Barcelona: Financing Pakistani terrorism
Barcelona appeared yesterday as a new source of financing for Islamist terrorism
(..)
Pakistan said that a suspect of the attacks in Mumbai came from Barcelona
According to the minister, a Pakistani living in the city, Javed Iqbal, was responsible for registering an Internet domain, for $ 238, through a company in Houston (USA). This website provided a forum for those involved in the terrorist plot. Similarly, Iqbal, according to the Pakistani minister, acquired communications systems and made other payments through this site. This person returned to Pakistan ( "do not ask me how," said the minister), where, after being arrested, allegedly facilitated the capture of others involved.The alleged connection with the attack in Barcelona unveiling Bombay in Pakistan has not surprised the Spanish counter-terrorism, convinced that the majority of Islamist groups disabled in Catalunya are for the financing of global terrorism. Although police believe this was not always reflected by the court, senior counter-terrorism yesterday told La Vanguardia that investigators in Spain have no doubt about the link between the Pakistani jihadists found mainly in Catalonia and extremist groups based in Pakistan. The same sources said that the police and judicial cooperation with Pakistan is very poor, which prevents many investigations being completed properly.
30% of jailed Islamic terrorists have been arrested in Spain in Catalonia, so that Catalonia is presented as the main focus of development of Jihadist terrorism in Spain and Europe, as evidenced by the cold statistics on the origin of Islamist imprisoned for terrorism in Spanish prisons. Thus, Catalonia has become a center for recruiting jihadists - estimated at about six-months to move to Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iraq to participate in its war suicide.
Among the group of Muslim activists under investigation by police in Spain are the Pakistanis. In September 2004, the Catalan police dismantled a Pakistani group in Barcelona extorting their fellow citizens to fund Al Qaeda. The money sent by those arrested had left clues that led directly to the leadership of Al Qaeda and to the financing of the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, leaving over 250 dead. However, it happened that the principal recipient of funds was killed in a firefight in Pakistan eleven days after the arrests, losing a potential witness.
Sources have confirmed to La Vanguardia that the research also revealed that money sent from Pakistan to Barcelona was to the hands of the alleged perpetrators of the murder in Karachi in 2002, the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
In January last year, a group of 14 suspected Pakistani terrorists was dismantled in the Raval district of Barcelona. According to the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and the Civil Guard arrested were preparing a series of bombings in the subway in Barcelona and the Catalan bombing of a mosque that often attend the supporters of Benazir Bhutto has disappeared. Six of the suspects involved in this case managed to escape. The group, according to sources of research, connect with the leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Amir Baitul Mehsud.
The latest arrest of suspects in Barcelona occurred on January 20. Six Pakistanis with businesses in Spain were arrested under the charge of evading Spanish tax in Andalusia at least 3.5 million euros, some of which have served to finance jihadi terrorism. One of the defendants was a militant of the PSC, which has caused the resulting media scandal.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Cheapest, points today to a money laundering case that had been sent to Pakistan. Researchers suspect that a part of it was used to finance international terrorism. Sources here told La Vanguardia that aims to track terrorist financing with money evaded police is very strong but difficult to prove without evidence of a strong collaboration Pakistan.
(more)
Source: Barcelona Reporter (English)
See also: Spain: Top terrorist recruitment in Europe
Barcelona appeared yesterday as a new source of financing for Islamist terrorism
(..)
Pakistan said that a suspect of the attacks in Mumbai came from Barcelona
According to the minister, a Pakistani living in the city, Javed Iqbal, was responsible for registering an Internet domain, for $ 238, through a company in Houston (USA). This website provided a forum for those involved in the terrorist plot. Similarly, Iqbal, according to the Pakistani minister, acquired communications systems and made other payments through this site. This person returned to Pakistan ( "do not ask me how," said the minister), where, after being arrested, allegedly facilitated the capture of others involved.The alleged connection with the attack in Barcelona unveiling Bombay in Pakistan has not surprised the Spanish counter-terrorism, convinced that the majority of Islamist groups disabled in Catalunya are for the financing of global terrorism. Although police believe this was not always reflected by the court, senior counter-terrorism yesterday told La Vanguardia that investigators in Spain have no doubt about the link between the Pakistani jihadists found mainly in Catalonia and extremist groups based in Pakistan. The same sources said that the police and judicial cooperation with Pakistan is very poor, which prevents many investigations being completed properly.
30% of jailed Islamic terrorists have been arrested in Spain in Catalonia, so that Catalonia is presented as the main focus of development of Jihadist terrorism in Spain and Europe, as evidenced by the cold statistics on the origin of Islamist imprisoned for terrorism in Spanish prisons. Thus, Catalonia has become a center for recruiting jihadists - estimated at about six-months to move to Pakistan, Afghanistan or Iraq to participate in its war suicide.
Among the group of Muslim activists under investigation by police in Spain are the Pakistanis. In September 2004, the Catalan police dismantled a Pakistani group in Barcelona extorting their fellow citizens to fund Al Qaeda. The money sent by those arrested had left clues that led directly to the leadership of Al Qaeda and to the financing of the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, leaving over 250 dead. However, it happened that the principal recipient of funds was killed in a firefight in Pakistan eleven days after the arrests, losing a potential witness.
Sources have confirmed to La Vanguardia that the research also revealed that money sent from Pakistan to Barcelona was to the hands of the alleged perpetrators of the murder in Karachi in 2002, the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
In January last year, a group of 14 suspected Pakistani terrorists was dismantled in the Raval district of Barcelona. According to the National Intelligence Center (CNI) and the Civil Guard arrested were preparing a series of bombings in the subway in Barcelona and the Catalan bombing of a mosque that often attend the supporters of Benazir Bhutto has disappeared. Six of the suspects involved in this case managed to escape. The group, according to sources of research, connect with the leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Amir Baitul Mehsud.
The latest arrest of suspects in Barcelona occurred on January 20. Six Pakistanis with businesses in Spain were arrested under the charge of evading Spanish tax in Andalusia at least 3.5 million euros, some of which have served to finance jihadi terrorism. One of the defendants was a militant of the PSC, which has caused the resulting media scandal.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Cheapest, points today to a money laundering case that had been sent to Pakistan. Researchers suspect that a part of it was used to finance international terrorism. Sources here told La Vanguardia that aims to track terrorist financing with money evaded police is very strong but difficult to prove without evidence of a strong collaboration Pakistan.
(more)
Source: Barcelona Reporter (English)
See also: Spain: Top terrorist recruitment in Europe
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