Spain bombings suspect held

By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times

AP An Italian policeman holds an undated photo of 33-year-old Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed in Milan, Italy, yesterday.

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The arrest in Milan of a man known as "Mohammed the Egyptian" came during a sweep across Europe that netted 17 people suspected of being tied to the al-Qaida terrorist network, some in the process of planning new attacks, officials said.

The raids, which involved law enforcement in at least four countries, are believed to have cracked a major network in Belgium, where 15 people were arrested yesterday in Brussels.

Spanish officials said "Mohammed," whose real name is Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, was an intellectual author of the Madrid bombings, which killed nearly 200 people and wounded at least 1,500 others.

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Ahmed and his alleged co-conspirators were planning another operation. The suspect was arrested overnight Monday by dozens of police officers who descended on an apartment where he was staying.

Wiretaps by Italy's intelligence services revealed a conversation in which Ahmed and a second man detained with him, a 21-year-old Palestinian, said they were "ready to die as martyrs," authorities said.

"There were some disturbing signs, as well as the danger that they (the suspects) would flee, that caused us to act at this time," Italian prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli said in Milan.

Investigators have been tracking Ahmed — a 33-year-old alleged explosives expert who reportedly trained in a Taliban-run camp in Afghanistan — since shortly after the Madrid attacks. They think he was active in recruiting jihadis, or radical Muslims intent on killing Westerners throughout the Middle East, especially in today's most active battleground, Iraq.

He has been tagged by authorities as the spiritual master of Sarhane Abdelmajid Fakhet, known as "The Tunisian," who Spanish officials say was the operational boss of the Madrid attackers. Fakhet and six other suspects died April 3 when they blew up their apartment in a Madrid suburb as police closed in on them.

Ahmed fled Spain several weeks before the railway bombings, the official said. He traveled through Europe, and his trail was picked up in late May in Milan.

Wiretaps leaked to Spanish and Italian media quoted Ahmed as claiming a role in the Madrid attacks. "Those who died in Madrid as martyrs were my dear friends, and I feel sad not to go to heaven with them," Ahmed reportedly said in one of his intercepted conversations, alluding to Fakhet and his associates.
 
"That was my project," Ahmed said of the attacks, which consisted of 10 bombings on four trains during a workday rush hour. Ahmed was giving orders to the network whose members were arrested in Brussels yesterday, Belgian officials said. Those detained were a mix of Jordanians, Moroccans, Egyptians and others whose nationality was not determined.

In related news:

The State Department is scrambling to revise its annual report on global terrorism to acknowledge that it understated the number of deadly attacks in 2003.

When the report, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," was issued April 29, senior Bush administration officials immediately hailed it as objective proof that they were winning the war on terrorism.

But yesterday, State Department officials said they underreported the number of attacks.

Draft portions of the Sept. 11 commission's final report offer a stinging rebuke of the FBI and intelligence agencies but refrain from assigning blame to individuals in government to avoid the appearance of partisanship, several commissioners say. The 10-member panel still is wrestling over recommendations to shore up the intelligence gaps.

The government's efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining access to commercial airports are still incomplete and fragmented, according to a report from the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm. The Transportation Security Administration has focused on screening passengers and baggage while paying less attention to limiting access to sensitive areas, identifying gaps in security and reducing risks posed by airport workers, the report said.

Information from The Associated Press, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times is included.