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THE JIHADIST CELL behind last week’s twin attacks in Spain was built around a “guru” and went completely offline to avoid detection by anti-terrorist police, experts said.
The group managed to evade authorities so well that even a giant explosion at their bomb factory in Alcanar, where police later uncovered massive quantities of ingredients to build TATP, was not at first linked to the jihadists.
Investigators only made the connection after their vehicle rampages in Barcelona and the nearby seaside town of Cambrils.
Experts say the key reason was the way the group was formed.
The “propaganda and recruitment techniques” are like those of a cult, said Lurdes Vidal, director of the European Institute of the Mediterranean.
“The role of the family is emphasised, the group is a closed circuit, and everything is done to stop things from getting out,” she said.
And at the heart of the group, “there is a central person who unites everyone, who provides Salafist answers to youths who may have lost their bearings,” said French former intelligence officer Alain Rodier.
That key person in this case was the Moroccan imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, who was killed in the blast accidentally triggered by the jihadists themselves.
He may have presented two different faces to people of Ripoll, the small town where he and many of the suspects lived, said Alberto Bueno, a member of the International Observatory of Studies on Terrorism.
“He shows one face when he preaches at the prayer hall in Ripoll, and the other of radicalisation,” said Bueno, a researcher at the university of Granada, in Southern Spain.
The unity of the group is further compounded by the fact that many of its members are siblings, noted the expert, pointing out that among the dozen suspects are four sets of brothers.
Yves Trotignon, a former member of France’s anti-terrorist authorities, noted that the set-up featuring relatives was also seen among the perpetrators of the 11 September, 2001 terror attacks in New York and the 11 March, 2004 train bombing in Madrid.
Rodier, a former officer in French intelligence, said Spanish experts were fully aware that such groups formed around families are particularly tight, because, “you’re not going to betray your brother”.
The family connections also ease the process of indoctrination, he said.
‘Reconquering Spain’
While Spain’s attackers had prepared their assaults for months, it is likely that the process of radicalisation began a long time ago, he said.
Alberto Bueno noted that the group had eschewed online social networks and stayed off mobile phones, at a time when anti-terrorist police scour the internet for signs of radicalisation among users.
“This classic model, with people who know each other and a guru who accompanies the development of the cell goes back 15 to 20 years earlier,” said Alain Rodier.
The experts also noted that the youth of many of the suspects — some of them as young as 17 — was no accident.
This is a period of life that is potentially volatile, Vidal said, noting that “religion was used to get to the youths, in order to have a very strong emotional impact in the construction of their identity.
“These are Muslims, not converts. An imam is necessary, an incubator who comes from among them, and who convinces them that their faith requires them to take action,” said Rodier.
“They may have viewed themselves reconquering Spain as Muslims, … as suggested in the letter found in Alcanar,” he added.
In the rubble of the Alcanar house, police found a sheet of paper slipped into a green-coloured book.
It read:
A brief letter from the soldiers of the Islamic State on the territory of Al Andalous to the crusaders, the sinners, the unjust and the corrupters.
Al Andalous is the name of the territories in modern Spain that until 1492 were by Muslims.
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Article refers to Salafist answers to youths who may have lost their bearings…….
The majority of the world’s Salafis are from Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia……Hope the government is monitoring Mosques funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar in Ireland….Austria does not allow funding of Mosques from those countries
Great work from the Spanish police. Any people, even peripherally connected to these terrorists should serve lengthy sentences with the help of God or Allah or Buddha. Don’t care so long as they’re off the streets!
@Mick Murphy: Catalan police, aka Mossos d’Esquadra. The lads in the Spanish police are crying like little kids and throwing rubbish to Mossos because they have not been the heros of this story.
And a shameful behaviour from the Spanish government who has vetoed Mossos to join the Europol for political reasons, putting in risk Catalan citizens.
Is there any chance, we can ban any religious teaching until the person is an adult and educated. Maybe, If we started there, we could raise some intelligent people and If they want to learn about Religion when they become adults? Then that’s their choice, no more indoctrination of children from any religion until the adulthood and ban its practice in public.
@Stephen murphy: It’s like I just read my own mind in someone else’s words!
If you really want to point the blame it should be pointed at the Koran.this book basically tells all it’s followers to kill,torture and rape all that don’t follow it’s teachings and it’s for sale in easons.the mind boggles
@Anthony Brennan: bible, particularly Old Testament is just as bad, and is quoted by many fundamentalist christian groups with exactly the same mindset as the radical muslims or any radical religious groups.
@Brendan Cooney:
In case you’ve missed recent events in Europe over the last couple of years, It’s not “fundamentalist radical Christians”quoting the old testament and blowing kids up in concerts, or mowing innocents down in the streets or going on stab Jihad sprees ffs.
The fundamental problem with Islam is the fundamentals of Islam.
@Remy: how quickly events in northern Ireland are forgotten!
@Brendan Cooney: Jaysus, could you be any more of an apologists.
@Anthony Brennan: Anthony, you are the non-Muslim version of the Jihadi. Like the Jihadi, you see an inherent feature of the Koran – that it contains some ‘essential’ nature.
This is quite idiotic. For any rational student of history will understand that both violence and peace come from all religions. That religion has no essential character, and where those who claim its adherence interpret their religious texts in a variable manner depending on the historical context. Suicide bombings, and this recent spate of Islamic terror attacks are a relatively recent phenomenon and without doubt prompted by western interference in the Middle East. Christianity spread by sword and crucifix throughout the Americas and Africa. But that is not what Christianity is ‘essentially’. Its an interpretation which justified a social action in a given context. A context which for you, conveniently does not exist any longer.
From a sociological point of view, the Koran acts as a cohesive value system which, for the overwhelming part of its social existence, has acted as a system of regulation and promoted peace.
@Brendan Cooney: the troubles had nothing to do with religion as in religious conquest through terror, it was basically a land dispute over the northern counties, Irish nationalism against British colonialism.
@Remy: sort of, but religion was used as an easy identifier just as now
@Chris Cantwell: no just pointing out the fallacies of trying to hold up just one religion as the evil one and neglecting your own which is just as warped.
@Brendan Cooney: northern Ireland was a geographical war man above all
@Anthony Brennan:
Have you read it? I doubt it.
@Brendan Cooney:
Islam was founded on war, conquest and enslavement, all you have to do is read up on the life of the perfect Muslim and how he lived.
@Sofian Murphy: Thou shalt not kill. It is not ‘open to interpretation’. It’s simple enough for a child to understand. People don’t mind if others want to dress up as ancient Romans and talk about their ‘system of regulation’ either. So long as they don’t take that as an excuse to go around pretending to be freelance crucifiers just because. Got to draw the line somewhere.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: Of course its open to interpretation. If it wasnt, no Christian, ever, would justify murder in the name of Christianity. And you obviously have never opened a history book if you beleive that to be the case.
And the same goes for Islam. Though shalt not Kill? – what is that? – At the most obvious level, it is black and white ink or an image projection. Only the human brain, through the senses, can make any meaning of that. And that meaning is necessarily a subjective creation, and not something with an “objective meaning” – since without human interpretation, it means absolutely nothing.
This is all rather obvious. Your essentialist views are nonsense, quite frankly.
Reading that crazy book too much
Find it hard to believe that youths from any other religion could be brainwashed into becoming mass murderers and committing suicide so easily. why are Muslims so susceptible to this stupidity
@johnp: In 1940 a Germany was brain washed , also a lot of communist countries too, which killed far more than even the Nazis could ever dream of. So people are very susceptible to manipulation.
@johnp: Many teenagers were involved in 1916, War of Independence and Civil War. Were they brainwashed too? IRA? WW1 had lots of teenage volunteers?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: The antidote is critical thinking. And really studying both sides of an argument.
@johnp:
Evidence from around the world indicate that humans in general are very susceptible to believing nonsense and being brainwashed from youth – not limited to one religion. The extreme and violent side of that brainwashing sure is hard to comprehend, but exist it always has
@johnp: it’s like they have some sort of book that tells them to do exactly that.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: were the volunteers of 1916 or soldiers of ww1 sent out to kill civilians and kill themselves don’t remember that in my history books
@Ladude: and what exactly are both sides of this argument please enlighten me
@johnp:
the bigger picture, and what people don’t get is that since it’s creation,Islam has been at odds with just about every culture, Ideology and Religion that it has encountered, 1400 years of it, Gates of Vienna, Battle of Tours, Barbary Slave trade, Reqonquista, Battle of Lepanto etc etc etc….
–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y
This is all just the latest chapter….
–
https://www.theworldweekly.com/reader/view/magazine/2015-01-22/the-battle-for-islam/3090
@Remy: Likewise with Christianity except for far longer, Australia, South / Central / North America, Africa, India, the list goes on, cultural genocide on a scale that has never been surpassed. In more recent times we had George Bush claiming his Christian God spoke to him and told him to free the people of Iraq, still cleaning up that mess.
@Atheos Euripides:
Nobody takes George Bush seriously, after all he did that Islam was the religion of peace.
@Remy: Doesn’t matter whether they do or not, Christian leader and done in the name of religion.
@Atheos Euripides: where in the bible does it say start a war?
@Atheos Euripides: actually do you know how many wars and battles Islam started? Go to a Muslim country and see how diverse it is, the western world accepts everyone…
@Philip Brady: Here’s 7 Bible verses about going to war to start with, it might help you refamiliarise yourself with your religion. Islam has started far less wars than Christianity and the fact you don’t know that shows an astounding ignorance of historical fact. You should comment less and read more.
@Atheos Euripides: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2015/10/12/top-7-bible-verses-related-to-or-about-war/
@Atheos Euripides: The Christian Crusades vs the Islamic conquests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_To-cV94Bo&t=63s
@Atheos Euripides:
Sorry to break it to you but Europe doesn’t have a Christian terrorist problem, we have an Islamic terrorist problem.
There is no moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam, all you need to do is look at the founders of each religion and how the lived.
@Atheos Euripides: Wow 7 verses, that mention or are “related to”. Most are old testament. You’re really reaching there. How about 109 koran verses specifically violently targetting the unbeliever: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx
I’ll put it this way, who would you rather fight, Jesus or Mohammad?
@Atheos Euripides: Ok so now Islam, what do they say about war in Islam? can you tell us were the bad in Islam is, From your intellectual perspective?
@Atheos Euripides: Has Christianity got problems YES has islam got problems YES. Should we be able to talk about them problems YES. Has the church reformed YES has Islam NO . We are talking about ISLAM not the chruch man.
What a pointless discussion. The answers to why these attacks are happening are not to be found in the Koran but elsewhere. The Koran is absolutely meaningless without some form of interpretation. The question people should be asking is why people choose to interpret religious texts a certain way. People of all religions carry out all sorts of violence and use their religious texts to justify that. Buddhist monks in Myanmar and Sri Lanka massacre Muslims and Sikhs. But to see why, I wont go looking in their texts. In the same way I wont go looking in the Bible for the reasons for the colonisation of South America and Africa.
The answers are to be found in the historical context and social conditions. These are what shape interpretation in which to justify the pursuance of a social action.
@Sofian Murphy: Bingo.
@Ladude: ‘Has the church reformed YES’, one of the funniest statements I’ve read on The Journal in a long, long time, thanks for the giggle!
@Atheos: Way to avoid points raised. The whataboutery and irrational bias is strong in this one. Did the priest drop you in the font? Or do you just believe the bs the imams spoon-feed you?
@Bob McShane: Ad hominem, way to avoid the points raised.
@Sofian Murphy: what about countries that are governed by sharia law?
@Atheos Euripides: The chruch has reformed , its well documented. Are you just in denial about Islam ? We all know about the chruch. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Brunei, Qatar, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and Mauritania all support sharia law. I guess you’re going to compare it to the church haha
@Ladude: atheos believes all Catholics are members of a child abusing racist cult ( his words) . And at the same time he calls anyone who questions Islam a bigot
@Sofian Murphy: Except it’s written in the Koran to kill unbelievers, apostates, gay etc. Here’s a hint, if the Islamic holy book advocates violence in the name of Islam then then Islamic holy book is part of the problem.
@Mike: So let me get this straight mike, the Koran actually has not changed it book and advocates violence ? Its pretty simple to grasp.
@Ladude: Unless you call raping infants and covering it up reform. You should read the Murphy and Ryan reports and you’ll find your reform in there. How’s Cardinal Pell doing these days by the way?
@johnp: I don’t believe it, I know it. The Catholic Church is the largest paedophile ring to have ever operated on the planet.
@atheos: So it’s the children you’re concerned with. You seem to be ignoring the example of perfection muhammad, and his conduct Aisha. Also since when is a question or two an ad hominem. My are we are sensitive, petal. Now that’s a veiled as hominem. But you like veils. Bazinga! Another!
… conduct with…
@Bob McShane: I put your comment into Google Translate and got a ‘language could not be found’ message. On the sauce again?
@atheos: the points raised, both by the article and initial comment in this thread, concern the radicalisation of youths by an Islamist imam. You blundered shamelessly in with what about the hypocrite church in south America, and whatabout the crusades, or child abuse? I asked a question, who would you rather fight Jesus or Muhammad? You haven’t answered. I’d fight Jesus, he’d let me win, and we’d have a laugh and some wine after. Since you’re worried about child abuse: https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/25/middle-east-child-abuse-pederasty
No sauce. Might need a new phone though. Thanks for your concern. Id rather stay on point than explain pop culture references to you. Less is more when googling. So who’d you fight J or Mo? What do you think of the Islamic conquests,, versus the crusades? And why do you think the Catholic church are the only hypocrites with a monopoly on child abuse, given Muhammads marriage to a 6 year old is seen as ok by all of islam? I sincerely await your answers.
@Mike: Its written in that Koran that adultery is punishable. But in line with what I have outlined above, what is written is of marginal importance.
Go visit sex island to see Muslim women having sex with male prostitutes as part of a cultural-religious tradition in Indonesia. Are they less Muslim? – perhaps by most interpretations. But not in theirs.
People pick and choose what they want from religion (and the interpretation and applicability of its texts). And this is very geographically and chronologically variable.
The task is to explain why people, and societies, choose certain applications and interpretations of a religious text.
And the answer to that will not be found in the texts themselves.
@Atheos Euripides:
Hahaha… Bush is not a Christian leader, He was the President of the US and it wasn’t done in the name of religion, were the gulf wars sanctioned by the Pope?
Desperate argument you just spouted.
They are murdering racists and nothing more. Why is that not being reported as such? Because it’s suits the narrative of the powers that be to portray them as terrorists so laws can be changed and countries invaded.
@SteveW: Takes one to know one.
@Atheos Euripides: Know the biggest Ar$e on here which is you dummy. You probably don’t even get the irony of your statement either. Go on try to read it again if you can.
@Atheos Euripides: So now you take offence at your precious terrorists being called racists? You are some terrorist apologist troll.
@SteveW: They are murderers, they are racists as often as not it seems, but they are also Muslims carrying out acts in the name of Islam. Their aim is to terrorise, by any definition they are terrorists. You seem to see a conspiracy here to invade. I’m afraid western civilisation is the one being invaded.
Shut down all the mosques, that’s where radicalisation happens.
@Mick Jordan:
You don’t know your history you didn’t mention Portugal!
Spanish are notoriously inefficient. Their police are corrupt and their banks are still failing.
I wouldn’t trust them to bust up a p*** up in a brewery.
@Frank Cooney: every time I go to Spain I say never again but that sunshine makes me quickly forget the inability of Spanish people to actually work hard.
They are the laziest in Europe. No doubt.
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