SPAIN: ADDENDUM TO 2006 COUNTRY REPORTS ON

UNCLAS MADRID 000051

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 an October 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