Terrorists attack in Madrid - March 11, 2004

[jarmo]

More Suspects Arrested in Madrid Bombings

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=732&e=5&u=/ap/20040412/ap_on_re_eu/spain_bombings

Seventeen people, 13 of them Moroccan, have been charged in connection with the bombings. Authorities believe that the core members of the cell are either behind bars or were killed when seven terrorist suspects blew themselves up April 3 as police prepared to storm their apartment in southern Madrid. However, at least six more suspects are still being sought.

--

Hopefully they'll get everyone involved in this.


/jarmo

[axls_locomotive]

Hopefully they'll get everyone involved in this.

yea i think everyone here probably agrees on that 100%

[jarmo]

Hopefully they'll get everyone involved in this.

yea i think everyone here probably agrees on that 100%

True.

I mean, get them soon instead of ten years from now.



/jarmo

[Doc Emmett Brown]

bars or were killed when seven terrorist suspects blew themselves up April 3 as police prepared to storm their apartment in southern Madrid.

The Divine Wind...

Fighting against kamikaze people - what kinds of strategies & tactics can we employ to combat them?  

Remember that 'fierce resistance' that was encountered in Pakistan?  And then they found this underground tunnel system... not too shabby at all!  The enemy just slithered away.

[Doc Emmett Brown]

- excerpt from NYTimes

Spanish Leader Pulling Troops From Iraq
By MARLISE SIMONS

MADRID, April 18 ? Spain's new Socialist prime minister, Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero, announced today that he was ordering Spanish troops to leave Iraq "as soon as possible."

Mr. Zapatero, speaking just 24 hours after he was sworn in, said he had ordered Defense Minister Jos? Bono to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq to return home" in the shortest possible time. Mr. Zapatero said he had made his decision because it was unlikely that the United Nations would be playing a leading role in Iraq any time soon, which had been his condition for Spain's 1,300 troops to remain.
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[Ignatius]

Hopefully they'll get everyone involved in this.

yea i think everyone here probably agrees on that 100%

True.

I mean, get them soon instead of ten years from now.



/jarmo

Agree. Authorities are doing a hell of a job though. I'm in Madrid now for business and I have never seen so many cops in my life. In the Subway, train staitions, airport, shopping centers, state buildings...you get the picture. They are everywhere. This morning, a subway station was emptied out because somebody had forgotten a school bag inside. The city has changed. I guess just like NYC a couple of years ago. There are black ribbons everywhere.

Madrilians are hurt. Obviously. I have come accross many people over the past two days ( cab drivers, bar attendants, hotel staff..) they don't even want to mention the attacks anymore. It has become somehow tabu. People just want to carry on with their lives. Everytime I mention the issue, the person I'm addressing to, takes a deep breath, nods, and says, unbelieable. It's going to take a while.

[Ignatius]

- excerpt from NYTimes

Spanish Leader Pulling Troops From Iraq
By MARLISE SIMONS

MADRID, April 18 ? Spain's new Socialist prime minister, Jos? Luis Rodr?guez Zapatero, announced today that he was ordering Spanish troops to leave Iraq "as soon as possible."

Mr. Zapatero, speaking just 24 hours after he was sworn in, said he had ordered Defense Minister Jos? Bono to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq to return home" in the shortest possible time. Mr. Zapatero said he had made his decision because it was unlikely that the United Nations would be playing a leading role in Iraq any time soon, which had been his condition for Spain's 1,300 troops to remain.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

True. I have actually discussed this same issue with my american friends just a couple of days ago. Apperantly, pretty much every news channel in the States disagrees with this policy. By bringing our troops back home, we are not giving up on terror. This is just another way to fight it. But I already cover this same issue in this very same thread....

 

[jarmo]

Spain Links American to Madrid Bombings

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain - The fingerprints of an American lawyer arrested in the Madrid terror bombing probe were found on a plastic shopping bag containing detonators like those used in the train attacks, the Spanish government said Friday.


The bag was found inside a stolen white van left near a train station that three of the four bombed trains departed from, an Interior Ministry official said.


Brandon Mayfield, a 37-year-old former Army officer who converted to Islam, was taken into custody Thursday by FBI agents, who also searched his home in the Portland, Ore., suburb of Aloha.


It was the first known arrest of a U.S. citizen in connection with the March 11 commuter train attack in Madrid that killed 191 people and injured 2,000 others.


The Spanish official declined to give more details and the National Court, where a judge is leading an investigation into the attacks, said it had no information on Mayfield.


The seven detonators found inside the bag were of the same kind used in the train bombings, the government says. Authorities also found an Arabic-language cassette tape with verses of the Quran inside the van, which was discovered in Alcala de Henares, about 20 miles northeast of Madrid, hours after the attacks.


The announcement of the van's discovery was the government's first public admission of a possible Islamic link in Spain's worst terrorist attack, which it initially blamed on Basque separatists.


Other fingerprints found inside the van included those of Moroccan Jamal Zougam, a prime suspect in the attacks who is under arrest and charged with mass murder and terrorism.


Police say cell phones used to activate the detonators in the backpack bombs used in the train attacks were traced to the cell phone store Zougam ran in Madrid.


Witnesses in Alcala de Henares reported seeing men wearing ski masks and carrying backpacks get out of the van on the morning of the attacks, headed for the train station.


The bombings have been blamed on an alleged Moroccan-based Islamic extremist cell with possible links to al-Qaida. Eighteen people have been charged so far, six with mass murder and the others with collaboration or with belonging to a terrorist organization.


Mayfield was arrested Thursday on a material witness warrant and has not been charged with any crime, according to a senior law enforcement official in Washington, D.C., speaking on condition of anonymity. A material witness warrant allows the government to hold people suspected of having direct knowledge about a crime or to allow time for further investigation.


As a former Army officer, Mayfield's fingerprints would be on file with the government. A law enforcement official said the fingerprints were not on file because of any crime or as part of the government's terrorism databases.


Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland, said two search warrants had been served Thursday in Washington County, which includes Aloha. She would not release further details.


Mayfield passed the Oregon bar in 2000 and kept a low profile in the Portland legal community until 2002, when he volunteered to represent Muslim terrorism suspect Jeffrey Battle in a child custody case.


Battle was among six Portland-area residents who were sentenced last year on charges of conspiring to wage war against the United States by helping al-Qaida and the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.


Mayfield was not involved with Battle's defense in that case. Law enforcement officials in Washington did not know of any contacts between Mayfield and the other Portland terrorism defendants.

   



Mayfield converted to Islam in the late 1980s and regularly attended Friday prayers at a Beaverton mosque, said mosque administrator Shahriar Ahmed.

Friends and family said they were shocked by the arrest.

Outside their home near Portland late Thursday, Mona Mayfield described her husband as "a good man, a good father, a good husband." The couple have two sons, ages 10 and 15, and a 12-year-old daughter.

Portland attorney Tom Nelson, who described himself as a mentor, said he received a call Thursday from Mayfield asking for help.

"His wife was in tears because of the way the search was conducted. The FBI apparently hurt things in the house, left things in disarray," Nelson told reporters outside Mayfield's home. "He is a regular, run-of-the-mill guy."

Nelson said Mayfield had never traveled to Spain.

"Obviously, the government holds all the cards in these kinds of situations," Nelson told ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday. "It can release any kind of information it thinks it wants to release and the other side is prohibited to speaking on the merits, so I can't speak to the merits."

"He's in no position to, say, do forensic tests of his own" on the alleged fingerprints, Nelson added. He said he was speaking as a friend and was not acting as Mayfield's legal counsel.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Kramer in Portland and Curt Anderson in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.



/jarmo

[Ignatius]

I hadn't heard about this!!

Thanx Jarmo for continuosly updating this thread.

[Doc Emmett Brown]

MADRID, Spain - The fingerprints of an American lawyer arrested in the Madrid terror bombing probe were found on a plastic shopping bag containing detonators like those used in the train attacks, the Spanish government said Friday


Brandon Mayfield, a 37-year-old former Army officer who converted to Islam, was taken into custody Thursday by FBI agents, who also searched his home in the Portland, Ore., suburb of Aloha.

So... the fingerprints belong to this guy Mayfield?  I'm confused because the article goes on to say:

Nelson said Mayfield had never traveled to Spain.

So if he did do it, the bag containing the bombs was sent to Spain from the US?  


He has been arrested, but not charged with any crime...  How long will he be detained for?

There have been other stories like this (about Muslim converts engaging in alleged suspicious activity).  Jose Padilla comes to mind...

[Ignatius]

Not much has been revealed yet. There's not too much to add really yet...

So... the fingerprints belong to this guy Mayfield?  I'm confused because the article goes on to say

Yes, the fingerprints belong to Mr. Mayfield apperantly. Those were found on the bag containing some detonators of the same kind used in the train attacks.

Nelson said Mayfield had never traveled to Spain.

Nelson is his lawyer...maybe flew in with a fake passport??

So if he did do it, the bag containing the bombs was sent to Spain from the US?  

No, his fingertips were found on that bag. There is no more evidence other than that. Authorities are not revealing any more details.

[jarmo]

Spain Marks Anniversary of Train Bombings

 By MAR ROMAN

MADRID, Spain - Spaniards lit candles, laid down flowers and observed a long, mournful silence Friday to mark the first anniversary of the country's worst-ever terror attack, when 10 al-Qaida bombs ripped through crowded commuter trains, killing 191 and wounding more than 1,500.


King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia led government leaders and other dignitaries during the main memorial ? a silent, five-minute noon vigil inaugurating a grove of 192 olive and cypress trees, one for each person killed last March 11 and a policeman killed when Islamic militant suspects seeking to avoid arrest blew themselves up.


The grove in Madrid's main park has been christened the "Forest of the Absent."


After the vigil, a young cellist dressed in black played "Song of the Birds" by Pablo Casals, a piece the late Spanish cellist had written in dedication to peace.


As the dignitaries stood in grim silence, normally bustling Spanish society also paused in five minutes of quiet remembrance. Trains made unscheduled stops at stations. Construction workers on scaffolding put down their tools. Office workers poured into the streets.


"I feel so sad. It was so unfair," said Bakea Goitia, a 48-year-old civil servant. She recalled the day of the bombing as "catastrophic. Everything seemed to go out of control."


Goitia was part of a crowd of thousands stretching as far as the eye could see along Paseo de la Castellana, Madrid's main north-south artery, grieving over an attack that cut across nationality, killing immigrants from Ecuador to Ukraine, from France to the Philippines.


At Atocha, a crowd of at least 1,000 people broke into applause after observing the five minutes of silence. Clapping after a funeral is a common Spanish way of paying one's respects.


Attached to a railing overlooking the platform that was bombed was a single red rose with a sign that said, "for you, my love, who are no longer with me."


Earlier, at the rail stations targeted in the attack, people huddled together and shed tears as memories of the blasts returned. Some left notes that tried to put pain into words.


"Who will give me back my will to live, which died here a year ago?" read a letter posted on a wall at El Pozo station ? the deadliest of four scenes of carnage. It was signed only Susana, a woman who said she was injured when bombs gutted a double-decker train.


Bells at hundreds of churches around Madrid tolled for five minutes beginning at 7:37 a.m., when the first of 10 dynamite-loaded backpacks detonated on four rush-hour trains. Al-Qaida-linked militants claimed responsibility.


"It really could have happened to any one of us. That is the truth," said Victoria Martinez Montes, a 70-year-old retiree, standing outside the Church of Saint Teresa on a clear, chilly morning in Spain's capital. "More than remember, what we should do is try to help those who survived because those who are gone are now with God."


At El Pozo, a man tossed red and white carnations and roses onto the railroad tracks.


Another, an emergency medical worker who attended to the dying the day of the attack, came wearing his uniform, a yellow jumpsuit, to pay his respects.


"I will never forget the image of what happened here," said the 42-year-old worker, who identified himself only as Paco. "I still remember the smell of gunpowder. Finding pieces of bodies on the platform. The image of a boy's head on a bench."


As he spoke, a text message beeped on his mobile phone. It was from a rescue-worker colleague and said: "A year ago they took something away from us."

   



Juana Leal, a middle-aged housewife who lost her husband in the El Pozo blast, said she got up early Friday to ride a train at the same time he did a year ago. "He never came back. I am bringing him flowers," she said. Leal placed a bouquet of carnations and daisies at an isolated spot on the platform. Tucked into it was a small photo of her husband.

Another person paying tribute was Maria Jesus Moreno, who was walking toward El Pozo when the bomb went off. She said she remembers seeing her neighbors running to catch the train that would later blow up around them. "I never saw them again," Moreno said, crying as she recalled the image.

On a train following the same route as the four that were bombed last year, passengers rode in silence. A free newspaper handed out to commuters featured a black front page with a picture of a candle.

"It is hard to take the train today. You think about that day. It all comes back," said one commuter, Pilar Almena, a 48-year-old chef.

Those attending the inauguration of the grove of trees included King Mohamed VI of Morocco, home to most of the 22 suspects in jail in connection with the attack.

Militants claimed responsibility for the attacks in videotapes, saying they were retaliating on al-Qaida's behalf for Spanish troops' presence in Iraq.

Socialists who opposed the war ousted the ruling conservatives in elections held three days later, with many voters accusing then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of having made Spain a target for al-Qaida by backing the U.S.-led invasion. Aznar was also accused of lying to save the election by blaming the armed Basque separatist group ETA for the attacks, even after evidence of an Islamic link emerged.

The 22 people jailed over the bombings face preliminary charges of terrorism or mass murder. Fifty-two detainees have been released but are still considered suspects. A trial is not expected until late this year at the earliest.

http://news.yahoo.com




/jarmo

[Ignatius]

I can't believe it's been a year already.

Obvioulsy every TV, Radio Station, Newspaper in Spain are reporting the one year anniversary. Boy, things have changed in this country since....

[Graciela]

Two years today...



Madrid remembers terror victims?
 
Spain is marking the second anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, in which 191 people were killed.

The prime minister will attend a wreath-laying ceremony in the Forest of Remembrance at noon, which will be followed by a five-minute silence.
A delegation from Morocco - the country of origin of many of the suspects - has travelled to the city to join events.
Islamic militants with links to al-Qaeda said they carried out the attacks on the four commuter trains. A number of key suspects killed themselves in a stand-off with police weeks after the bombings, but the investigation to find others involved has continued. Twenty-five people are being held in jail pending trial.

Moroccan 'solidarity'

The Moroccan delegation observed a few minutes of silence at Atocha train station, which was targeted in the massacre.? The Moroccan Caravan for Peace and Solidarity set out in buses on 5 March, stopping in several Spanish cities. "We want to express our solidarity and support for the Spanish people and show that the Moroccan people are one of peace and against terrorism," member Mohamed Boujida said.

The 10 co-ordinated blasts on the morning of 11 March 2004 were the country's worst terrorist attack.

"March 11 is a date I will never forget," a passenger at Atocha told the Associated Press news agency. "More than anything I remember the silence" that engulfed the city after the massacre, Javier Hervas said.

The explosions came three days before a general election, in which the Socialists ousted the right-wing Popular Party (PP) of then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. The government initially blamed armed Basque separatists Eta for the attacks, an error which is widely believed to have contributed to the Popular Party's unexpected defeat.

Correspondents say Spanish victims' associations will keep a low profile, as they did 12 months ago. In 2005 the Association of Madrid Bombing Victims said it would boycott all the events, protesting that the pain of victims and relatives had been used as a political football.




BBC News



 

[Mandy.]

2 years already, is it? 

[jarmo]

Twenty-five people are being held in jail pending trial.

When are the trials starting?

I wonder how different the sentences will be in Madrid and in London.




/jarmo

[Krispy Kreme]

This topic is political and should be locked.
I have just been made aware of your Dec. 2005 policy banning political discussions.
The rules need to be followed.
Anyone who knows anything about terrorism knows that it is an inherently political act with political goals.
Lock the thread.

[Genesis]

This topic is political and should be locked.
I have just been made aware of your Dec. 2005 policy banning political discussions.
The rules need to be followed.
Anyone who knows anything about terrorism knows that it is an inherently political act with political goals.
Lock the thread.

There's nothing political abt remembering the 200 people who were killed in the attack. Get a grip.

[Mr. Dick Purple]

The wolrd was never the same after 9/11 then came this and this is the point when mankind lost its humanity 

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

This topic is political and should be locked.
I have just been made aware of your Dec. 2005 policy banning political discussions.
The rules need to be followed.
Anyone who knows anything about terrorism knows that it is an inherently political act with political goals.
Lock the thread.

There's nothing political abt remembering the 200 people who were killed in the attack. Get a grip.

you're right.
but in a few posts THIS will turn into a political debate.

so let's lock this already.