DANIEL WOOLLS
Spain's ruling party swept from power
Mon Mar 15 03:39:45 2004
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Spain's ruling party swept from power amid anger of Madrid terror attacks
DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/14/international0144EST0415.DTL

03-14) 22:46 PST MADRID, Spain (AP) --

Spain's ruling conservatives crashed to surprise defeat in elections overshadowed by anger over terrorist bombings, becoming the first government that backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq to be voted out of office.

The win by the Socialists over President Jose Maria Aznar's favored Popular Party Sunday came amid charges that Aznar made Spain a target for terrorist by supporting the Iraq war.

Spain's incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has pledged to bring home the 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq when their tour of duty ends in July.

Zapatero fell short of a majority in Parliament and will need help to form a government. But it was still a spectacular -- and bittersweet -- triumph that capped four tumultuous days beginning with Thursday's terror attacks in Madrid, which killed 200 people and wounded 1,500. Critics of the government said it had provoked the attacks by backing the Iraq war.

Next came millions-strong, nationwide street rallies against the railway bombings, smaller ones against the increasingly beleaguered government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, the arrest of five suspects in the bombings, including three Moroccans, and a reported al-Qaida claim of responsibility in a videotape.

The tape raised the possibility that terrorists aligned with Osama bin Laden had changed the course of a national election. Spain's government has insisted its prime suspect in Thursday's rail bombings was the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

In one fell swoop, voters ousted Aznar, whose party was favored to win just days ago, even though he brought Spain eight straight years of economic growth, made it a founding member of the euro single currency, cut unemployment in half and brought a degree of prominence to a long-ignored country.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, the Socialists soared from 125 seats to 164 in the outgoing 350-seat legislature. The ruling Popular Party fell from 183 to 148. It cannot try to form a coalition because it has no virtually no allies in the legislature, where it had enjoyed a majority and was often accused of riding roughshod over opponents.

Rodriguez Zapatero started his victory speech by remembering those killed in the railway bombings. "At this moment I think of the lives that were broken by terror on Thursday," he said, then asked the crowd to join him in a minute of silence.

"My most immediate priority will be to fight terrorism," he said.

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party ruled from 1982 to 1996 but ran afoul of corruption scandals and was voted out in 1996, when Aznar took power.

Savoring victory again, outside Socialist party headquarters 1,000 jubilant supporters cheered and waved the party's red flag. But they, too, mourned those killed in the railway blasts. "Not all of us are here. Two hundred are missing," the crowd shouted.

"I think the party won because of people's frustration people about the Popular Party getting us into the war in Iraq," said one of them, housewife Loli Carrasco Gomez, 36.

Of the troops in Iraq, she said: "I hope they all come home and never go back."

Ruling party candidate Mariano Rajoy, Aznar's hand-picked successor, called Zapatero to congratulate Zapatero.

Outside the Popular Party headquarters, some 100 supporters chanted "Viva Espana! Viva Aznar" and waved party flags although there was nothing to celebrate.

Aznar chose not to seek a third term, saying he wanted renewal in government and his party.

Pre-election polls had favored his ruling party to win handily.

But on election day voters expressed anger with the government, accusing it of provoking the Madrid attacks by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which a vast majority of Spaniards opposed.

The government had insisted that its prime suspect in Thursday's rail bombings was the armed Basque separatist group ETA, even as evidence mounted of an Islamic link in the bombings.

The government was accused of withholding information on the investigation to save the election.

Throughout Sunday, voters said they lost faith in the ruling party.

"I wasn't planning to vote, but I am here today because the Popular Party is responsible for murders here and in Iraq," said Ernesto Sanchez-Gey, 48, who voted in Barcelona.

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AP: Madrid Suspect Linked to 9/11 Figure
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPAIN_BOMBINGS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- One of the three Moroccans arrested in the Madrid train bombings was a follower of a suspected al-Qaida member jailed in Spain for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press. It was the latest suggestion that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist group may have been involved in the bombings.

A Sept. 17, 2003 indictment calls Jamal Zougam - arrested in Thursday's attacks - a "follower" of Imad Yarkas, the alleged leader of Spain's al-Qaida cell who was jailed for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Yarkas, whose alias is Abu Dahdah, remains in Spanish custody.

The indictment targets Yarkas and 34 others, including bin Laden, for terrorist activities connected to al-Qaida. Zougam, 30, was not indicted.

The indictment, led by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, showed police had searched Zougam's home at least once, turning up a video of mujaheddin fighters in Dagestan, Russia, and telephone numbers of three members of the Madrid al-Qaida cell allegedly led by Yarkas.

Zougam is one of three Moroccans and two Indians arrested in the attacks, which killed 200 people and wounded 1,500. Officials said phones were apparently used as detonators on the 10 bombs that tore through four rush-hour trains.

AP VIDEO

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AP VIDEO

Spain studies alleged al-Qaida tape claim
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Five Madrid attack suspects caught; Election-eve protests in Spain
Latest News
Spain's Ruling Party Swept From Power

AP: Madrid Suspect Linked to 9/11 Figure

Consensus-Builder Becomes Spanish Leader

Powell: Too Soon to Link Spain, al-Qaida

Spain's Socialists Appear Poised to Win

Interactives
Timeline of the Attacks

Photo Gallery: Scenes of Devastation


Spain's El Pais newspaper, citing the interior ministry, reported all three Moroccans have links to Yarkas. Authorities in Morocco said they could not comment on the report.

Zougam was one of thousands of Moroccans put under surveillance by authorities after May terrorist bombings in the coastal city of Casablanca that killed 33 people and 12 bombers, a Moroccan official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said he was suspected of ties to international terror groups. There were no formal accusations against him, and the official did not say to which groups Zougam may be linked.

European intelligence agencies were also working Sunday to identify a purported al-Qaida operative who claimed in a videotape that the terror group bombed trains in Madrid to punish Spain's backing of the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

The tape was discovered in a trash bin near Madrid's largest mosque on the eve of elections Sunday, which the ruling conservative party lost in a dramatic upset by the Socialists. An Arabic-speaking man called a Madrid TV station to say the tape was there, Spain's Interior Ministry said.

"You love life and we love death," said the man on the tape, who wore Arab dress and spoke Arabic with a Moroccan accent.

The man said the taped claim of responsibility for the bombing of four commuter trains came from "the military spokesman for al-Qaida in Europe, Abu Dujan al Afghani."

The Interior Ministry released details about its contents, and intelligence agents were trying to identify the man, verify his claims and establish Abu Dujan al Afghani's identity.

"Our reservations about the credibility remain," Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Sunday.

In France, which has combated Islamic terrorism for years, an intelligence official said the name al Afghani is likely a pseudonym. The name al Afghani could mean the person is of Afghan origin or has some association with the country.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was too early to say if al-Qaida was responsible.

Moroccan security experts arrived in Spain on Sunday to help in the investigation. Morocco's Interior Ministry said the experts were members of a team that has already spent nearly a year working with Spanish officials on the investigation into Casablanca's terror bombings.

The Casablanca bombings were blamed on Salafia Jihadia, a secretive, radical Islamic group suspected of links to al-Qaida.

The other two Moroccan suspects, Mohamed Bekkali, 31, a mechanic, and Mohamed Chaoui, a worker, 34, have no police record at home, the official said.

The Spanish interior minister, however, said three of the suspects had previous records, and one was under investigation for suspected participation in murder. He earlier had said that one suspect might also have connections with Moroccan extremist groups. He gave no further details.

The interior ministry identified the two Indian suspects as Vinay Kohly and Suresh Kumar.

The five were arrested after a cell phone and prepaid card were found in an explosives-filled gym bag on one of the bombed trains.

Friends of the Moroccans said the Madrid store where they worked sold cell phones but they insisted that the men would not have been involved in planning or carrying out the attacks.

"People shouldn't be put in jail for selling cell phones. They are hard workers," said Karim, who works in a phone shop near the now-shuttered store where the arrested Moroccans worked. Karim did not want to give his last name.

Police searched five properties overnight, Acebes said.

Authorities have been tracking Islamic extremist activity in Spain since the mid-1990s and say it was an important staging ground, along with Germany, for the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Associated Press writer John Leicester in Madrid and Nicolas Marmie in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.

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