Last
week an
alternative Spanish
newspaper broke the story that the Iman who was the head of the
terrorist attack in Barcelona and
Cambrils in August 2017 not only had been a CNI (Spanish secret
servie) informer (we already knew that)
but he was still
an
informer at the time of the attack, in contact with the CNI right up
to a few days before. In
addition,
the CNI had been monitoring
the cell phones of all
the other members of the group. They knew all their movements and
their
communication.
The day after the attack, the CNI erased all records of the Iman from
their files.
The
CNI
didn’t share any information about
the Iman or the terrorist cell
with the Mossos
d’Esquadra -- the
Catalan police. Although
it is the Mossos, and
not the Spanish police,
who are responsible for security, including terrorist attacks, within
Catalonia, the CNI and Spanish government have barred the Mossos from
participating in Interpol, where 194 countries share relevant
information concerning terrorism as well as other internation
criminal activities such as drug traffic. You
get the feeling that the Spanish government is not interested in
security when it comes to Catalonia.
The
day before the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks, there was an explosion
in the small town of Alcanar, south of Barcelona, near Tarragona.
The explosion was apparently an accident, caused by the explosive
materials being manipulated by the two men in the house, both
of
whom were
killed. Both were part of the terrorist cell that attacked Barcelona
and Cambrils the next day, the
same group that the CNI had been monitoring for months.
The
Iman and one other member of the grroup died in that explosion. But
the Catalan police didn’t know anything
about them.
The Spanish secret service hadn’t told them anything,
so the Mossos set out to investigate the
explosion,
starting completely from scratch.
The
next day, another group member drove a van down the Rambla in
Barcelona, killing 14 people and wounding over 100. Later in the day
others in the group drove into people near the beach in the coastal
down of Cambrils and killed one more person.
It
was the Mossos who were in charge of the investigation when the
explosion happened in Alcanar, but they didn’t not know at first
that they were dealing with a terrorist group, although it probably
became evident quickly enough when they saw all the explosive
materials that were there. The next day when the van drove down the
Rambla, it was the Mossos who were in charge of stopping the attack
as soon as possible and finding the perpetrators. At that point they
had no idea who they were dealing with and the CNI did not help.
Nevertheless, the Mossos were able to track
down the
people involved within
a few days, arresting some and killing the rest.
They had not been privy to the CNI information in their research,
except
that soon afterwards it became known that the Iman had spent some
time in a Spanish prison and had once been a CNI informer.
Major
Josep
Lluis Trapero was the head of the Mossos. By all accounts, he did a
brilliant job, finding the culprits and keeping the public and the
press informed (in at least four languages at all times – Catalan,
Spanish, English, and French) of developments as they happened.
Cool, calm, and effective, he became
a national hero. A few days after the attacks, the Spanish police
“leaked” the information that the Mossos had been warned of the
attack some time in advance by the American agency, the CIA. A memo
to that effect was somehow given to one of the Spanish newspapers who
published it. In the end, it turned out to be phoney. The format
was not right nor was the English! It was simply the Spanish trying
to discredit Major Trapero and the Mossos for having done an
excellent
job, with no help from those who had valuable information but no
itention of sharing it. The information that they had hidden
important material both before and after the attack was not to come
out for over a year – until last week.
But
they did eventually get to Major Trapero. He has been accused of
sedition for the way he directed the Mossos during the 1 October
referendum that the Catalans did manage to have. The accusation is
that his police did not work to remove ballot boxes as directed. The
fact is that his police removed more ballot boxes than the Spanish
police did, but whereas the Spanish police did it wearing riot gear
and attacking everyone (men, women, and children) within arm’s length with clubs (injuring 1000 people), the Mossos
did it peacefully, as was appropriate in a non-violent atmosphere. The Spanish didn't like that. Our
hero. His trial will begin in September.
Terrorism
is an international, not a local problem. The victims were
not only Catalan: they
included people of 34 nationalities including Algerian, Australian,
Belgian, Canadian, Chinese, Cuban, French, British, Greek, Dutch, and
American.
Sixteen people from several countries died in that attack, and over 100 were injured. In any normal country, when information becomes known that the head of the attack was a secret service informer, the minister of the interior would probably have to resign, the government would open an inquiry, and the press would be talking about it. But here in Spain (except for Catalonia) there is complete silence. None of the major Spanish media – not newspapers and not television -- has talked about it at all. When it was known that the Iman had been a secret service informer, the Spanish Congress refused to open an investigation, with votes from the Socialists, PP, and Ciutadanos voting against. Now much more has become public, including that the relationship between the Iman and the CNI was not history, as previous said, but ongoing and recent – right up to five days before the attack; that the CNI had also been monitoring everyone in that cell and knew much about their movements and their plans; and that the CNI destroyed their file on the Iman the day after the attack. And yet the government still says there is no need for an investigation.
I
have heard no one say that the CNI
knew
of
the planned attack in advance
and was satisfied to let it
take place. No one has said that yet in public. But I’ve been
thinking it. Why
else would the Spanish government want
to avoid
an investigation?
Was
the government sympathetic
to a terrorist attack in Barcelona? After all, at that
time they were bribing (and
the King was phoning and pressuring)
big banks and corporations to move their headquarters out of
Catalonia in
order to hurt the Catalans economically,
and shortly afterwards (in October) their police attacked thousands
of peaceful citizens, saying afterwards that those people had been
violent (in spite of hundreds of videos that show the opposite). No,
it would not surprise me if the Spanish government thought that a
terrorist attack in Barcelona was just what that city needed to bring
it into line and
make the Catalans frightened or distracted enough to forget about
holding their referendum on the question of whether or not they
wanted to remain part of Spain.
If
that was the plan, it didn’t work.
One
would think the Spanish
government
isn’t interested in what really happened and what part, if any, the
Spanish secret service played.
If I had a loved one killed, I would want to know. If I had been
injured, I would want to know. As
a normal person
I want to know. The
Spanish government should want to know.
I want to know what happened and I want to know why the Spanish
government doesn’t want us
to
know.
A little bit about Major Trapero
http://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/major-trapero-an-unlikely-hero
An article in El Nacional (in English), the paper that broke the story about the Iman informant and the CNI surveillance of the group. Within the article you will find several links to related articles.
https://www.elnacional.cat/en/news/barcelona-terror-attack-informer-spanish-intelligence_404155_102.html
