Wednesday, March 31, 2004

In case you were wondering, the sources I use are the print issue of La Vanguardia every day, the print issue of El Periodico almost every day--I read it for free down at the coffee shop / beer joint on the plaza--TV 1 and TV 3 broadcast news most days, the websites of Fox News, CNN, TV 3, and Libertad Digital, the news and commentary websites at National Review, the New Republic, Slate, and Front Page every couple of days, and the blogs InstaPundit, Andrew Sullivan, HispaLibertas, and a whole raft of others. What you see here is a sort of digest of all those sources through my utterly prejudiced point of view.

It actually doesn't take me very long; I'm a fast reader, sometimes so fast I get careless and do something like call Solbes the next FM when he is to be Economics Minister. I check in on the TV news most days, but I turn it off after five minutes if there's not anything really interesting.

Anyway, here's the news. Judge Juan del Olmo has issued five international search warrants for, I guess, the five bombers not already in custody. One of them is Abdelkarim Mayati, who is said to be the commander of the hit team, operating directly under the Al Qaeda operative al-Zarqawa. Fouad El Morabit, one of the guys turned loose yesterday for lack of evidence, was just rearrested because they found his fingerprints in the shack where the bombs were made. Minor bungle there. Judge del Olmo arraigned two more arrestees, Antonio Toro Castro, Suarez the dynamite supplier's brother-in-law, and Moroccan Mustafa Ahmidam, two of whose brothers have already been arrested. One has been freed and the other jailed without bail. More arrests are supposedly on the way.

You know, I'll bet that the $70,000 of Al Qaeda money the Moroccan Islamist Combatants Group got was more than enough to pull this hit off. I see no signs of any real sophistication, World Trade Center-style, in this attentat.

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