Sunday, March 14, 2004

Videotape point to al-Qaida involvement in Spain terror attacks

MADRID, Spain: Authorities found a videotape claiming al-Qaida carried out the Madrid terrorist attacks, Spain's government said Sunday, hours after three Moroccans and two Indians were arrested in connection with the bombings.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes told a hastily called post-midnight news conference that authorities cannot verify the veracity of the videotaped claim, which said the bombings were "a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies'' and threatened more attacks.

Acebes' announcement came after demonstrators flocked into the streets of Madrid and other cities to protest the government's response to the bombings, and just hours before polls were to open Sunday in general elections.

Some protesters accused Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of provoking the bomb attacks Thursday on rush-hour trains by siding with U.S. President George W. Bush in the Iraq war.

"Resign!'' and "Vote, vote kick Aznar out!'' chanted almost 3,000 people protesting past midnight Sunday outside Madrid's Atocha station, where two of the four trains exploded.

"If this was al-Qaida ... Aznar is responsible,'' snapped demonstrator Francisco Gorrado, a computer specialist. "He was the one who backed the war that was illegal and brought Islamic terrorism on us.''

At earlier Madrid rallies that also drew thousands, protesters chanted "Liars, liars!'' and held signs saying, "No more cover-up.''

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

Demonstrations also erupted in other cities Saturday night - with 8,000 gathering in the Basque city of Bilbao.

Right after Thursday's bomb attacks killed 200 people and wounded 1,500, the government blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, even as it investigated a possible Islamic connection.

Protesters accused the government of seeking to divert voters' attention away from its support for the Iraq war by blaming ETA.

The arrests and the videotape were the strongest indications yet of a possible Islamic link to the deadliest terrorist attack in Spanish history and Europe's worst in 15 years.

But word of the arrests of five people in connection with the bombings heartened some demonstrators.

"It's good news,'' said Fernando Hernandez, a college student. "Maybe now the truth will come out. All we want is the truth.''

Acebes, speaking at an earlier news conference on Saturday, said the five suspects were all arrested around Madrid and that "one might have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. But it is still very early to establish to what degree.''

He did not name any group.

Asked whether ETA is still considered a suspect, Acebes said: "We must not rule anything out.''

The five were arrested after a cell phone was found in an explosives-packed gym bag discovered on one of the bombed trains, the minister said.

Two Spaniards of Indian origin also were summoned for questioning but are not expected to be arrested, Acebes said.

The videotape was recovered from a trash basket near a Madrid mosque, after an Arabic-speaking man who called a Madrid TV station said it was there, Acebes said.

"We declare our responsibility for what happened in Madrid,'' said the man said on the video, according to a government translation of the statement delivered in Arabic. "It is a response to your collaboration with the criminals Bush and his allies.''

The man noted that the bombings came exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The man, whom Acebes said wore Arabic dress, concluded by saying: "This is a statement by the military spokesman for al-Qaida in Europe, Abu Dujan al Afghani.''

Interior Ministry officials said it was unclear whether that meant the man was al Afghani himself or that he was speaking in his name.

"This identity has not been corroborated either by Spanish intelligence services or by the international intelligence information services whose help we sought,'' said Acebes. The claim "must taken with all caution,'' he stressed.

The man threatened further attacks.

"This is a response to the crimes that you caused in the world, and specifically in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there will more if God wills it,'' he said. "You love life and we love death.''

The Morocco connection was not a first for Spain.

In May 2003, Spanish citizens were among 33 people killed in suicide bombings in Casablanca against Jewish targets and a Spanish restaurant close to the Spanish consulate.

Those attacks were blamed on Salafia Jihadia, a secretive, radical Islamic group thought by Moroccan authorities to have operational links to al-Qaida. Twelve suicide bombers also died.

In Morocco, government spokesman Nabil Benabdallah identified the three Moroccans arrested in Spain as Jamal Zougam, 30; Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic; and Mohamed Chaoui, a worker, 34. All three are from northern Morocco.

Just months ago, a taped threat thought to be from al-Qaida terror chief Osama bin Laden had included Spain among countries that could be attacked "at the appropriate time and place.''

Islamic extremist involvement in the Madrid bombings could play into the hands of critics of the government who opposed sending 1,300 Spanish soldiers to Iraq, possibly boosting support for the Socialist candidate for prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Before the bombings, he trailed in polls behind Aznar's hand-picked candidate, Mariano Rajoy.

"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.

Rajoy, Aznar's candidate, charged that protests outside his ruling Popular Party's headquarters - which continued into the pre-dawn hours Sunday Saturday - were illegal because of a ban on political demonstrations on the eve of the election. Protesters there chanted, "We want the truth before voting.''

But the opposition Socialists charged that Rajoy himself violated the law by urging voters in a newspaper interview Saturday to give an absolute majority in Parliament.

The massive police hunt for the bombers focused in part on a stolen van found with seven detonators and an audiotape of verses from the Quran. The van was found near a train station where three of the four bombed trains originated.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, only the Bali bombing in Indonesia in October 2002 was deadlier, with 202 people dead.

The Madrid attack was Europe's deadliest since the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people. - AP

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