The American press (surprise, surprise) covered the bombings in Madrid and the elections but hasn't really covered the
investigation into what happened very well.
If you're interested in law enforcement or just maybe genuinely interested in the case against those who participated in these acts, read below.
Translated from
this article. Any errors are entirely mine :)
Police arrest 4 more and indict the 5 arrested earlier
Today, Judge Juan del Olmo of the Superior Court will indict the five men arrested for allegedly participating in the attacks in Madrid last week on the 11th that killed more than 200. The indictments will be against the Moroccans Jamal Zougam, Mohammed Chaoui and Mohammed Bekkali as well as the Indians (from India) Suresh Kumar and Vinay Kholy.
These five were arrested last Saturday in Madrid, two days after the attacks. The police suspect that Jamal Zougan, born 31 years ago in Tangiers, was one of the leaders behind the killings on the "trains of death". A witness has stated that he recognized him on one of the trains that exploded as it entered Atocha [train station].
Zougam was arrested by National Police agents at 1pm on March 13th in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés. The police were led to Zougam and the other two Moroccans (as well as the two Indian citizens) by a backpack that didn't explode. It was taken by the police, along with other personal effects of the dead and injured, to a police station in the Vallecas neighborhood but the police did not know it contained an explosive. During the night, someone called the cell phone attached to the detonator inside but it didn't explode.
Later, TEDAX units took the device to a park which was blocked off and safely exploded the item. A small piece of the prepaid cell phone card and cell phone led to the two Indian citizens of the Alcobendas neighborhood, Suresh Kumar and Vinay Kholy, who allegedly sold three phones and three prepaid phone cards to the Moroccans.
The arrest of Zougam, Mohammed Chaoui and Mohammed Bekkali required that they appear today to determine whether they should continue to be held in detention. The three are known in the local neighborhood for owning several businesses. Zougam was remembered by his IT associates for knowing how to "liberate" cell phones.
Just hours after his arrest, evidence was uncovered linking Zougam to Islamic extremists. The first piece of evidence was the inclusion of his name in the summary of Superior Court Judge Baltasar Garzon, whose report charged 35 people for their alleged involvement in September 11th, including Osama Bin Laden.
In Garzon's Report
In Garzon's report of over over 700 pages, Zougam is not listed as a participant but his name was included in the list discovered by the [Spanish NSA] in November 2001 at a location on Sequillo Street in Madrid. The agents found a list of telephone numbers of presumed Al-Qaeda members as well as books and videotapes about "Jihad" or Holy War.
The cell phone numbers belonged to Amer Azizi, Said Chedadi and Abdelrraman Alarnaot Abualjer and the presumed head of Al Qaeda in Spain, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas aka "Abu Dahdah". These four also appeared in the Garzon report.
Also in the report was the inclusion of two videotapes found by the [Spanish NSA] agents: "Jihad in Dagestan" dated 08/16/99 and "The Islamic Movement in the West". The first film includes appearances of Salaheddin Benyaich, "Abu Mughen", his brother Abdel Aziz Benyaich and Omar Dhegayes, all in Chechnya. In the second video, Bin Laden is being interviewed.
The agents also found the Arabic language books "The American Campaign Against Islam", "The Liberation Party", "Supporting the Chechen Muslims" and another called "Al-Fiquih of the Sunnis" that describes the Islamic struggle and how to treat prisoners of war.
Two days later, according to a report by the newspaper "Le Parisien", it became known that Zougam had been interviewed in 1998 along with an alleged French terrorist about preparing for an attack at an undisclosed location in Europe. The information came in part from a French report against the recruitment of mujaheddin in France. It identified David Courtailler, a French citizen who had converted to Islam, as the person who had been interviewed with Zougam in a Madrid mosque in November 1998.
The [French NSA] believes that Courtailler was in charge of the plan to attack somewhere in Europe after he came back from Afghanistan. The alleged French terrorist who converted to Islam made various stops in Morocco and Spain while on an extended tour of various countries. During his time in Madrid, he stayed at the residence of Maher Hallak aka "Abudallah". This residence was officially registered by the police as being Zougam's residence as well.
Other information points to Zougam having contacts with Mullah Krekar in Norway, founder of the Islamic Kurdish group "Ansar al-Islam", according to Jean-Charles Brisard, investigator for the lawyers of the families of victims of September 11.
Couple of notes here:
- Click on Baltasar Garzon's name above if you don't know who he is
- The "Le Parisien" article is in French but it's attached to the link
- Click on Brisard's name if you don't know who he is
- TEDAX is the Spanish police's version of EOD (in movies its called "Bomb Squad")
- The "National Police" are akin to Italy's caribinieri and/or "gendarmes"
Here is a link to an AP report which has the same basic facts but doesn't go into depth like the article above.
I have taken the liberty of using the verb "indict" in my translation above. Spanish law is much different than American/English law. What is actually occurring is that a judge is going to question the suspects to see if they should remain in custody while the prosecutors develop their case. It's roughly analogous to being "indicted" so that's what is meant by it. It is NOT a literal translation.
The Miami Herald has an interesting piece of 411 on the matter:
Judge Del Olmo has ordered that the investigation
be conducted in secret, apparently to avoid compromising the hunt for more suspects and evidence.
Moroccan authorities say they suspect Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic extremist guerrilla group blamed for terrorist strikes in Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Morocco, of being behind the Madrid bombings.
Moroccan officials said evidence shows Zougam had links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - a key operative with strong ties to Ansar.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believe the perpetrators of the March 11 attack in Madrid also have ties to those responsible for suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, that killed 33 people and 12 bombers last May.
I NEVER trust statements like these by officials on the condition of "anonymity". When an official speaks to a news media on the condition of anonymity it means "I want you to report this but I won't stand behind it". In other words, it's pure spin.
Just as Aznar wished ETA had been responsible, Morocco would love for the Spanish bombers to be responsible for their bombing as well. It wraps things up nice and tight, it keeps their new best friends (America) quite happy, it links Iraq to terrorism to Spain to Morocco to Turkey and it has a nice PR spin. That's exactly why I don't believe it in the slightest.
Meanwhile, it seems Zougam's neighbors think he was a nice guy:
Just across the street from the telephone shop where Zougam was arrested, there's an Arab greengrocer run by a Moroccan. The owner, who asked not to be identified by name, said he still couldn't believe that his neighbor and fellow countryman had been a part of the terrible attacks, which left 200 dead and 1,500 injured in bombings of commuter trains at several of the city's congested stations.
Trusted by neighbors
"Jamal and his co-workers were totally normal and very sympathetic people," the store owner explained. "To me, they rise above all doubt. And even now nothing has been confirmed. We can only pray that it wasn't them. I hope it will all be cleared up and, in the end, they will not have had anything to do with it."
Even Spaniards in the neighborhood had something good to say about Zougam's telephone shop, which was widely-respected and frequented by local residents. The bar owner two doors down first learned of Zougam's arrest on television.
"I was petrified when I heard it," the bar owner said. "I wasn't a friend of his, but we always said 'hello' and 'goodbye' to each other. But I always had him repair my mobile phones. I revered the people in the store and thought they did good work. But if it's true that they're responsible for the attack, I will wring their necks."
Anyway that's my take on the sitch. Let me know if you're interested in more and also in what you think.
Paz