One of the five men arrested in connection with
the deadly Madrid train bombings has links to the plotters of an al Qaeda-linked
bombing in Casablanca last year, CNN has learned.
The May 2003 suicide attacks in Casablanca killed nearly three dozen people.
Madrid protester holds sign reading in
Spanish, "Who Were They?" [AP]
Spanish
authorities have arrested five people in connection with the Madrid bombings:
three Moroccans and two Indians.
One of the men, Jamal Zougam, 30, has ties to two brothers who have been
charged in connection with the Casablanca bomb plot, according to a Moroccan
government official.
Zougam is also believed to be a follower of Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, the
alleged ringleader of al Qaeda in Spain, according to a Spanish court document.
All five are being held incommunicado under Spain's anti-terrorism law, which
requires they be charged within five days of their detention.
Authorities said investigators tracked the men through a cellular telephone
and a pre-paid telephone card found in a backpack containing explosives that was
found shortly after Thursday's attacks.
CNN also has obtained a document posted on an Internet message board analysts
believe is used by al Qaeda and its sympathizers that spells out the terrorist
group's plan to separate Spain from the U.S.-led coalition on Iraq.
People watch as forensic experts examine
the bombed wreckage of a commuter train in the Madrid suburb of El Pozo
Monday March 15, 2004. [AP]
The strategy spelled out in the document, posted last December on the
Internet, calls for using terrorist attacks to drive Prime Minister Jose Maria
Aznar's Partido Popular from power and replace it with the Socialists.
That was expected to drive a wedge between Washington and Madrid and result
in the withdrawal of Spanish military forces from Iraq.
"We think the Spanish government will not stand more than two blows, or three
at the most, before it will be forced to withdraw because of the public pressure
on it," the al Qaeda document says.
"If its forces remain after these blows, the victory of the Socialist Party
will be almost guaranteed -- and the withdrawal of Spanish forces will be on its
campaign manifesto."
That prediction came to fruition in elections Sunday, with the Socialists
unseating the Popular Party three days after near-simultaneous bombings of four
trains killed 200 and shocked the nation.
Ninety percent of Spaniards had opposed Aznar's staunch support for the
U.S.-led war against Iraq, and some have blamed Aznar's policies for the train
bombings.
Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday he wants the
1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq to return home by June 30 if the United Nations
"doesn't take control of Iraq."
"I think Spain's participation in the war has been a total error," he said.
Adding to the investigation is a videotape in which a man claiming to be a
military spokesman for al Qaeda in Europe says the terrorist network was behind
the bombings.
In the United States, Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary for the Department
of Homeland Security, said the Madrid bombings had the fingerprints of al Qaeda.
"We do know that there is a connection to al Qaeda. We have verified that,"
he told CNN. "At this point, there clearly is some link and we're going to
continue to see the depth of that."
However, another administration official would only say Islamic
fundamentalists remain high on the list of suspects.
"Things are slightly leaning towards Islamic fundamentalist responsibility,
as opposed to pure ETA or al Qaeda," one senior administration official said.
ETA is a Basque separatist group that has been fighting for more than three
decades for an independent state. The group is designated a terrorist
organization by the United States and the European Union.
The U.S. intelligence community is considering the possibility that the
bombings may have been carried out by a number of people with various ties to
terrorist groups, the senior administration official said, adding that theories
include the following possibilities:
Islamic fundamentalists with support from ETA;
Islamic fundamentalists with close ties to al Qaeda, although not
necessarily "card-carrying members of al Qaeda"; or,
Members of ETA or al Qaeda.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was confident Spain would
continue to play a significant role in the war on terrorism.
"Terrorism has to be defeated," he said. "I don't think the Spanish people
are any more inclined to give any encouragement to terrorists or to give
terrorists the slightest impression that they are not going to be engaged fully
by the Spanish government -- no matter who is prime minister."
Powell added that he was not sure if the Madrid bombings affected the outcome
of Sunday's elections: "But the one thing I'm quite sure of is that Spanish
people remain committed in the war against terrorists."
In the wake of the bombings, Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes announced
Monday that a European Union anti-terrorist conference will be held Friday in
Madrid.
