New information about the Madrid train bombings;
“One of the most sobering pieces of information to come out of the investigation of the March 11th bombings is that the planning for the attacks may have begun nearly a year before 9/11. In October, 2000, several of the suspects met in Istanbul with Amer Azizi, who had taken the nom de guerre Othman Al Andalusi-Othman of Al Andalus. Azizi later gave the conspirators permission to act in the name of Al Qaeda, although it is unclear whether he authorized money or other assistance- or, indeed, whether Al Qaeda had much support to offer. In June, Italian police released a surveillance tape of one of the alleged planners of the train bombings, an Egyptian housepainter named Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, who said that the operation ‘took me two and a half years.’ Ahmed had served as an explosives expert in the Egyptian Army. It appears that some kind of attack would have happened even if Spain had not joined the Coalition- or if the invasion of Iraq had never occurred.”
It also undermines the already flimsy hypothesis that the war on Islamic fascism is spawning new terrorists. So far, pretty much everyone they’ve nabbed has been a member of the “Blow ‘Em Up For Allah Glee Club” for quite a long time.
More from the Belmont Club.
hat tip – Paul Tuns at the Shotgun
I suppose it’s possible that the we’ve been hunting the senior people and not the new recruits. Might that explain the seniority of the people killed or captured?
Even the 9/11 Commission Report admits that it was the success of the attacks (e.g. on the USS Cole), not the responses to them, which was being used as a recruiting tool by Al Qaeda.
I don’t pretend to understand what goes through the minds of these extremists, but I’ve gotta think that the idea that there may be reprisals for actions makes some people think twice.