Terrorists attack in Madrid - March 11, 2004

[slashsaxl]

"to kill the life of one innocent person, is looked at as killing all mankind...to save the life of one person, would be like saving all of mankind" thats a quote from the quran, the holy book of islam

if this was muslim fundamentalists, its a shame for tarnishing an image of the worlds largest religion, cause i've studied and wrote many papers on the religions of the world, and like to think that i'm somewhat knowledgeable in the subject matters...and these terrorists are really reading between the lines here on what they believe is right and wrong especially coming from islam, and the meaning of 'islam is submission to god' derived from the arabic word 'salam' which means peace...go figure

my heart goes out to all the innocent people that were lost and those that lost loved ones.




rock n' roll

[Laura]

innocent lives takin for no reason! i think war is absolutly stupid... Rest In Peace to the innocent people. Everytime something like this happends it feels like we are one step closer to world war 3...

[Cornell]

I hope like hell that's true or everyone will be bitching about the US again.  

Those on the planet who are bitching the most (bitching is not the word, hating is more accurate) about the US are the muslim fundamentalists...

Wow - I didn't realize there were so many muslims on this forum!

[Will]

Wow - I didn't realize there were so many muslims on this forum!

I don't think actually there are a lot of muslims on this board (yeah, I see the irony). I said they're the ones on the planet bitching "the most" about the US. I didn't say they were the only ones. There are two things I hate: anti-French and anti-American bashing. I personally criticize the Bush administration for some things they've done I disagree with, I don't bash the whole american people. I don't agree with all the French government is doing either.

Spain's intelligent services say radical muslims are most likely behind those unbearable attacks in Spain:

Report: Spanish Intelligence Sees Muslims Behind Attack

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 reported on Saturday.
Private radio SER, whose owners have links to the opposition Socialist Party, said the National Intelligence Center (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.

The center-right government, facing an election on Sunday, has said ETA is the prime suspect.

www.reuters.com


200 hundred innocent people most likely died because their government supported the Bush administration in the War in Iraq. That's fucked up.

[Ignatius]

what the fuck did spain do to deserve this?

As I mentioned earlier, there's no official word on who's behind the attacks yet. There are two possibilities being investigated at the moment. Al Qaeda and ETA. Why would Al Qaeda attack Spain??  Spain supported The US during the war in Irak. Al qaeda members recently commented on Al Jazhira ( can't really spell it well... Qatar TV) every country involved in the war, could be a target. Spain was involved, so there you go. Another possibility, ETA. The basque separatist group with more than 800 deaths in Spain over the past 40 years.

Many people are more aware now of terrorism ( specially in america) because of 9-11, but there are hundreds of organizations such as ETA, Al qaeda, Sendero Luminoso ( peru), IRA, tamil tigers...who have been around and killed hundreds of inocent lives around the world just so they could justify their stupid cause.

Terrorism in America has also been merciless. 9-11, the infamous Oklahoma incident...no country is safe these days so I welcome any effort to prevent ( won't say stop it cause it is nearly  impossible) it, the more countries involved, the better.

I don't think George Bush should get involved in this particular case. This is a internal affair and should be handled by spanish authorities. Besides, we don't know if Al qaeda is responsible yet. American authoirites have already expressed their condolences and are willing to help spanish authorities in the investigation if required.

On a side note. Impressive how last night 2 million people protested against terrorism in Madrid as the rain poured down. I have read today, it didn't rain in Madrid last night. That was the Madrid sky breaking down in tears.

[Will]

Yeah I've read more than 8 million spanish people hit the streets last night...here's a beautiful picture from that night:



This is the front page of a French daily newspaper called "Lib?ration". "Tous Madril?nes". Tous = All: Madril?ne is someone who lives in Madrid.

Peace out!

[jarmo]

Spain Arrests Five in Madrid Bombings    


By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain - Spain arrested three Moroccans and two Indians on Saturday in connection with the Madrid train bombings, the strongest indication yet of a possible Islamic link to the attack on one of Washington's staunchest allies in Iraq.



The announcement by Interior Minister Angel Acebes came just hours before polls were to open Sunday in general elections weighed down by increasingly politicized debate over who carried out Europe's deadliest terrorist assault in 15 years.


The arrests came amid opposition charges that the government, which had blamed Basque separatists for the bombings, was concealing details of the investigation into Spain's worst terror attack.


A demonstration in Madrid drew a crowd of 5,000 protesters outside the ruling party headquarters who held up signs saying, "Paz" ? or "peace" in Spanish ? and "No more cover-up."


Demonstrators said they also believed the government might be hiding information about a connection to Islamic militant groups, blaming Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government for making Spain a target with its support for the war in Iraq.


One banner read: "Aznar, because of you we all pay."


Acebes, speaking at news conference, said the five suspects were all detained around Madrid and that one "could be related to Moroccan extremist groups." Two Spanish citizens of Indian origin also were being questioned.


The five were arrested in connection with a cell phone inside an explosives-packed gym bag found on one of the four bombed rush-hour trains, the minister said. The attacks killed 200 people and injured 1,500.


Acebes did not mention al-Qaida and said that the investigation was continuing. Asked whether ETA was no longer considered a suspect, he said: "We must not rule anything out."


Police are still investigating all avenues," he added. "This opens an important avenue."


Spain was a target of Moroccan terrorism last year, with its citizens among 33 people killed in suicide bombings in Casablanca at a Spanish restaurant and Jewish targets. Twelve suicide bombers also died.


Before the arrests were announced, police had said Saturday that they were hunting for three men seen wearing ski masks and carrying backpacks toward the rail line where the trains were bombed. The government also said autopsies conducted so far on victims showed no signs of suicide bombings ? a hallmark of Islamic militants.


Mourners began burying the 200 victims on Saturday, filling Madrid's two main funeral parlors beyond capacity. Sports facilities also were housing coffins.


The massive police hunt for the bombers was focusing in part on a stolen van found with seven detonators and an audiotape of verses from the Quran. A witness told Associated Press Television News he saw three suspicious men go from the vehicle to a station where three of the four bombed trains originated.


The men's faces were covered but "it wasn't cold ... I thought it was very strange," said the man, who did not want to be named. "They went into the train station ... I tried to follow one of them but I couldn't because he was very fast."


Government suspicions have fallen heaviest on ETA, an armed Basque group that has killed more than 800 people in a four-decade campaign of bombings and assassinations to carve out an independent homeland in northern Spain.


"I have a moral conviction that it was them," Popular Party candidate Mariano Rajoy, picked by Aznar as his successor as prime minister, told the daily El Mundo.

   



Rajoy was 3-5 percentage points ahead of Socialist candidate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in opinion polls before they were stopped; the blasts came in the last week of campaigning.

Spain's spy chief, Jorge Dezcallar, quickly denied a radio report that said intelligence agents were "99 percent sure" that Islamic elements, not Basque separatists, were responsible.

Broadcaster Cadena Ser, which is close the opposition Socialist Party, cited sources at the national CNI intelligence agency as saying agents think a 10-15 member cell placed the bombs on the trains and may now have fled the country.

But Dezcallar, a government appointee, told the national news agency Efe that agents do not favor one line of investigation over another.

The finger of blame is politically loaded because of Aznar's support of the U.S.-led campaign that ousted Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). Any al-Qaida involvement in the Madrid bombings could play into the hands of Aznar critics who opposed sending 1,300 peacekeepers to Iraq.

"If it was al-Qaida, this was a reprisal for sending troops to Iraq, where we have no business being," said Damian Garcia, whose 86-year-old father died in the bombings.

But the refusal by Aznar and Rajoy, his former interior minister, to negotiate with ETA could be vindicated if the group is found responsible for the 10 bombs that tore through four rush-hour trains.

The death of a man in a hospital overnight pushed the toll up to 200 Saturday. Of the 1,511 injured, 266 remained hospitalized ? with 17 in critical condition.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, only the Bali bombing in Indonesia in October 2002 was deadlier, with 202 people dead.

While the attack's lethal coordination ? 10 explosions within 15 minutes ? pointed to al-Qaida, the lack of evidence of suicide bombers suggested otherwise.

The compressed dynamite used in the attacks, however, is favored by ETA. But ETA attacks have never been so deadly and mostly targeted police and politicians. On Friday, a caller claiming to represent ETA told a Basque newspaper it was not responsible ? the first time ETA is known to have ever denied an attack.

Asked earlier Saturday whether police are investigating any possible collaboration between ETA and Islamic terrorists, the interior minister had said: "Of course, it cannot be ruled out that terrorist organizations, of whatever kind they are, have connections, reach accords and help each other."

___

Associated Press writer Daniel Woolls contributed to this report from Madrid.

http://news.yahoo.com



/jarmo

[Miz]

RIP


Well, it's good to see invading Iraq made the world a safer place.  Served as a strong deterrent to "terror" and all.

[Graciela]

I'm crying.
I'm crying for two hundred people.
And I'm crying because my goverment tried to use this terrible massacre on their advantage.
The polls open in a couple of hours.

[axls_locomotive]

My heart goes out to Madrid and the whole of Spain.  200 innocent people dying for nothing...no-one deserves to die like that...

it was astonishing to see 8 million people on the streets...I hope that unity will last

 

[jarmo]

Spain Studies Alleged al-Qaida Tape Claim

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain - Investigators analyzed a videotape in which al-Qaida reportedly claimed responsibility for the deadly railway bombings earlier this week amid criticism Sunday that Spanish intelligence blundered in failing to foresee the attack.


With a mourning nation voting in general elections overshadowed by the attacks that killed 200 and wounded 1,500, officials said five suspects arrested Saturday can remain in police custody for 72 hours, after which police would need a court order for an extension.


The suspects ? three Moroccans and two Indians ? are not scheduled to go before an investigating magistrate Sunday, court sources said. Two Spaniards of Indian origin who were picked up for questioning Saturday night in Madrid were not formally arrested but remained in custody Sunday, the Spanish interior ministry said.


Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the five were arrested in connection with a cell phone and prepaid card in an explosives-filled gym bag that was found on one of the four trains bombed on Thursday.


The videotape found in a trash bin Saturday night was being analyzed at a police lab in suburban Madrid, a ministry spokesman said. Only police, the intelligence services and a judge have seen it, he added, although it may be released publicly after it has been analyzed completely.


Moroccan security experts arrived in Spain on Sunday to help in the investigation. Morocco's Interior Ministry said the experts were members of a team that already has spent nearly a year working with Spanish officials to investigate May bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, which killed 33 people.


Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's government initially blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the rail attacks, even as evidence mounted of an Islamic link.


The opposition accused ministers of withholding information and blaming ETA to blunt suggestions that the government had provoked the rail carnage by backing the Iraq war.


Spain's top selling daily, El Pais, said in an editorial that if an Islamic link to the attacks is proven, "then there ought to be a revision of the security mechanisms, particularly in intelligence, which were incapable of detecting preparations for an attack of such magnitude."


"That our country, and with it Europe, should be converted into a permanent staging post for mass terrorism, the most outstanding example of which was Sept. 11, calls for measures to be taken that meet the challenge," the paper added.


Police say Spain was an important staging ground for the Sept. 11 attacks, along with Germany. An alleged Spain-based al-Qaida cell is alleged to have provided money and other assistance to lead suicide pilot Mohamed Atta and other plotters.


http://news.yahoo.com/




/jarmo

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

well, i know its not a big thing, but we can see that al quaida kinda missed their action, u know, they were supposed to kill a lot more of people (bombs didnt explode )...

maybe a sign of their organisation failing and having internal trouble ..

we will see ....

[Graciela]

The right wing party (PP) has lost the elections. That'll teach them that people are not stupid and that they can't just lie and manipulate information and get away with it

[insupportofaxl]

I don't know if anyone else heard this, but it was on NBC nightly news.

These attacks in Madrid were done on 3/11

The attacks in NY were done on 9/11


the time line between these 2 attacks was nine hundred eleven days.

The significance of the numbers nine and eleven is frightening.

[jarmo]

Madrid Suspect Linked to 9/11 Suspect

By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain - Months before bombs tore through commuter trains in Spain, authorities had suspicions about Jamal Zougam ? a Moroccan being questioned in the worst terrorist attack in Europe since World War II.


Investigators suspected that Zougam had ties to an al-Qaida cell leader and found a video of mujaheddin fighters during a search of his home, according to an indictment reviewed Sunday.


The 700-page indictment names Zougam ? one of three Moroccans arrested Saturday in connection with the train bombings ? as a follower of Imad Yarkas, who was jailed by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.


Zougam's alleged al-Qaida links strengthen suspicions that the terror group was involved in Thursday's Madrid bombings, which killed 200 and injured 1,500.


The train attacks helped drive the ruling conservatives from power in elections Sunday. The Socialists, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, defeated the Popular Party of President Jose Maria Aznar, who supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites) despite widespread opposition.


Zougam was not indicted by Garzon, but the indictment, dated Sept. 17, 2003, clearly showed police were keeping an eye on him. His home was searched at least once, turning up a video of mujaheddin fighters in Dagestan, Russia, and telephone numbers of three members of the Madrid al-Qaida cell allegedly led by Yarkas.


In Morocco, a high-ranking official said Zougam, 30, had been under surveillance for months on suspicion of having ties to international terror groups, but faced no formal accusations in Morocco.


The other two arrested Moroccans, Mohamed Bekkali, 31, and Mohamed Chaoui, 34, have no police record in Morocco, said the Moroccan official.


Spanish authorities have not publicly spoken of Zougam's alleged link to al-Qaida since his arrest Saturday, even though Garzon's indictment has been publicly available for months.


Yarkas, who has used the alias Abu Dahdah and who was one of 35 people indicted by Garzon, remains in Spanish custody.


Intelligence agencies, meanwhile, worked Sunday to verify another possible link between the Madrid attack and al-Qaida.


Early Sunday, Spain's Interior Ministry said police had recovered a videotape near a Madrid mosque in which a purported al-Qaida operative claimed that the terror group bombed trains in Madrid to punish Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war against Iraq.


The tape was discovered in a trash bin after a man speaking with an Arabic accent called a Madrid TV station to say the tape was there, the ministry said.


In the video, a man, who wore Arab dress and spoke Arabic with a Moroccan accent, said the taped claim of responsibility came from "the military spokesman for al-Qaida in Europe, Abu Dujan al Afghani."


Intelligence agents were trying to verify his claims.


"Our reservations about the credibility remain," Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Sunday.


In France, which has fought Islamic terrorism for years, an intelligence official said the name al Afghani is likely a pseudonym. The name al Afghani could mean the person is of Afghan origin or has some association with the country.

   



Moroccan security experts who previously spent nearly a year cooperating with Spanish officials on last May's bombings in Casablanca arrived in Spain to help in the investigation.

In addition to the three Moroccans, Spanish police have arrested two Indians. Two Spaniards of Indian origin have also been detained for questioning.

The five were arrested after a cell phone and prepaid phone card were found in an explosives-filled gym bag on one of the bombed trains.

Friends of the Moroccans said the Madrid store where they worked sold cell phones but insisted in interviews with The Associated Press that the men would not have been involved in planning or carrying out the attacks.

"People shouldn't be put in jail for selling cell phones. They are hard workers," said Karim, who works in a phone shop near the now-shuttered store where the arrested Moroccans worked. Karim, an Algerian, did not want to give his last name.

Acebes said three of the five people arrested had previous records, and one was under investigation for suspected participation in murder, but did not elaborate. He earlier had said that one suspect might also have connections with Moroccan extremist groups.

The interior ministry identified the two Indian suspects as Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar.

___

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Madrid and Nicolas Marmie in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com



/jarmo

[sandman]

RIP


Well, it's good to see invading Iraq made the world a safer place.  Served as a strong deterrent to "terror" and all.

i disagree 100%.

you can't live in fear and let the terrorists dictate how governments handle world affairs.

there were plenty of terrorist bombings before the iraq invasion, and there's no way of knowing whether there would be more or less attacks if there was not a war against terrorists.

[Eduardo]

bush wont do anything about it new fiona? cmon dude please!!!!!!!!!!!! he is already doin something about it, hell we got sadaam bin laden to follow, bush has already done something and has been doing something about it for a long time now, i just wish now maybe he'd get some support!
maybe this will open every countries eyes to how big of a threat this is

When are you guys going to understand that catching Bin Laden wont solve the problem whatsoever? If he dies, or is caught up, someone will replace him. The hate those people have is not something that can be "arrested", it just goes on. That is so sad, and I?m afraid it will never end  

[Doc Emmett Brown]

When are you guys going to understand that catching Bin Laden wont solve the problem whatsoever? If he dies, or is caught up, someone will replace him. The hate those people have is not something that can be "arrested", it just goes on. That is so sad, and I?m afraid it will never end  

I agree with you that the 'hate' will never go away.  But catching Bin Laden will demoralize the Al Qaeda network - they wont have a leader anymore.

But unfortunately you're right - it will never end because people use religion as a weapon.  How sad that we kill in the name of God.

[SLCPUNK]

MSNBC is reporting now that Spain has "backed down" from terrorism. That they have buckled under the attack. That Americans don't take it sitting down like Spain is. Fuckin' unreal. Some nerve Joe Scarborough has (he's making a big deal out of the latest election). When people say shit like this, it's no wonder people hate our ass.

[SLCPUNK]

RIP


Well, it's good to see invading Iraq made the world a safer place.  Served as a strong deterrent to "terror" and all.

i disagree 100%.

you can't live in fear and let the terrorists dictate how governments handle world affairs.

there were plenty of terrorist bombings before the iraq invasion, and there's no way of knowing whether there would be more or less attacks if there was not a war against terrorists.

That's a two way street, as there is no way of knowing that invading Iraq prevented future terrorism either.