Free Republic

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Spanish police believe a top al-Qaida operative in Europe put two key suspects in the Madrid bombings in contact with one another, a newspaper reported Friday. Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet of Tunisia, the alleged coordinator of the attacks, is believed to have met with al-Qaida operative Amer Azizi in Turkey in late 2002 or early 2003 to ask for fighters for an attack in Madrid, the daily El Mundo said. Azizi, a Moroccan who remains at large, was indicted on terrorism charges last September by Judge Baltasar Garzon as part of his probe into an al-Qaida...

Terrorists who blew themselves up last weekend as police moved in to arrest them over the March 11 bombings had been plotting an imminent attack on a sprawling shopping center outside Madrid, a newspaper reported Thursday. Police combing through the apartment found evidence that included maps of Parquesur, a retail and leisure complex less than a mile (1.6-kilometer) from the apartment in the town of Leganes, El Mundo said, quoting police. The police also found at least two backpacks and a belt, all packed with dynamite and wired to detonators, the paper said. Interior Ministry officials were not available to...

The suspected terrorists who died in last weekend's suicide blast planned another major attack in Madrid, possibly during this week's Easter celebrations, a court official said Wednesday.Police also said Saturday's explosion during a police storming of an apartment may have killed seven suspects, and this and the arrests of other suspects could stir another terror cell to mount a jihad or 'holy war' in Spain, according to the official, who asked not to be identified.The official said that explosives and other evidence found in the apartment after Saturday's explosion indicated the suspects killed planned an imminent follow up to the...

<p>April 4, 2004 -- MADRID, Spain - At least three men wanted for last month's horrific Madrid railway bombings blew themselves up yesterday after a failed bid to shoot cops who swarmed their apartment building.</p> <p>The bomb killed one special forces agent and wounded 15 police officers in the Madrid suburb of Leganes.</p>

MADRID, April 5 (Reuters) - Spanish investigators give credence to a letter purportedly from al Qaeda and sent to the newspaper ABC threatening more bombings unless Spain withdraws troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. "In principle, the letter is given certain credibility, although the analysis is not yet complete. We believe it could have been sent by people directly involved in recent events," an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Monday. The letter was signed by the same name -- Abu Dujana al Afgani, also written as Abu Duham al Afgani -- as that given by a man in a videotape who...

<p>On March 11, Spain suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history and one of the bloodiest the world has ever known. Terrorists planned their cowardly acts with the express purpose of killing as many people as possible, in order to sow terror and strike a mortal blow against our freedoms and rights. It was a day we felt an immense pain, pain we will never forget. But it was also a pain we must all learn from.</p>

MADRID, March 23 — Spain's prime minister-elect, who has pledged to pull troops out of Iraq unless the United Nations assumes supervision of the occupation force there, is considering increasing the number of Spanish peacekeepers in Afghanistan, officials in his Socialist Party said Tuesday. Advertisement Less than two weeks after the deadly train bombings in Madrid, Prime Minister-elect José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero wants to signal his commitment to fight terrorism and show the United States that Spain remains a loyal ally, said one senior party official. The new government wants "to send a message that the Socialists do not believe...

The Spanish election results are reverberating around the world, and the realization is setting in that the implications are disastrous -- not only for Spain, but for all of Europe, for the war on terror, and perhaps for the very survival of western civilization. Mass murderers have won an easy victory of staggering proportions. And any hope of coping with its effects will first require a realistic assessment of the damage that has already been done and where it is likely to lead -- all weighed in the context of the sobering lessons of history. Although the recent events in...

Since last Thursday's tragic events in Madrid and their impact on Sunday on the course of the Spanish elections, a great deal of commentary in blogosphere has been focused on what happened and why, as well as their potential for impact on the American elections that will occur this November. This analysis will endeavor to address some of those concerns, but I will be quite frank: this was a definitive victory for al-Qaeda. The Genesis of the Madrid Massacre Al-Qaeda attacking Spanish public transportation is certainly nothing new. Joe noted that attacks on public transportation are a logical outgrowth of...

Five days after a series of bombs exploded on Madrid’s commuter trains killing over 200 people Spanish investigators and Western intelligence agencies are said to be almost certain that Islamic terrorists were to blame for the attacks—and not the Basque separatist group ETA, as the Spanish premier and his interior minister had initially declared. If the attack was indeed the work of al-Qaida or one of its many affiliates, it was singularly successful in achieving its presumed political objectives. Until the morning of March 11 the Popular Party (PP) government of the outgoing prime minister José Maria Aznar looked poised...

AFTER A terrorist attack by al-Qaida that left hundreds of their fellow countrymen dead, Spanish voters immediately voted to give the terrorists what they want -- a Socialist government that opposes America's war on terrorism. Al-Qaida has changed a government. Until the bombings last week, the center-right Popular Party of outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar had been sailing to victory. But then the al-Qaida bombs went off and Spaniards turned out in droves to vote against the government that had been a staunch Bush ally in the war on terrorism. (I guess it's OK for a Spanish Socialist to...

GLOBAL JIHADUK Muslim clericstied to Spain attack Probe sees 'definite link' to Palestinian regarded as important al-Qaida figure Posted: March 19, 20045:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Counter-terrorist police probing the massive attack in Madrid one week ago see a "definite link" to Muslim extremists in Britain, according to a senior British law enforcement official. Detained Palestinian cleric Abu Qatada, regarded by British and Spanish authorities as a key al-Qaida figure in Europe, likely will be questioned, reported the Independent newspaper of London. "We believe there is a London link with what happened in Madrid," said metropolitan police commissioner Sir John Stevens....

Lebanon Daily News Al-Qaida gets a victory in Spain By Dan Sernoffsky Thursday, March 18, 2004 - Daily News Sportswriter On Friday, a series of explosions rocked a number of commuter trains in Spain. At least 200 died and another 1,600 or so were injured. Two days later, Spain's electorate ousted prime minister Jose Aznar, an unabashed supporter of the United States and its war against terror. Replacing him was Jose Zapatero and Spain's Socialist Party. Zapatero had campaigned on a platform of pulling Spanish troops, about 1,300, out of Iraq, and aligning himself with Germany and France in...

LONDON – Western intelligence analysts doubt the credibility of a purported Al Qaida group that has threatened new attacks in Europe. Yigal Carmon, president of the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute and counter-terrorism adviser to three prime ministers, said the Abu Hafs statement does not represent Al Qaida. "The text of this statement includes linguistic usages and concepts that are incompatible with or alien to authentic Al Qaida writings by Osama Bin Laden, Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri, and others," Carmon wrote in an analysis. The analysts said the Abu Hafs Al Masri Brigade appears to be a fictitiou organization...

As it becomes increasingly clear that al Qaeda was responsible for the horrific attacks in Madrid, one question keeps popping up: If there's no link between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, why did al Qaeda blow up those trains? Critics of the Iraq war have been saying for more than two years that there was never any al Qaeda-Saddam link. After all, they'd say, Saddam is secular and bin Laden is a religious fanatic. When Howard Dean was trotted out for last Sunday's Meet the Press to square off against Condoleezza Rice, the former Vermont governor rehashed the familiar...

<p>It may take weeks before the identity of those responsible for the 3/11 bombings in Madrid is established, and by then a new government, led by the Socialists, will be in power in Spain. But one thing is already certain: Europe has not yet taken the full measure of the terrorist threat to its way of life, indeed its existence as a zone of peace and prosperity in an unstable world.</p>

The other day one of the JYB's top operatives speculated that al Qaeda could cook up a brilliant move in the wake of Spain's turn from the war. Basically, what the terrorists could do is announce a truce with Spain, state that they are pulling out all operatives and vowing not to harm Spanish interests around the world. The move would plant in Spanish voters' minds the belief that they made the right choice in kicking out the pro-US Popular Party. It would tell other fence-sitters that the quickest way out of the war is to become hostile to the...

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...

MADRID.- About 2000 or 3000 PP supporters have demonstrated in front of the party headquarter at Calle de Genova in Madrid, saying "Viva Aznar", "Gracias, Aznar" or "Zapatero Presidente de Al Qaeda".

MADRID, March 16 — In the aftermath of its national election, Spain, along with the rest of the world, is struggling to answer a harrowing question: who really won on Sunday, the Socialists or the terrorists? For the departing foreign minister, Ana Palacio, whose center-right government staunchly supported the American-led war in Iraq and lost the election, the answer is clear. "We are giving birth to a new world, and it is sad and dangerous and sick," Mrs. Palacio said in an interview. "We are giving a signal to terrorists that they can have their way because we have given...