Colt: I thought this was well done, and wanted to share it with Winds of Change.NET. Mr. Aguilar thinks the official explanation leaves a few things out, and his work adds some puzzle pieces and questions to Dan Darling posts like What I Think I Know About Huarte and Well, Well, Well, What Have We Here?
by Joe Aguilar (aka. "Joe_A")
The bomb intended to be found intact
Investigating Judge Del Olmo had to be surprised when he received a note from the Vallecas precinct police that mentioned X-rays performed on the bomb found there the night of March 11th and later deactivated. That bomb was the principal evidence that linked Zougam and the other northwestern Africans who committed suicide in the Leganes flat with the attack, and had had a deep impact in the Spanish public opinion before the elections. Judge Del Olmo rapidly requested those X-rays to Sanchez-Manzano, as we know, the head of the TEDAX unit in Madrid, who inexplicably had failed to send them before to be included in the summary.
Well, those X-rays clearly show that the wires that connected the mobile phone and the wires from the detonator were embedded in the mass of explosive, but not joined together. Even hit by a hydraulic hammer, the bomb could not have exploded.
Moreover, its great influence came from the fact that a picture of it was leaked on March 12th and soon later that day broadcast by ABC News, (a news channel that also showed pictures and X-rays related to the London Train Bombings). The problem is that that picture is a fake. The police at the Vallecas precinct no longer had all the components, moved to forensic laboratories, so an officer’s rucksack was added to the remaining components, the picture taken and then leaked. Evidently, someone wanted to get the greatest possible effect on the public opinion before the Election Day.
In addition, this bomb, the #13, is quite different from the one a local police officer found in one of the trains just after the attacks, which, unlike the previous, was not deactivated, but detonated by Sanchez-Manzano men when they arrived to the site. As he told the journalists that same morning, he found in a black rucksack a mobile phone wired to a round Tupper-ware container. The detonator’s wires were black and blue. This does not match any of such devices made in Spain. The container was either orange or contained what it seemed to be an orange substance. By the way, that is Titadine’s color.
Even thinking in an acute Daltonism attack of the local police officer, the truth is that, as the investigators say, the bomb #13 found in the Vallecas precinct appears to be composed by two very different parts. The soldering in the mobile phone is cute and accurate, but the explosive was untidily massed in a common plastic bag, and the wires were not connected, as if two different persons, a first-class worker and a rather messy one had made it. What the local police officer saw in the black rucksack left in the trains before the TEDAX team arrived appeared to be a precise job from start to finish.
As the words “fabricated evidence” loomed over the device #13, investigating Judge Del Olmo received yet another communication, this one from the Civil Guard unit that is in charge of the investigation of 3/11. They asked whether Metenamine is a component of Goma-2 ECO.
The message had the immediate effect, probably wanted by the Civil Guards, of Judge Del Olmo sending on April 4th 2005 a request to Sanchez-Manzano in order to clarify the matter
Metenamine (hexametilentetramine) is an industrial chemical and a raw material to manufacture the high-tech explosive Hexogen and its derivatives, such as RDX. This compound mixed with dynamite enhances its detonating power.
Finally, more than one year after the attacks, Sanchez-Manzano has acknowledged that the explosive found in the bomb #13 contains no Metenamine, thus being different from the one located in a van near the Alcala de Henares station, where the bombs were loaded in the trains. In this van, whose theft is even stranger, was found a tape on Koranic teachings for beginners, triggering during the Islamist lead on the evening of March 11th. Both the van and the device #13 were the evidence the leftist media groups based their criticism against the Aznar government, because Sanchez-Manzano said that the explosives they contained were the same, and the mobile phone used as a timer in the bomb #13 had a SIM card sold in Zougam’s, a Moroccan, store. Thus, evidently, 3/11 was the work of Islamists. Now that there is growing concern that relying on that device as evidence in a court of law is a serious risk, the entire official version of 3/11 is sinking, at the same rate the lies utilized to deceive the public opinion arise.
For much less than three Sanchez-Manzano’s alleged deceptions – the telephone number of his unit next to his name in Toro’s sister phone book, the hidden X-rays that proved that the bomb #13 could not explode; and the different composition of its explosive – any Spanish citizen would have been put behind bars. However, as we’ll see, it appears as if Judge Del Olmo has a natural reluctance to arrest any police officer.
Colt, Joe Aguilar, you are presenting pieces of the puzzle, but not connecting dots. Understandable, because the implications are indeed, er, explosive.
Ok then.
Or am I missing something here?
AMac,
This is the closest version of what probably happened (and we can't talk in absolutes just yet).
Guilty - but the fact is that there is a lot of information to cover. Joe's summary falls just short of 4,000 words, and - for instance - skims over the shadiness of Fernando Huarte, and does not mention the discovery of 750kg of GOMA 2 Eco in the garage of a Spanish bomb squad cop. It seems wiser to explain just how many things are wrong with the case before postulating alternative scenarios.
Sorry guys, but I might buy into 1 or 3 of AMac's possibilities. 2 strikes me as pretty much implausible given Saif al-Adel authoring Iraq al-Jihad, the investigations into Mohammed al-Masri in Italy, the Hofstadt Group in Netherlands, the role of Abu Qatada in all of this, the al-Qaeda leadership having foreknowledge of the attacks and a whole lot of other stuff. I am also exceedingly wary of attributing simple incompetence on the part of the authorities to malice - that's one of the problems with formulating conspiracy theories because it becomes extremely tempting to see deliberate connections where there are none.
More on this later, but just wanted to note that.
I should have been clearer. I don't doubt a jihadist role in the attack. By 'parties unknown', I mean "al-Qaeda and parties unknown". This is what I was concurring with:
I agree. I for one don't find the point that the police didn't investigate such-and-such a case or individual that compelling a point.
What is starting to emerge is a small group of individuals, connected to one another in various ways, from all sorts of backgrounds (arms dealers, a Soviet-trained DFLP terrorist working in the Spanish police, members of the bomb squad, the Dirty War crew of the 1980s, and Fernando Huarte) coming together with al-Qaeda.
Okay, that sounds a lot more like we're more on the same page then. I thought the thrust of allegation being made was that the al-Qaeda wasn't involved and that any and all evidence that they were was a Socialist cover-up. That was the main thrust of what had me seeing red.
I still suspect that Huarte was the middle-man in this. Only Kajali - the aforementioned ex-DFLP terrorist - had anything approaching the ties with terrorists, and even then, there's no evidence he was connected to three cell members and, through mutual jihadist acquaintances, to both El Egypico and El Tunisie.
Okay, this is clearer. The "Parties Unknown, though not Al Qaeda/Islamist" scenario struck (strikes) me as extremely unlikely, given the connections and evidence that Dan alludes to above, and posted about extensively in the attack's aftermath.
The implication that somebody managed the Spanish media so precisely that the election fell to Zapatero and the PSOE at Aznar's expense is also unlikely. Who has the confidence to figure what news item will appear exactly when, and what effect it will have on the electorate? The threshold for AQ/Islamist success in "sending Aznar a lesson" and "punishing Spain" would have been much lower, with Zapatero's win a hoped-for but not essential bonus.
The most troubling aspects of this series of posts remains:
3. That the Spanish security services are compromised by this devilish mix of arms dealers, a Soviet-trained DFLP terrorist, members of the bomb squad, the Dirty War crew of the 1980s, and Fernando Huarte.
2. That these elements may have conspired with AQ and homegrown Islamist terrorists in the bombing's aftermath.
1. That certain elements of the story (e.g. faked backpack bombs) appear to necessarily require foreknowledge of the bombings and complicity with the bombers' actions.
If I'm reading this right.
AMac,
Kajali - the ex-DFLP terrorist - is a member of the Spanish security services. More about him in Part 3, which I expect to post tomorrow (waiting for Joe A to approve my editing). But for now, the Civil Guard suspect him of setting the timers in the bombs used on 3/11.
Toro and Trashorras - the arms/drugs dealers - were not members of the Spanish security forces, but there is some quite justified speculation they had protection from members of the police. From Part 1.
You are reading this right, besides the above quibbles.
Maybe. But from an anti-Aznar, anti-free-market, anti-U.S. point-of-view, framing the discussion as the government claiming it was ETA to avoid the Iraq accuasation, and the security services claiming it is A-Q would - and surely did - change some minds. And the Spanish left-wing press jumped on the chance. (No, I'm not accusing them of prior knowledge.)
Whoa. I thought the mobile phones with the SIM cards came from Mausilli Kalaji's shop. Do I have that wrong?
Do you have any information on Huarte Spain International? Was this company invovled in the UN Oil For Food program in any way?
The ones for the other 12 bombs did, yes. The phone in #13 was from Zougam's.
Only this.
I'm afraid guys, this part two is already old.
The testimony of Sanchez-Manzano's boss has been published today. In it, it was mentioned the X-rays performed to the bomb #13, and that he was the source from where the news about them came to Judge Del Olmo.
He also declared that:
"It was clear that it wasn't Titadine [French dynamite used by ETA] but some military high explosive, such as C3 or C4, because the dynamite-like explosives bite, that is, they don't perform a clean cut on metals" On 3/11, the damage in the trains was composed by round and clean holes.
He also said to the Judge that he ordered to check the trains twice, from head to end, in search for unexploded devices. He also remarked that he was in charge of the coordination among the units in all four sites, but not the commander of anyone.
Well, let's start it all over again.
I'll post more ASAP.
Rory (#11)
The mobile phones and the SIM cards that appeared in the bomb #13 followed different paths. The SIM card was sold in Zougam's store and many others from the same batch were used by the official suspects.
The mobile phones were in Kalaji's store to be unlocked, that is, changed its software so they can use any SIM card, leaving aside the originals.
It is interesting the fact that the alarm of many (if not all) Siemens mobile phones can operate without a SIM card inserted (try it!) Why didn't they use such a device?
The Indians that sold the mobile phones lately unlocked in Kalaji's store, declared that the buyers were Europeans that spoke perfect Spanish. They identified themselves as Bulgarians.
Colt published something (that I vehemently dismissed then) about the comments of a Bosnian Police commander, who later retracted. Maybe both were closer to the truth than I was, who knows...
AMac (#8)
The implication that somebody managed the Spanish media so precisely that the election fell to Zapatero and the PSOE at Aznar's expense is also unlikely. Who has the confidence to figure what news item will appear exactly when
I tell you who, Jesus Polanco, the owner of the PRISA media group, the biggest Spanish mass media group and film and music distributor. He also holds stakes in important international corporations and has signed agreements with others, such the CNN (have you seen anything about the mysteries of 3/11 in CNN?). William Hearst compared to him was just a trainee.
For instance: the most important PRISA radio channel, SER, broadcasted in the evening of 3/11 that suicide bombers had been found in the trains, which is not only false and but a capital evidence against Al Qaeda or even Islamist participation. Extremists are eager to die in a major attack, they are, above everything, vain. They want to feel powerful at least for a moment, they want to film videos and become famous, and then enjoy the next life.
Sadly, the context is lost here. Radio channels are widely listen in Spain at that time by non-office workers. It was clear the kind of people the PRISOE was trying to influence. I'm afraid the answer is yes, AMac, there is someone that can manipulate the entire fourth power in Spain and his name is Polanco.
and what effect it will have on the electorate?
I tell you who, a Spanish high rank politician. That is the key, AMac, 3/11 is a political coup and could only be conceived by a person well aware of Spanish politics and the Spanish people. Thus Aznar affirmation before the Commission of Investigation that hurt so much some people: "you don't have to search in remote deserts for the mastermind of 3/11".
Come on, 3/11 was indeed the finest manipulation work I've ever known about. Goebbles' lies were pathetic compared to this.
Dan (#3)
Unlike 9/11, 3/11 wasn't a surprise. There were rumours well before that date that there was to be a major terrorist attack in Spain before the March 14th elections. Anyone could talk about it previously and then said that was involved.
The police chief retracted his comments.
Joe A #14:
Sorry, I lost the thread of this charge. Is it that SER incorrectly reported on the evening of 3/11 that the plot had been carried out by suicide bombers?
How would that be strong evidence against AQ or other jihadis being responsible? How would that point in the direction of ETA?
Thanks.
Is it that SER incorrectly reported on the evening of 3/11 that the plot had been carried out by suicide bombers?
Yes, it is, AMac. The audio files that contained what was broadcasted during those hours were erased from the SER website, but an internet surfer luckily downloaded them before it happened, and published them back.
You can find them here in an anti-Socialist web site and also in some P2P networks searching with keywords SER 11 M.
The mass media manipulation and the call for spontaneous demonstrations before the Popular party offices demanding the truth is well documented, that is no mystery. I personally don't believe that the people that carried it out is directly linked with the plot. There was a delay before they reacted. What happened before and how this was made profitable after the attacks are different things, though the person that concieved them knew what was going to happen, was supplying the arguments, let's say.
For people that can speak Spanish, please check Luis del Pino summary in Libertad Digital.
#13
Joe, the new testimony was not Sanchez Manzano's boss, but his subordinate; Madrid region TEDAX chief (Sanchez-Manzano is the national level chief).
So the testinony is still consistent with Sanchez-Manzano covering up and manoeuvering the judge.
Oops, sorry, I just saw you clear it up in comments in part 3.