SPAIN: ADDENDUM TO 2006 COUNTRY REPORTS ON

UNCLAS MADRID 000049 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR S/CT RHONDA SHORE EUR/WE FOR CLEMENTS, CERVETTI, AND ALLEGRONE DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO NCTC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER ASEC SP SUBJECT: SPAIN: ADDENDUM TO 2006 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM REF: A. STATE 175925 ¶B. MADRID 3067 ¶C. MADRID 3042 ¶1. (SBU) As stipulated in Reftel A, post is providing an addendum to Reftel B that updates significant terrorist-related developments in Spain that occurred after submission of the Spain section of the 2006 Country Reports on Terrorism. ¶2. (SBU) On December 30 the terrorist group ETA exploded a massive car-bomb that destroyed much of the covered parking garage outside the new Terminal 4 of Madrid's Barajas International Airport and effectively broke a nine-month "permanent ceasefire" the group had declared in March. Two individuals were killed in the blast, and became ETA's first fatal victims in more than three years. The government of Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero initially suspended talks with ETA, and government officials subsequently said political negotiations with the group had ended. The bombing came on the heels of a December robbery of approximately 350 handguns from an arms warehouse in southern France, and extensive vandalism by street gangs in various Basque cities. This information reflects events as of December 31, one day after the bombing. Next year's report will reflect the impact of the bombing on government policies and ETA plans and operations to the extent known by year's end 2007. ¶3. (SBU) In a separate development, and as reported in REFTEL C, Spanish National Police in mid-December arrested ten Spanish nationals and one Moroccan national in the North African enclave of Ceuta on charges that the men were plotting to carry out a terrorist attack. Among the detainees were two brothers of former Spanish national Guantanamo detainee Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed (known in Spain as the "Spanish Taliban," whose conviction on terrorism charges was overturned earlier this year by the Spanish Supreme Court. (NOTE: The Court threw out evidence against Abderrahaman gathered at Guantanamo and in prior telephonic intercepts by Spanish police. END NOTE). According to initial reports, the 11 men are accused of membership in either the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group (GICM) or the related "Al Haraka Salafiya Jihadiya" organization. In announcing the arrests, Minister of Interior Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said that the group had not selected a specific target, but was in the initial stages of planning for an attack. Other police sources report that the suspected extremists were considering strikes against a fairground/convention center in Ceuta, or possibly a military armory. Aguirre