SPAIN: SPANISH POLICE SAY THEY HAVE ARRESTED FOURTH SUSPECTED MEMBER OF AL-QAEDA NETWORK

Record ID: 640437

  • Title: SPAIN: SPANISH POLICE SAY THEY HAVE ARRESTED FOURTH SUSPECTED MEMBER OF AL-QAEDA NETWORK
  • Date: 17th July 2002
  • Summary: MADRID, SPAIN, (JULY 17, 2002) (REUTERS) SMV REPORTER INTERVIEWING POLICE SPOKESMAN JOSE MARIA SEARA SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SEARA SAYING "This a country of transit, a country where a lot of people can settle very easily as economic immigrants. They are working here with their working permit. They donot look suspicious to the police but really what they are doing is ge
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MADRID, SPAIN
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7JTMMR00EKS6X0DO1XRUHNRNV
  • Story Text: Spanish police said they arrested a fourth suspected member of Osama bin Ladens al Qaeda network on Wednesday, a day after seizing three others with videotapes of U.S.
    landmarks including the World Trade Center.
    Police said in a statement they had arrested a Spanish citizen of Syrian origin who was an associate of one of the three men arrested on Tuesday and who was a member of al Qaeda.
    The suspects possessed videotapes described by Spains interior minister as obviously not what a tourist would make.
    The tapes, recorded five years earlier, showed the World Trade Center from many angles and distances, and included footage of such landmarks as San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower in Chicago and New Yorks Empire State Building Spokesman for Spains National Police Jose Maria Seara told Reuters: The tapes show extreme training. Attacks on tanks, attacks on the targets weve talked about...The training suggests possible use of human shields, or martyrs for the cause.
    He added that the tapes, filmed in Afghanistan and in rural areas of Spain, showed boys who were very young.
    Spain has been a focus of the international investigation launched since the September 11 suicide hijacking attacks on U.S. landmarks, which destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon in Washington, killing 3,000 people.
    Wednesdays arrest, part of an operation started by Spanish police last November, brought the total number of al Qaeda suspects arrested by Spanish police to 24 and provided police with documents they said would help them with the next phase of their investigations.
    Its all the documentation referring to economic operations, Seara said.
    He declined to estimate how many al Qaeda members might remain at large in Spain but said it was likely more members would be caught in the near future.
    It wouldnt surprise me if there are detentions in the near future of other individuals, connected to the previous ones, who are partners in some cases in...economic operations, Seara said.
    The man who was arrested on Wednesday, identified as Kamal Hadid Chaar, alias Abu Nour, was a member of an al Qaeda cell whose leader was in prison and connected to the organisations financial activities, a police statement said.
    He was also suspected of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, a radical Islamic organisation.
    Washington regards bin Laden as the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. The United States sent troops to Afghanistan to break his network and the countrys Taliban Muslim fundamentalist rulers, who supported it.
    The arrested man was also linked to a mujahideen militant currently in prison, the statement said.
    The suspected leader of the September 11 attacks, Mohamed Atta, is said to have held a meeting with other alleged conspirators in Spain last summer to plan the suicide flights.
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