Al-Qaida has been restructured and has a "board of managers" in Iran, a prominent Spanish judge told a newspaper on Sunday. Baltasar Garzon, who investigates "terrorism linked to Islamic fundamenatlism", told El Periodico that although Iran’s al-Qaida cell does not necessarily issue orders, its does coordinate operations. He said: "Currently there is coordination, a series of objectives clearly established (by al-Qaida), but there is no need for an order for an act to be executed... It’s diffused terrorism." Garzon issued an international arrest warrant last September for Usama bin Ladin in the framework of an inquiry into a Spanish al-Qaida cell.
That would be Abu Dahdah’s. Dahdah was one of the highest-ranking al-Qaeda operatives in continental Europe when 9/11 occurred (and it may be just a coincidence that his deputy, Yousef Galan, went to dinner parties at the Iraqi embassy in Madrid) and was the direct link by Mohammed Atta’s Hamburg cell and the top military commander Mohammed Atef in Afghanistan. The Spanished loads of documents when they shut Dahdah’s operation down, and it’d be interesting to see what they found.
President Muhammad Khatami said piously that "those who have committed crimes in Iran will be judged in Iran and the others will be extradited to their country of origin... "There is no place for al-Qaida, no place for any terrorist, for those who act against peace in the world." Khatami added al-Qaida was "very hostile" to the Iranian government. |