda. Frankly, on reflection, I believe that this was probably a joint operation, given evidence linking both the ETA and al-Qaeda to the attack. The fact that the sort of explosives used match up with those that the ETA has been caught with in the past points directly at them. The operational methods (which are inconsistent with those of the...

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILYTerrorism: The bombs that exploded in Madrid's train stations were more than a great tragedy. They were a new call to arms for democratic nations everywhere, which again find their very existence under assault.With 200 estimated dead and 1,200 or so injured, the synchronized blasts that tore through Madrid on Thursday have revived fears of a renewed anti-West terror campaign. Though early speculation in the Madrid explosions centered on Basque separatists, it now seems more likely al-Qaida was behind them. On Thursday, a letter purporting to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, an arm of Osama bin...

Two million march against terror Madrid - and many other cities - came to a standstill for the silence Up to two million people are taking part in a demonstration against terror in the Spanish capital Madrid a day after bomb attacks killed at least 198. European leaders, including the prime ministers of France and Italy, have joined the protest in solidarity. Similar rallies and vigils are being held across the country. Officials say Basque militants from Eta remain the main suspects - but Basque media are carrying a statement, said to be from the group, denying involvement. 'Assassins' The...

MASSACRE IN MADRID Al-Qaeda prime suspects bin Laden -- He warned Spain By JOHN KAYChief Reporter,   The Sun, UK.  Mar. 12, 2004 TERROR experts last night signalled that al-Qaeda WAS behind the Madrid carnage. Osama Bin Laden’s group became prime suspect after Spanish cops found a van containing detonators and an Arabic tape with Koranic verses. Last night TWO al-Qaeda splinter groups claimed they committed the atrocity — Al Muwahidoun, also called the Lions of Al-Mufridoon, and the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri. Basque terror group ETA is also under suspicion. But in an unusual move Arnaldo Otegi,...

But far deeper and more profound questions abound if Al Qaeda is responsible for the Madrid attacks. Still aware of the Moorish occupation, Spaniards can be fiercely bigoted towards Arabs. But, still fresh out of the Franco era, they are also fiercely pacifist. In that competition of histories, who will become the enemy to everyday Spaniards: Osama bin Laden or George W. Bush? Last night in Barcelona, hundreds gathered to beat pots and pans to protest Aznar's support of the Iraq war, giving a glimpse at what may signal the widespread outcome of these bombings. Unlike Americans, who channeled their...

MADRID (Reuters) - Rucksack bombs used in deadly Madrid train bombings were set off by mobile phone and contained copper detonators, which are not generally used by armed Basque separatist group ETA, a radio station has reported. Cadena Ser radio station quoted security sources as saying the bombs, which blew up on four trains killing 198 people, were activated by mobile telephones which had had their alarms set for 7:39 a.m. (6:39 British time) on Thursday. The detonator in an unexploded bomb recovered by police contained a copper detonator whereas the detonators commonly used by ETA are made of aluminium,...

THE Madrid train bombings were a hideous catastrophe for the victims, their families and for the Spanish people. If al-Qaeda emerges as the most likely culprits, it is a calamity for the whole western world. It would confirm that the implacable, ruthless and callous disciples of Osama Bin Laden have moved their operations to our own backyard. Spanish authorities were reluctant to admit the possibility that anyone but home-grown ETA terrorists might be responsible. Indeed, Prime Minister Aznar publicly named and blamed them. The British Government and our security and intelligence services also believed some of the planning bore the...

Yesterday in Madrid, the war on terror seemed to have come to Western Europe. What British security services had privately regarded as virtually inevitable had happened: there was a terrorist spectacular in the capital city of a neighbouring democracy. The Spanish government was quick to blame this atrocity on ETA, in spite of categorical denials by that organisation's spokesmen. Initially, earlier suspicions that al-Qa'eda was responsible were dismissed, even though the scale of the atrocity, its modus operandi and the peculiarly vicious failure to give any warning are characteristic of al-Qa'eda attacks. The ETA denial was put by Arnaldo Otegi,...

Gnat’s bouncing on the bed with a rabbit, which is really a kangaroo, while the radio restates the death toll: 150 dead, and an unimaginable number of wounded. I dread the day when she starts to listen to the radio, and understand; I wonder what she will think about the world outside Jasperwood. Right now she knows that we live in Minneapolis, in Minnesota, on the Earth. It’s a pretty good place. It has seasons and it has ice cream and it has spring, soon, and it’s where her room is. But at some point kids realize that when daddy...