7.62FullMetalJacket
Member
How many germans, french, belgians and russians does it take to remove a brutal dictator and eradicate terrorism?
None. The Americans will do it with the Poles.
None. The Americans will do it with the Poles.
Spain pulling out...
- Thread starter Il Duce
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Il Duce
Member
Il Duce likes...ZekeLuvs1911
Member
Well, thanks to the GUTLESS Spainish populance, terrorists have now found a new weapon. They know that in a democracy we value what the people think. They know that they vote. So now, let's influence the election and I bet your ass that we are now in it for another attack sometime before Nov. If it doesn't happen, great, I'll admit that I cried wolf. I don't think it won't occur though......
w4rma
member
Spain accused of easing up on terror watch
Signs emerge of serious intelligence and security failures before bombings
Giles Tremlett in Madrid, Owen Bowcott in Casablanca, Ian Black in Brussels and Sophie Arie in Milan
Wednesday March 17, 2004
The Guardian
Spain cut the number of police units responsible for watching radical Islamists in the months before last week's Madrid bombings, reducing numbers by up to a half in some cities and sending them back to ordinary police work, it was claimed yesterday.
A report in the newspaper El Mundo emerged amid numerous signs of serious police and intelligence failures in the run-up to the attacks that killed 201 commuters.
They include allegations that:
· Spanish police possessed phone taps linking a prime suspect in the bombings, the Moroccan Jamal Zougam, with Mohamed Fizazi, a jailed leader of the May bombings in Casablanca, Morocco;
· Arguments between Morocco and Spain over the island of Perejil, fishing rights and immigration had seriously hampered coordination on shared terrorism threats;
· Paperwork that should have allowed police to trace the sale in Spain of the explosives used in the attacks has reportedly gone missing; and
· Spanish police knew that Mr Zougam was closely connected to Salaheddine Benyaiche, another north African Islamist also imprisoned in Morocco for the Casablanca attacks.
It has also been revealed that of six other people now being hunted by Spanish police in connection with the blasts, the majority were already well-known for radical Islamist connections.
Last night, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the reported reduction in the number of police devoted to watching Islamists.
But observers believe that a picture of missed intelligence opportunities and a failure to keep tabs on key figures is now emerging in the aftermath of the bombings.
The connection with Fizazi was revealed yesterday by a French lawyer, Jean-Charles Brisard, representing September 11 victims, who has access to Spanish police records.
In a phone call with a suspected leader of a Madrid-based al-Qaida cell that Spanish police monitored in August 2001, Mr Zougam said he had met Fizazi.
"On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers," Mr Zougam says, according to Mr Brisard.
Fizazi was one of 87 people sentenced in Morocco last August for their part in the Casablanca bombings last May which killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.
He was ordered to serve 30 years in prison. He previously preached at a mosque in Hamburg frequented by some of the September 11 hijackers.
Mr Zougam's connections to militant Islamists were well known to both Spanish and French police and to intelligence services in Morocco. His Madrid apartment had been searched in 2001, turning up a videotape that included an interview with Osama bin Laden.
His half-brother Mohamed Chaoui, who has also been arrested, also features on Spanish police wiretaps of the suspected Madrid cell, according to Mr Brisard.
So far police have arrested three Moroccans, including Mr Zougam and Mr Chaoui, and two Indians in their search for the bombers.
Last night, police in the Basque city of San Sebastian said they had detained an Algerian man who allegedly talked about a terrorist attack in Madrid two months before it happened.
Another Algerian named Said Arel is also reportedly wanted by police, along with five other Moroccans, all of whom are well known to Spanish police but have disappeared from Madrid in recent days.
Police sources said no international arrest warrants had been issued, despite reports that many of the bombers may have fled the country. Another avenue for investigating the bombings - tracing the route followed by the Spanish-made Goma 2 explosives used between the factory door and the Madrid train bombs - has reportedly been hampered because the paper trail it should have left behind is incomplete.
The 100 to 150 kilos of explosives used in the bombs may have been exported to Saudi Arabia, Syria or Mauritania before being smuggled back into the country via Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar, police sources said.
Another area of failure appears, according to Aboubakr Jamai, editor of the Casablanca-based Le Journal, to be political rows that have prevented Morocco and Spain coordinating anti-terrorism efforts properly.
"There was little cooperation between the Moroccan and Spanish authorities because of political disputes between the two countries over Perejil island and fishing rights," he said.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1170913,00.html
Signs emerge of serious intelligence and security failures before bombings
Giles Tremlett in Madrid, Owen Bowcott in Casablanca, Ian Black in Brussels and Sophie Arie in Milan
Wednesday March 17, 2004
The Guardian
Spain cut the number of police units responsible for watching radical Islamists in the months before last week's Madrid bombings, reducing numbers by up to a half in some cities and sending them back to ordinary police work, it was claimed yesterday.
A report in the newspaper El Mundo emerged amid numerous signs of serious police and intelligence failures in the run-up to the attacks that killed 201 commuters.
They include allegations that:
· Spanish police possessed phone taps linking a prime suspect in the bombings, the Moroccan Jamal Zougam, with Mohamed Fizazi, a jailed leader of the May bombings in Casablanca, Morocco;
· Arguments between Morocco and Spain over the island of Perejil, fishing rights and immigration had seriously hampered coordination on shared terrorism threats;
· Paperwork that should have allowed police to trace the sale in Spain of the explosives used in the attacks has reportedly gone missing; and
· Spanish police knew that Mr Zougam was closely connected to Salaheddine Benyaiche, another north African Islamist also imprisoned in Morocco for the Casablanca attacks.
It has also been revealed that of six other people now being hunted by Spanish police in connection with the blasts, the majority were already well-known for radical Islamist connections.
Last night, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the reported reduction in the number of police devoted to watching Islamists.
But observers believe that a picture of missed intelligence opportunities and a failure to keep tabs on key figures is now emerging in the aftermath of the bombings.
The connection with Fizazi was revealed yesterday by a French lawyer, Jean-Charles Brisard, representing September 11 victims, who has access to Spanish police records.
In a phone call with a suspected leader of a Madrid-based al-Qaida cell that Spanish police monitored in August 2001, Mr Zougam said he had met Fizazi.
"On Friday, I went to see Fizazi and I told him that if he needed money we could help him with our brothers," Mr Zougam says, according to Mr Brisard.
Fizazi was one of 87 people sentenced in Morocco last August for their part in the Casablanca bombings last May which killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.
He was ordered to serve 30 years in prison. He previously preached at a mosque in Hamburg frequented by some of the September 11 hijackers.
Mr Zougam's connections to militant Islamists were well known to both Spanish and French police and to intelligence services in Morocco. His Madrid apartment had been searched in 2001, turning up a videotape that included an interview with Osama bin Laden.
His half-brother Mohamed Chaoui, who has also been arrested, also features on Spanish police wiretaps of the suspected Madrid cell, according to Mr Brisard.
So far police have arrested three Moroccans, including Mr Zougam and Mr Chaoui, and two Indians in their search for the bombers.
Last night, police in the Basque city of San Sebastian said they had detained an Algerian man who allegedly talked about a terrorist attack in Madrid two months before it happened.
Another Algerian named Said Arel is also reportedly wanted by police, along with five other Moroccans, all of whom are well known to Spanish police but have disappeared from Madrid in recent days.
Police sources said no international arrest warrants had been issued, despite reports that many of the bombers may have fled the country. Another avenue for investigating the bombings - tracing the route followed by the Spanish-made Goma 2 explosives used between the factory door and the Madrid train bombs - has reportedly been hampered because the paper trail it should have left behind is incomplete.
The 100 to 150 kilos of explosives used in the bombs may have been exported to Saudi Arabia, Syria or Mauritania before being smuggled back into the country via Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar, police sources said.
Another area of failure appears, according to Aboubakr Jamai, editor of the Casablanca-based Le Journal, to be political rows that have prevented Morocco and Spain coordinating anti-terrorism efforts properly.
"There was little cooperation between the Moroccan and Spanish authorities because of political disputes between the two countries over Perejil island and fishing rights," he said.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1170913,00.html
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