Spain Arrests 3 Al Qaeda Terrorists, Huge Stockpiles of Explosive Found, Europe the Target

Hey, wait a minute.  Way back when...the Spanish people decided to cave to the threats of al Qaeda and withdraw all of their troops from the Iraq War...I thought that meant that they could just breathe easy from then on?   Right.  Spain has arrested three al Qaeda terrorists who were plotting some serious attacks across Europe.

From the article at The Wall Street Journal:

Spanish authorities arrested three alleged members of al Qaeda with a stockpile of explosives, foiling what they said were potentially serious terror attacks in Europe.

The suspects, two of them from Russia and one from Turkey, had been under police surveillance and were detained on Wednesday as two of them took a bus to the French border, possibly to leave the country, Spain's Interior Minister Jorge Fernández said Thursday.

The Turkish detainee was arrested at his home in La Línea de la Concepción, a coastal town next to Gibraltar, a British enclave and military base. Described as a terror facilitator, he had a cache of explosives big enough to blow up a bus, Mr. Fernández said. Police also found training manuals for flying ultralight airplanes, which can land and take off on small airstrips, and radio-controlled model aircraft, he said.

"We have clear evidence that they were preparing an attack either in Spain or other European countries, or both," Mr. Fernández said.

And so we see the challenge of battling al Qaeda - for the first time I can remember, we see Russian al Qaeda involved in a terror plot outside of Russia and/or Chechnya and at the same time, the same technology angle that we just saw in America, with the use of model aircraft, we see here.  Obviously, there is still a coordination of information across al Qaeda in the world.

Spain Alleges al Qaeda Plot


MADRID—Spanish authorities arrested three alleged members of al Qaeda with a stockpile of explosives, foiling what they said were potentially serious terror attacks in Europe.

The suspects, two of them from Russia and one from Turkey, had been under police surveillance and were detained on Wednesday as two of them took a bus to the French border, possibly to leave the country, Spain's Interior Minister Jorge Fernández said Thursday.

The Turkish detainee was arrested at his home in La Línea de la Concepción, a coastal town next to Gibraltar, a British enclave and military base. Described as a terror facilitator, he had a cache of explosives big enough to blow up a bus, Mr. Fernández said. Police also found training manuals for flying ultralight airplanes, which can land and take off on small airstrips, and radio-controlled model aircraft, he said.

"We have clear evidence that they were preparing an attack either in Spain or other European countries, or both," Mr. Fernández said.

The arrests show "that al Qaeda still has an infrastructure in Europe that it's trying to tap into," said Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism specialist at Georgetown University who has written extensively on al Qaeda

"These types of threats have manifested themselves numerous times in Europe in recent years," he said.

Mr. Hoffman said the arrests show al Qaeda retains an infrastructure in Spain that dates back more than a decade to when 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta met with senior al Qaeda operative Ramzi Bin al Shibh in Spain for a final meeting before the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Two of the suspected al Qaeda members were identified by Spanish authorities as alleged terror operatives, and were arrested in Ciudad Real, about 125 miles south of Madrid. They were on a bus to Irún, northern Spain, from La Línea de la Concepción at the southern tip of the country. They had arrived in Spain from an undisclosed location about two months ago, Mr. Fernández said.

One of the men, who Mr. Fernández described as having military training, had to be subdued by a special-operations squad, police said.

The detentions are the result of cooperation with foreign intelligence services, Mr. Fernández said. He declined to disclose the names of the suspects or identify the countries that cooperated with Spain, saying the investigation is continuing and many details must remain confidential.

"This is one of the most important operations so far conducted against al Qaeda on an international level," he said. "We face a global threat, in particular against the West. Spain doesn't face a bigger or smaller threat than any other country."

Spain has arrested several al Qaeda members in recent years after the group's attacks in 2004, when 191 commuters were killed in train bombings in Madrid. Few suspected militants have been found in possession of explosives.

Spanish authorities said the two suspects from Russia were ethnic Chechens. One was from Chechnya, a republic in Russia's North Caucasus that has been racked by conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Svante Cornell, research director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington, said global Islamic movements attracted followers in Russia's North Caucasus as the Russian government waged a heavy-handed campaign against ethnic separatists in regions such as Chechnya.

"Militants have been moving freely across the territory of the North Caucasus as well as Turkey," he said.

Russia's crackdown in the Caucasus also displaced many people from the region, some of whom may be recruited by Islamic radical groups. "People get swept up in these movements," he said. "I can see that happen very easily across Europe. That's where al Qaeda and like-minded organizations stand waiting and are ready to pick them up."