Spain’s “Terrorgate”? Investigating 3/11.

This is good tinfoil hat stuff....

ping

Interesting, but Occam sez the terrorists were hoping to scare the Spanish public out of the Iraq war and succeeded.

Thanks for the ping!

There's all sorts of mysterious undercurrents in the March 11 bombing. From what I have read over the last year or so, some of it can be attributed to ineptitude on the part of the police. But there are definitely more sinister things.

For one thing, certain of Spain's police forces and the Intelligence service hated Aznar because he had reorganized them. They clearly wanted him to look bad after the bombing, and in one case even called the press with various details before they even relayed them to Aznar.

Furthermore, I think there was infiltration of the police by Islamists, and there are all sorts of strange connections that keep emerging there. And not only in Madrid - there are connections in Asturias, where the explosives came from. Plus there was the strange event where the girlfriend of one of the men who stole and sold the dynamite drowned herself in the harbor at Gijon while the police (who had been criticized for their prior involvement with the dynamite thief) stood on the boardwalk and watched her thrashing around - for 45 minutes.

ETA was also definitely involved, and one thing that people are not remarking on is that ETA is suddenly getting everything it has always wanted from the Zapatero government, and will probably actually manage to get Pais Vasco given to it. A reward, I assume.

Overall it's a really creepy, involved plot, and nothing would surprise me.

Here is this blog in English with links to the original Spanish: Barcepundit

More:

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

FRANK J. GAFFNEY, of the Center for Security Policy, has written an article, "Spain's 'Terrorgate'", on the National Review, based on the information I posted here about the murky developments discovered by the Madrid's newspaper El Mundo. He has kind words for us, which we truly appreciate. I'm sure he'll be also interested in today's updates here and here.

Fausta has told me she's going to translate more; I'll keep you updated.

posted by FrancoAlemán at 8:30 PM

For anyone who reads Spanish here's a reprint of the original El Mundo story.

Haz clik aqui.

http://barcepundit-english.blogspot.com/2005/05/one-and-only-fausta-of-bad-hair-blog.html

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

THE ONE AND ONLY FAUSTA, of The Bad Hair Blog, has kindly sent the translation of the Libertad Digital article I mentioned in the post below; I decided to put it in a separate, brand new entry so that it doesn't get buried at the end of the previous post. Thank, Fausta, for the translation!

Here it is:

The Kalaji family and March 11: from cell phones, to translations, to the van in Alcalá

While on Monday we found out about the mysteries surrounding knapsack #13 of the terrorist blasts, this Tuesday [Spanish daily] El Mundo reveals surprising new information on the March 11 investigation. The cell phones in the knapsack bombs came from a store owned by Maussili Kalaji, a Syrian officer in the [Spanish] national police, who went from Al Fatah to working as bodyguard for [magistrate] Garzón. The cards in those phones led to the apartment in Leganés. Kalaji’s sister translated The Tunisian’s conversations, and his ex-wife was one of the police officers who first arrived to the van in Alcalá.

Maussili Kalaji, 46-yr old Syrian, has an extensive background. As a youth he was a member of Al Fatah, which back then was one of the most important terrorist groups in the Middle East. Kalaji trained in weapons and explosives in one of the Al Fatah campgrounds. During his tour of the Soviet Union he perfected his training as a secret agent.

According to journalist Antonio Rubio, Maussili Kalaji’s journey in our country starts in 1981 when, having just arrived in Spain, he obtained political refugee status. In 1984 he received Spanish citizenship “for services rendered” to this country, supposedly from information he gave to the secret services. Five years later he joined the National Police’s basic service. After that he rose meteorically in the Fuerzas de Seguridad (Security Forces).

From the basic service he progressed to the Comisaría General de Información (General Information Office), and from there to the Unidad Central de Información Exterior (UCIE), (Central Exterior Information Unit) -- the Unit which later would investigate the March 11 (3-11) explosions. From there he transferred to the Judicial Police Brigade and the [police’s] Minor’s Unit. Lastly, Kalaji ends up as bodyguard for Baltasar Garzón, the National Audience’s (the highest court dealing with terrorism, Supreme court excepted) Magistrate.

According to El Mundo, in 1989 the Syrian-Spaniard took part in a very important operation against Islamic terrorism in the port of Valencia, which uncovered a shipment of explosives camouflaged as tin cans. Baltasar Garzón himself praised this operation on his testimony at the March11 Commission. A year later, Kalaji received a public commendation from the Minister of the Interior. Apparently, it was an informant, Mohamed Arabi, who alerted the police about the shipment coming from Lebanon. The eight detainees from the operation were members of Hezbollah, and four of them were Iraqis. The explosives would have been used in attempts against American, French, Kuwaiti, and Saudi Arabian embassies in Europe.

That same informant, Mohamed Arabi, took part in November 2001 on the Operación Dátil (Operation Date), during which were detained the people accused that are now on trial for their participation in 9-11 attack in the USA. The cell’s leader is, Abu Dada, which whom agent Kalaji was on friendly terms. During Operación Dátil the informant Arabi was arrested, but thanks to Kalaji’s intervention before Judge Garzón, Arabi was set free.

On to March 11 La Razón broke the news to the media in the middle of the 3-11 investigations. The cell phones used in the knapsack bombs came from a store owned by a policeman. The phones were purchased at a shop owned by Indian citizens, and in Kalaji’s business the phones’ internal codes were reset so they could be used by other phone services. When this fact was discovered, agent Kalaji was taken to Canillas station for a deposition. As reported then, once it was established that his shop only did something considered routine in that type of store, and not illegal, the Syrian-Spaniard was free.

The family coincidences don’t stop there. As it turns out, agent Marisol Kalaji, Kalaji’s wife, was one of the police officers that had access on 3-11 to the van in Alcalá. If, thanks to the cards sold in the policeman’s store, the GEO [Spain's police elite squad, like SWAT teams] found out about the Leganés apartment – where the Islamic terrorists later died in an explosion –, thanks to the discovery of the Kangoo van there was access to the Koran tapes, which strengthened the Islamic leads over the ETA.

Once the Islamic terrorists blew themselves up in Leganés, agent Kalaji asked for leave from the Madrid Judicial Brigade. Right now he’s on leave due to depression, even when some who know Kalaji have said, according to El Mundo, that the policeman has been separated by his supervisors because he’d become an uncomfortable witness for some in charge at the Comisaría General de Información (General Information Office), of whom Telesforo Rubio is director. The statements that Kalaji, who had been watched by his fellow officers and the CNI [National Intelligence Center, the Spanish equivalent to the CIA], made to judge Juan Del Olmo remain secret by judicial decree.

As you-know-who would say: developing...

Fankly, this sounds like the 'Bush knew'conspiracies of 9/11. Only it is being perpetrated by the Right. There is know doubt that the islamists had motive to do this. Would a bunch of socialists, as vile as their politics are, perpetrate an act on their own people to gain political power.

Oops! I better stop or i'll kill my initial statement! =)

>>>>Would a bunch of socialists, as vile as their politics are, perpetrate an act on their own people to gain political power.

In a word, Yes!

In a word, Yes!

At the top of the thread you said this was good tinfoil hat stuff. Does this mean you've labeled yourself a "tinfoiler"?

makes you want to puke if it is true. it also makes Harry Reid look like a piker compared to what the spanish socilaists have pulled off.

Thanks for the follow-up. I periodically scan the ABC (Madrid) headlines, but I completely missed this story. Maybe I should be following El Mundo and Barcepundit instead...

I will have to follow Barcepundit: looks like our kind of guy and I don't know Spanish (only Russian and Ukrainian).

Eerie stuff, especially considering El Mundo is definitely not a right wing paper.

I would add one more small straw to the pile. I admired the Spanish police for their continuing work tracking down and arresting the perpetrators after the Muslim friendly Socialists under Aznar came into power. Seemingly Aznar knuckled under to the terrorists but the police did not.

I did sometimes wonder, however, how the Spanish police could act so independently of the new government, since Aznar is clearly a control freak. If the police were complicit and working with Aznar, that would certainly explain that little mystery. They weren't working in defiance of the new Prime Minister, they were working for him all along.

Huh? I think you mean Zapatero - Aznar was the former PM, who was NOT a Socialist. The current one, who is a Socialist and was elected after March 11, is Zapatero. And he's really, really bad news.

It sure explains a lot, though, doesn't it?

Some days I think I have nothing left to puke, and lo and behold, one comes across a story like this and that G-d that we only have to deal with panty-waist liberals.