In memoriam Madrileños gathered at Atocha station to mark the first anniversary of the terrorist
strike with candles
Across the Divide
A year ago last week, a mostly Moroccan terror cell carried out the Madrid bombings. How Spain and Morocco are trying to prevent young immigrants from doing it again
Posted Sunday, March 13, 2005; 12.42 GMT
From the cliffs above the port of Tangier, the lights of the Spanish seaside town of Tarifa flicker like a mirage. A mere 30 km away, Tarifa might as well be on another planet for the clusters of young men who loiter on the streets of the Moroccan city, some of them smoking kif, the local name for marijuana. Most are unemployed; they've lost faith in their government and resent the West for perceived injustices against Muslims; and they want to get out — to Europe. Spanish border police say they caught 14,000 illegal immigrants trying to cross into Spain last year. Estimates for how many evaded the police and made it into the country number in the thousands, too.
On Rue Pasteur by the Place de France, Arabic music blares from street vendors' stalls. Spanish tourists browse through trinket shops selling handmade leather belts and colorful ceramic plates. "All Moroccans want to be over there, in Europe," says Driss Mbarke, 21. "If Allah wills it, you can go." But Rafik, a slight 20-year-old, suddenly erupts with familiar Arab rage over the conflicts in Iraq and Palestine. "America is killing us!" he shouts. "You kill Muslims, Muslims kill you!"
Last week, Spain marked the first anniversary of the Madrid bombings, in which a terrorist cell made up mostly of Moroccan immigrants killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500 others by detonating 10 bombs on four commuter trains during the height of the morning rush hour. On Friday at 7.39 a.m. at Atocha station, the exact moment when the first three bombs went off there, commuters stopped for five minutes of silence, a wordless memorial enacted all across Spain. One woman quietly left a bunch of flowers on the platform. "My daughter died in the tragedy," she said, "and I wanted to be here on the first anniversary of her death." Many survivors and families of the victims stayed away. "I prefer to stay at home and mourn my son, Daniel, alone," said Pilar Manjón, president of the Association of 3/11 Victims.
But the agony of March 11 brought Spaniards, and all Europeans, together in the realization that the threat of terrorism is still real. The Moroccan connection to the Madrid bombings, and police raids of Muslim extremists across Europe over the past year, have sparked concerns that Moroccan jihadists may be on the move. "March 11 was an important precedent," says a senior Spanish intelligence official. "Now Moroccans know that they can do it. Others may use that self-confidence to do it again."
European counterterrorism and intelligence authorities say sweeps of suspected radical groups are turning up increasing numbers of Moroccans. Just last week, a Moroccan-born 21-year-old was arrested in a Madrid suburb on suspicion of having close ties to the 3/11 bombers. He was later released but has to remain available for further questioning. Though police say the Madrid plot was directed largely by a Tunisian, of the 22 people so far in prison pending trial in connection with the attacks, 15 are Moroccan.
In Belgium, around a dozen members of a Moroccan cell have been jailed over the last year. Last week, the government announced it would extradite to Spain 28-year-old Moroccan Youssef Belhadj, who was picked up in February on suspicion of being the person who claimed responsibility for the 3/11 strikes on behalf of "al-Qaeda in Europe" in a video discovered after the attacks. "Most of our arrests — about 80-90% — have been Moroccans," says Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the Belgian Federal Prosecutor. In France, at least seven leaders of three Moroccan cells unearthed in the Paris area last year remain under arrest as officials investigate their ties to similar groups in Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. And in the Netherlands, the murder of controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh last November — allegedly by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-born 27-year-old of Moroccan descent — led police to a terrorist ring called the Hofstad Network. So far, 13 ethnic Moroccans have been arrested and charged with membership of the group.
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