To: tejek who wrote (184675 ) 3/14/2004 2:34:34 PM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to Large Turnout for Spanish Elections Angry and grieving Spaniards flocked to polling places in huge numbers Sunday to choose a new government, just 72 hours after a series of deadly train bombings killed 200 people and wounded more than 1,400. Meanwhile, investigators probing the backgrounds of five men detained for the attacks have found evidence of links to an al Qaeda-backed Islamic extremist cell operating on Spanish soil. One of the Moroccans, 30-year-old Jamal Zougam, had been listed as an al Qaeda operative in a Spanish judge's indictment last fall of Osama bin Laden and others for the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on Sept. 11, 2001, officials said. Zougam was not indicted. The tape was discovered in a garbage can in a public park near a mosque after a telephone tip-off to a Spanish television station. On the tape, the speaker says that last week's attacks in Madrid were "a response to your collaboration with the criminal Bush and his allies." He also warned, "If you do not stop your collaboration, more and more blood will flow." Spanish officials have not released a copy of the videotape, but provide a transcript to the media. At midday, Spanish elections officials said turnout was at 40 percent, an increase of more than five percent over elections four years ago. washingtonpost.com
