Ein Jahr nach Madrid: die Angst sitzt in der EU mit am Tisch

--- Die LA Times prescht bereits mit einem Rückblick und einer Neueinschätzung der blutigen Attentate in Madrid am 11. März 2004 vor. Nichts genaues weiß man demnach nach wie vor über die Hintermänner, während die kaltblütige Planung und Durchführung der Anschläge und ihre politische Motivation noch einmal beleuchtet wird. The Moroccan wanted to die as much as he wanted to kill. When Abdenabi Kounjaa helped unleash Al Qaeda's jihad on Europe last March, the drug dealer-turned-holy warrior got both his wishes. Traces of his DNA were found in a van that terrorists had used before planting backpack bombs that killed 191 people aboard four commuter trains here March 11. And four of his fingers were found in the rubble of a hide-out where seven barricaded fugitives immolated themselves three weeks later, capping a rampage that helped topple Spain's center-right government. Almost a year later, European investigators are still sifting through the human debris and other evidence to better understand the enemy within. Their findings lead to locales as disparate as Casablanca, Morocco; Paris; Damascus, Syria; and Amsterdam. It traces the rise of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, or GICM, the organizing force for militants whom police have battled in the wake of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Europe's modern history. ... Some fundamental questions remain in the Madrid case, chiefly whether Kounjaa and his bosses followed direct orders or merely an ideological line from Al Qaeda masterminds. In either scenario, the attacks reflect an increasingly calculated political strategy, said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France's top anti-terrorism magistrate. "It's not the result of a command structure giving direct orders, but of people talking: scattered networks in which operatives talk and a strategy develops," Bruguiere said. "It focuses on political agendas of Western nations…. It was as if the terrorists kicked down the door and invited themselves to the table along with politicians and diplomats. It's a sophisticated approach. The paradox is that the methods and the suspects in the field were rustic." ... Security services across the continent have been deeply involved in the Madrid case because of its wide-ranging links and implications. Looking in the mirror of Spain's misfortune, they see a frightening potential for the attack to be replicated elsewhere.



Update: Spiegel Online zieht jetzt mit einer ausführlichen Geschichte nach (Tenor ähnlich wie in der LA Times), auch bei Telepolis gab es schon was zum Stand der "Aufklärung" rund um den 11.3. in Madrid.