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| Europe |
| Spain Still Searching for Bomb Masterminds |
| 2004-07-03 |
| A day after seven suspects in the Madrid railway attacks blew themselves up to avoid arrest, the government declared the core of the terror cell either dead or behind bars. That assertion now seems hasty. Of 50 people arrested, only 16 remain in jail and only two of them are believed to have actually put backpacks full of dynamite and shrapnel aboard trains on March 11, killing 190 people. The others are believed to have played secondary roles, and even the hands-on duo are seen as foot soldiers for al-Qaida. Key suspects are fugitives. The masterminds remain a mystery, although officials have a few names in mind. "This might take time," the government's counterterrorism chief, Fernando Reinares, said in an interview with The Associated Press. Socialists who unexpectedly took power in elections held three days after the bombings inherited the daunting task of probing sometimes overlapping Islamic cells, including one accused of helping prepare the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Investigators have made advances on how the explosives were obtained and made into bombs and how members of the Madrid cell hooked up with each other, often through relatives or roots in Morocco. Another arrest was announced Friday — an Algerian accused of forging passports for suspects — and the government agreed to release some classified documents sought by lawmakers for their own inquiry. Reinares said most of those involved in on-the-ground planning for the attacks have been arrested. But big question marks remain. "It is still too early to say who were the instigators, the links," Reinares said. An Egyptian explosives expert described as a mastermind was arrested last month in Italy. Spanish officials have requested his extradition, but are probably months away from interrogating him. Other key suspects, including a Moroccan alleged to be a senior al-Qaida figure in Europe and also indicted in the Sept. 11 attacks, are still at large. And three key suspects who were among the first arrested — and placed by witnesses aboard the trains or at a cottage where the bombs were made — were released from jail on June 17. Several witnesses who had identified them later backtracked and a prosecutor said the evidence against the three Moroccans was therefore too weak to detain them. However, they are still considered mass murder suspects, were forced to surrender their passports and must check in with officials each week. Reinares said suspects who might have served as middlemen between the local cell of mainly North African immigrants and Osama bin Laden's terror network include the Egyptian arrested in Milan, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, and a fugitive Moroccan, Amer Azizi. Reinares described the al-Qaida network as a nebulous constellation with three main components — al-Qaida itself, 20 to 30 associated groups and cells that pop up across the globe and "take it upon themselves to carry out an attack on their own." "In the case of March 11 it is possible that to a large extent, all three came together," Reinares said. |
| Posted by:Fred |