The Command Post
Global War on Terror
March 20, 2004
Spain Declassifies Intelligence Reports on Bombing Probe

From Thursday 3/18:

Spain declassified intelligence reports on Thursday in a bid to show it told the truth about deadly train bombings it initially attributed to Basque guerrillas but which are now suspected to be al Qaeda-linked.

Street demonstrations accusing the government of hiding the truth on election eve were cited as a factor leading to the surprise victory of [the socialists]...

``Since the terrorist massacre, the government has communicated absolutely all the truth to public opinion, without hiding, manipulating or delaying any information,'' government spokesman and Labour Minister Eduardo Zaplana said.

The documents cover the period 3/11 to 3/14. They're online here, however, they're large PDFs and they're in Spanish.

There's also a chronology of events related to the bombing here. That too is in Spanish. It appears to be derived from the PDF chronology.

If someone wants to provide an English summary, that would be appreciated.

Posted by Lonewacko at March 20, 2004 05:54 PM | TrackBack
Comments

The translation of the second link is as follows (apology for spelling and typos in advance):
7.39 - the attacks take place
9.30 - Statement by the head of the basque country Ibarretxe: "the terrorists are writting their end"
10.30 - Otegi, head of the illegalised Batasuna party (ETAs politcal party) assures ETA is not responsible.
10.50 - A citizen calls the police station of Alacalá de Henares to inform them of a suspicious van.
13.00 - Aznar calls the directors of several Spanish newspapers to tell the "ETA is behind the attacks"
13.30 - Interior Minister Acebes says "ETA has achieved its goal"
14.15 - Orders are given to the Spanish mission to the UN to pass a resolution condemning ETA
14.15 - According to the government, the visual inspection of the van ends, they haven't gone in yet so the detonators and the tape in arabic have not been detected. Other versions say that at this time the police was already aware of these clues.
14.30 - Aznar says the attacks have been perpetrated by "the terrorist group that has caused so much suffering to Spain"
15.30 - The van arrives to the police department in Canillas. According to the CNI report, it is then that the detonators are found as well as the tape.
15.50 - CNI report to the government in which" it is nearly certain that ETA is responsible for the attacks"
17.30 - Telegram by the ministry of foreign affairs to the Ambassadors asking them to remove doubts about ETAs responsibility. It assures that the explosives found confirm it.
20.10 - Aznar calls Zapatero and the directors of the newspapers and informs them about the van and the tape in arabic but maintains that ETA is still the main suspect.
20.20 - Acebes (Interior Minister) informs in a press conference about the new clues and that they've opened the investigation to a new hypothesis
20.30 - The King addresses the country, asks for "unity, firmness and calm" in the fight against terrorism without mentioning ETA.
21.30 - The islamic group Abu Hafs Al Masri claim responsibility in a London based newspaper.
02.40 - A call to the police station in Vallecas informs that they have found a backpack with an artefact inside.
11.30 - Aznar appears again and maintains that, without discarding other hypothesis, he believs ETA is the most "logical" responsible.
16.04 - CNI reports to government that they doubt the veracity of the statement to the London newspaper by Al Qaeda.
18.00 - Acebes informs the beckpack has explosives, a detonator and a mobile phone. He reiterates that ETA is the main line of investigation.
18.30 - ETA via newspaper GARA make a statement denying their responsibility.
19.00 - Millions take the streets in a demo against terrorism.
14.30 - Acebes doesn't remove the possibility of both groups collaborating, he assures they don't know the origin of the explosives and defends the government against acusations about their information policy about the attacks.
16.00 - 3 Morrocons and two Indians arrested, as well as two spanish of indian origin who are later released.
16.50 - CNI director assures the press agency EFE that they haven't abandoned the ETA lead.
19.00 - 3.000 people demonstrate in front of the PP headquarter to "demand the truth before voting". The demos were organised by mobile messages.
19.40 - Telemadrid informs the Police about a call telling them they'll find a video claiming responsibility in the trashbin near the Mosque of the M-30.
20.00 - Acebes informs of the arrests and say they're related to the paycard found on the mobile phone in the backpack.
20.30 - Rajoy, candidate to the presidency of the PP, says the demos in front of their headquarters around the country are "illegal and lack legitimacy"
21.00 - Rubalcaba, member of the PSOE executive, accuses the government of not playing a fair game with the information on the attacks the night before the elections.
22.15 - Speaker of the government, Zaplana, defends the governments "transparency" and reminds people that these demonstrations should not take place.
00.45 - Acebes informs of the video found in which a supposed speaker of Al Qaeda claims responsibility for the attacks.

Posted by: Alicia at March 21, 2004 04:18 AM

I left the last part because it just talks about elections, nothing about the attacks.

Posted by: Alicia at March 21, 2004 04:19 AM

Here is a translation from another article summarizing the reports. I couldn't be arsed tarnslating the whole bunch of pdf. Again, apologies in advance for typos, lazy translation etc... And sorry for spamming the comments, I couldn't find an email to send this to.

http://www.abc.es/abc/pg040319/actualidad/nacional/politica/200403/19/papeles.asp

The government made public secret reports of the National Center of Intelligence (CNI) to explain that seven hours after the massacre, and when they were still waiting for the partial results of some analysis, the secret services thought "nearly certain" that "it had been ETA", and that they used these reports in their initial public statements. (...)

Besides the first statements made in the scene of the attacks to express his solidarity to the victims and to transmit a serenity message in the middle of the tragedy, the first public appearance of the Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, was at 13.30. At that time, there was still not clear evidence about the attacks. Acebes was basing his statements in a meeting that took place between 12.00 and 13.00 between the members of the Security forces of the State. In that meeting, they concluded that ETA was responsible. The events that ahppened recently supported that seeing as in the last few years the terrorist group intended to go ahead with four massacres in Madrid, one of them precisely in the Chamartin station with a bomb-train. Also, the informations pointed to their intention of trying again, seeing the close date to the elections.

At 15.51, with still no concrete proff, the CNI reported to the Interior Minister that they were "nearly certain" that ATE was responsible. "Waiting for the results of more analysis about the composition and the characteristics of the artefacts, the modus-operandi is that of ETA that has used in many terrorist acts that they've committed or attenmpted to commit in the past few years".

This said, the CNI warned that "the magnitud of the attack, the most terrorific and bloody committed by ETA, implies a big shift in their way of executing their terrorists acctions, the indicriminate character and the lack of previous warning". According to the report of the CNI, with "this tremendous attack", the group wanted to repeat the strategy started with the assassination of Miguel Angel Blanco, done in circumstance in which the band was going through difficult times Despite this they achieved their goal seeings as "the heads of the basque nationalist parties opened talks with representatives of Herri Batasuna, talks that allows the signing of the Pact of Lizarra in 1998". Things being like this, "the precarious situation of ETA and his surrounding support could explain that they may have opted for an attack of such magnitude", added the CNI report.

"With the deta available at the moment, it is not possible to affirm that an organization tied to the international Jihad movement could be responsible ofthe execution of these attacks. Although there are several similarities in the modus-operandi and the generic objective attacked - public transportation - with those used by radical islmaic terrorist groups, the coincidences are logical seeing the magnitude and scale of the attack." the CNI adds also that there is a "lack of the evidence most significative of this type of attacks: the suicide terrorist. The circumstance that today is eactly 3.5 years after 9/11 in the US doesn't have much relevance or significance for terror islamic groups."

At 10.50 on 3/11, the police station of Alcalá de Henares received a call from a citizen that suspected the presence of a Renault van, Kangoo model, license plate 0576-BRX, stationed near his work place. So, the police checked the plate and found out it was that of a van stolen on 2/28 in the Tetuan neighbourhood. At that time, the bomb squad were pouring in the bombing scenes so the police sent a group with dogs to detect if there were any explosives in the van and didn't. In any case the closed the area and sealed the van. According to another CNI report, this one from the operative sub-director of the Police, "at 14.15 the visual inspeccion of the van is concluded in Alacalá de Henares" and the van was moved to the Canillas Police department where its arrival was registered at 15.30. Once there they proceeded to inspect the interior of the van, when they discovered the 7 detonators under the passenger's seat as well as a tape which cover has arabic characters and, finally, small quantity of explosives residuals. "Once the General commissair of the Scientific Police knew about this new evidence, he informed immediately the operation sub-director of the police who immediately ordered that the report should contain all the details and he informed the General Director of the police". "Around 16.00, the commisair general of information informs by phone the operative sub-director that, seeing the importance of these findings he will go himself along with the chief og the central brigade of information to be present when the inspection goes on".

At 17.29, the minister of foreign affairs, Ana Palacio, not knowing of these findings, sent a telegram to the spanish embassies signaling the "efforts that some political forces are making to cause confusion about the authors of this attack". She also added that the explosives and M-O are those usually used by ETA. "You should take all the opportunities you have to confirm ETA is responsible for this brutal attacks, helping this way to dissipate any kind of doubts that some interested parties want to provoke confusion regarding who might be behind the attacks".

At 18.15 there was a meeting between the Interior Minister and the Secretary of State for Security to analyze the latest findings. At 19.30 Acebes did a second press conference and, after informing of the discovery of the van with the detonators and the tape with koranic verses he announced that he had given instructions to open a second line of investigation: that pointing to islamic terrorism.

in this context, on the 12th of march, at 02.40, the bomb squad received a call from the police station of vallecas after finding an explosive artefact in a backpack found and collected in the place of the attacks believing it might have belonged to one of the victims. At 05.15 the explosives had been neutralised, that contained explosives of the time goma-2 Eco and a mobile phone. At 18.00, Acebes informed about this latest finding.

That same day, a supposed spokesman of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacjs in a statement sent to the newspaper published in London AL Quds. The statement was received with many reservations. However, a report by CNI reached the following conclusions, after verifying that the author demonstrated islamist militancy: "It is highly probable that the statement has been made by a person vinculated to the International Jihad but lacking importance in the organization to speak in its name". Also, "his knowledge of the texts, religious and historical, in which radical islam is based on are clearly implicit in the statement". They also said that, "the references about SPain also demonstrates a sufficient knowledge about the history and reality of Spain as to think the residence in Spain, actual or past, of the author of the statement.". In conclusion, "this claim could have been redacted using texts of former claims of responsibility, including false ones or not sufficiently contrasted, but, in any case, are dubious."

The investigations about the mobil phone led the police in the afternoon of the 13th to arrest 5 people: 3 morrocans and two indians of which Interior Minister informed at 20.00.

Minutes earlier, at 19.40, telemadrid just received a phonecall in which someone pointed them to a loction to find a video claiming responsibility of the massacre. At 22.30 the Police finalized a translation. The work to verify the authenticity of the tape started then. At 00.45 Acebes informed of the tape but pointed out that the investigators still had reservations about it.

The fact that there wasn't any evidence of suicide bombers was another motive why the Police forces put aside the islamic hypothesis. A report by the forensic services, dated on the 17th march, assures that "in any case we have found data or evidence with scientific base that would allow us to suppose the existence of a suicide bomber among the victims."

Posted by: Alicia at March 21, 2004 06:59 AM

And the suicide bomber rumours started by the radio station Cadena Ser... from the group PRISA who has been working closely with the socialist party for a while. All that after thinking it was ETA themselves at first. There's a whole article in El mundo picking up the evolution of their comments during those 72 hours. From 'it's ETA, people shouldn't change their vote' to it's Al Qaeda, suicide bomber etc.. war in irak, government is lying people should think twice before voting line of thinking. I can translate that if you're interested. but I'd prefer sending it to an email rather than spamming the comments section!

My view is that both sides did wrong... first they thot it was ETA (like I did in the first hours) so the Ser et al started rumours about suicide bombers etc to fight back... then the government pushed more for eta seeing what was being done by that press, without waiting for further evidence... Cadena Ser ended up starting up rumours about how on the night before the elections the government was planning a Coup (!!!!!) that same night. It all got out of hand and I'm ashamed of their actions. Both acted wrong when they should have stuck together in such hard moments. Instead winning the elections was more important than giving a message of calm to the nation...

Posted by: Alicia at March 21, 2004 07:10 AM

Far as I'm concerned, Spain voted itself irrelevent.

The definition of irrelevent is: "when nobody cares enough to tell you how bad you suck."

Posted by: jeffers at March 21, 2004 08:31 PM

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