Militant logistics coordinator may link 9/11, Madrid attacks

[seemslikeadream]

By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — International counterterrorism authorities are looking for a Moroccan fugitive who may have attended a pivotal meeting with the Sept. 11 plotters and is believed to have played a logistical role in the train bombings last year in Madrid, Spain.

...

New information from federal authorities indicates Azizi may have provided lodging to people involved in the backpack bombings of the Spanish commuter trains, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

...

One of the U.S. officials also said Azizi may have met with two Sept. 11 plotters — hijacker Mohamed Atta and coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh — in Spain in July 2001. Investigators are trying to determine Azizi's involvement in the meeting. A Spanish judge has indicted Azizi on charges related to the 2001 attacks, including his role in providing lodging to the conspirators. According to the Sept. 11 Commission's final report, Binalshibh said during interrogation that he and Atta met with no one else during roughly 10 days in the Tarragona region of Spain.

...

The 2001 meeting is considered an important planning session. Atta and Binalshibh discussed the timing of the attacks, whether to target the White House or other American icons and whether to use box cutters as weapons.

...

The possibility of ties to Osama bin Laden's network illustrates why U.S. intelligence leaders have warned in recent months that al-Qaida may be transforming itself from a once-consolidated network largely based in Afghanistan to a loose coalition of extremists around the globe. In a report declassified this month, senior analysts at the National Intelligence Council warned that 15 years from now the United States may be dealing with an array of Muslim extremist groups, cells and individuals.
more
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/01/23/news/nation/sunnat06.txt

[BattyDem]

1. So does this mean ...

we're going to bomb Morocco? :eyes:

[gottaB]

2. nic documents

I wish reporters would cite documents more precisely, and that news sites would use more hyperlinks. The point that's being made was made in Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council's 2020 Project.

Declassified NIC documents can be found here: http://www.foia.cia.gov/nic_collection.asp

No idea how uptodate that collection is.

[leveymg]

3. Wonder about the other errors of fact extracted under torture

" According to the Sept. 11 Commission's final report, Binalshibh said during interrogation that he and Atta met with no one else during roughly 10 days in the Tarragona region of Spain."

Also, doesn't give us a lot of confidence in many conclusions reached in the final report. The staff reports were much more valuable. Foreign reporting even more so.

Have long wondered about KSM and Binalshibh. Double-agents, anyone think?