VZCZCXRO5495
PP RUEHLA
DE RUEHMD #0049 0111218
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111218Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1589
INFO RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA PRIORITY 2344
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS MADRID 000049 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR S/CT RHONDA SHORE 
EUR/WE FOR CLEMENTS, CERVETTI, AND ALLEGRONE 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO NCTC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER ASEC SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN: ADDENDUM TO 2006 COUNTRY REPORTS ON 
TERRORISM 
 
REF: A. STATE 175925 
 
     ¶B. MADRID 3067 
     ¶C. MADRID 3042 
 
¶1. (SBU) As stipulated in Reftel A, post is providing an 
addendum to Reftel B that updates significant 
terrorist-related developments in Spain that occurred after 
submission of the Spain section of the 2006 Country Reports 
on Terrorism. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On December 30 the terrorist group ETA exploded a 
massive car-bomb that destroyed much of the covered parking 
garage outside the new Terminal 4 of Madrid's Barajas 
International Airport and effectively broke a nine-month 
"permanent ceasefire" the group had declared in March.  Two 
individuals were killed in the blast, and became ETA's first 
fatal victims in more than three years.  The government of 
Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero initially 
suspended talks with ETA, and government officials 
subsequently said political negotiations with the group had 
ended.  The bombing came on the heels of a December robbery 
of approximately 350 handguns from an arms warehouse in 
southern France, and extensive vandalism by street gangs in 
various Basque cities.  This information reflects events as 
of December 31, one day after the bombing.  Next year's 
report will reflect the impact of the bombing on government 
policies and ETA plans and operations to the extent known by 
year's end 2007. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In a separate development, and as reported in REFTEL 
C, Spanish National Police in mid-December arrested ten 
Spanish nationals and one Moroccan national in the North 
African enclave of Ceuta on charges that the men were 
plotting to carry out a terrorist attack.  Among the 
detainees were two brothers of former Spanish national 
Guantanamo detainee Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed (known in Spain 
as the "Spanish Taliban," whose conviction on terrorism 
charges was overturned earlier this year by the Spanish 
Supreme Court. (NOTE: The Court threw out evidence against 
Abderrahaman gathered at Guantanamo and in prior telephonic 
intercepts by Spanish police. END NOTE).  According to 
initial reports, the 11 men are accused of membership in 
either the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group (GICM) or the 
related "Al Haraka Salafiya Jihadiya" organization.  In 
announcing the arrests, Minister of Interior Alfredo Perez 
Rubalcaba said that the group had not selected a specific 
target, but was in the initial stages of planning for an 
attack.  Other police sources report that the suspected 
extremists were considering strikes against a 
fairground/convention center in Ceuta, or possibly a military 
armory. 
Aguirre